Trump Stomps on Palestinians, Settling on Building to Quickly Move Embassy to Jerusalem, while using Cuts to Food and Education Aid to further Starve Palestinian Rights with Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law and practice at Princeton University, the former United Nations Human Rights Rapporteur in the Occupied Territories and the author or co-author of more than 20 books, including Chaos and Counterrevolution: After the Arab Spring.
Why declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel is so controversial The Trump administration has settled on a location for the new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem and plans to move into the facility by 2019. The State Department has decided to retrofit an existing U.S. consular facility in the West Jerusalem neighborhood of Arnona, which sits near the Green Line,the de facto border of Israel before the 1967 war. Trump's recognition last month of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and plans to relocate the embassy there inflamed tensions in the region and sparked outrage across the world. Both Israelis and the Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their historic capitals. The announcement was condemned by 128 countries in a United Nations General Assembly vote in December.
This prompted Trump to announce it would freeze $65 million in funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The agency has become a frequent target of criticism from him. The decision to withhold funds from the agency drew sharp criticism from Palestinian leaders, who said, "food, and education is not a bargaining chip but a US and international obligation." But, Thats precisely what the U.S. did & went a step further announcing it would be freezing an additional $45 million in funding to the UN agency, bringing the total that could be withheld from it to potentially $110 million. Officials from the UN agency called it "the most dramatic financial crisis" in its 70-year history. The U.S. provides approximately 30 percent of the UN agency's $1.4 billion budget.
produced by Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash
please notify us if you plan to broadcast this program - knash@igc.org
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