Palestinians reacted angrily to US President Trump’s decision to end all funding for the UN agency that assists three million needy refugees, seeing it as a new policy shift aimed at undermining their cause. Washington, which until last year was by far the biggest contributor to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees, announced on Friday that it would no longer make any contribution to the “irredeemably flawed operation.”
Many Palestinians are refugees with a right to return homes in what is now occupied by Israel. And to Palestinians, the right of return for the hundreds of thousands who fled or were expelled during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation is a central plank of their cause. However, Trump’s one-sided recognition of the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and now axing of more than $200 million in bilateral aid for Gaza and the West Bank seems to be part of a determined effort to torpedo the greater Palestinian cause.
Why Mr Trump is so anti-Muslim so openly is a question to be taken seriously. He has hatred against Muslims and anxious to deny the Palestinians their legitimate rights against Israeli occupation of homeland.
What the US people are also realising is that Mr Trump is pushing friends of the USA away from it and forcing them to seek support of Russia and China. He is rightly seen by many in America as Russia’s man isolating America as world power.
The US move aims at taking the Palestinian right of return unilaterally off the table–but it will not work as neither Lebanon nor Jordan will play along. This is being done in the hope that the Palestinians will become more tractable to future US led Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiation. But it’s a suicide pill which Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas can never swallow.
The Muslim countries should be ready to face challenge from Mr Trump and seek new friends elsewhere. Besides, the Muslim countries must react urgently against Mr Trump for his enmity towards Muslims. Mr Trump cannot be trusted by Muslim countries and they must be united to help the Palestinians.
