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In the first concrete reprisal for the Palestinians application for full UN membership, the US Congress decided to hold up food, health and construction aid, a move condemned by Palestinian officials as a collective punishment to civilians.
"This is not constructive at all,” Ghassan Khatib, chief spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, said yesterday.
"Such moves are unjustified."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas presented a request to the United Nations on Friday, September 23, for full membership of a Palestinian state.
Washington has threatened to veto the Palestinian statehood recognition and Israel has threatened punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority.
Moreover, some US lawmakers threatened to try to cut the roughly $600-million in US aid per year to the Palestinians if they refuse to back down.
Fulfilling its first threats, the US congress decided to hold up almost $200m in aid earmarked for the West Bank and Gaza by the Obama administration.
The block by three Congressional committees has been in force since 18 August when it was formally notified that USAID wanted to transfer the remaining $192m funding for the current fiscal year.
Khatib noted that the Palestinian Authority had not done anything wrong or illegal.
“It is ironic to be punished for going to the United Nations," he said.
The Palestinian move followed the collapse of US-sponsored peace talks over Israel's refusal to freeze settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
There are more than 164 Jewish settlements in the West Bank, eating up more than 40 percent of the occupied territory.
The international community considers all settlements on the occupied land illegal.
Collective Punishment
The Palestinian official accused the congress of collectively punishing Palestinian civilians by blocking amounts designated for a wide range of humanitarian, educational and state capacity building projects.
“These are mainly humanitarian and development projects-it is another kind of collective punishment which is going to harm the needs of the public without making any positive contribution,” Khatib said.
By blocking the aid, four USAID funded projects were buried.
These projects cover teacher-training, large-scale road and water infrastructure developments and an Enterprise Development program designed to improve the competitiveness and capacity of the Palestinian private sector.
A series of existing projects would also be suspended including the purchase of supplies by the UN's World Food Program for food distribution to impoverished Palestinian families in early 2012 and health service reform, training and equipment for the Holy Family hospital in Bethlehem.
A pre-school "Sesame Street" workshop and a Palestinian Authority political program for developing the functions of ministers were also suspended.
In the months ahead, if the funding is not restored, a wide range of other projects are also at risk.
They include the Youth Entrepreneurship Development program aimed at enhancing the skills of young unemployed people and an Independent Media program for fostering independent electronic media outlets.
Other USAID projects in impoverished Gaza strip would also be suspended including a trade facilitation program designed to improve cargo movement in the West Bank and Gaza, a water supply and sanitation program, and a Community Assistance program.
The Congressional move to cut off aid has previously been dismissed as political grandstanding supporting Israel.
"Everybody knows the US Congress is the most pro-Israel parliamentary body in the world," former president Bill Clinton told ABC News recently.
"They don't have to demonstrate that."
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