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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element" dir="ltr"> <a
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<h1 class="reader-title">Trump targets sick Palestinians</h1>
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/maureen-clare-murphy">Maureen
Clare Murphy</a></span> <span class="field field-blog">-</span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2018-09-10T23:32:36+00:00">10 September 2018</span></span>
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<figure id="file-69216"><source media="(min-width:
72rem)"><figcaption><small><span></span></small></figcaption></figure>
<p>The Trump administration in Washington has slashed
more than <a
href="https://www.npr.org/2018/09/07/645682793/new-cuts-in-medical-aid-to-palestinians-by-trump-administration">$25
million</a> in approved aid for six hospitals in
East Jerusalem providing care to Palestinians in the
occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>The US also <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/09/10/us/politics/ap-us-trump-mideast-things-to-know.html">announced</a>
that it is closing the Palestine Liberation
Organization office in Washington.</p>
<p>The moves are the latest in a series of measures
intended to bludgeon Palestinians into submitting to
the White House’s “peace” process. The <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-authority">Palestinian
Authority</a> froze communications with the American
administration in December, when Trump <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/oh-jerusalem-requiem-two-state-solution/22521">declared</a>
that the US would recognize Jerusalem as the capital
of Israel.</p>
<p>The US <a
href="https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2018/08/285648.htm">announced</a>
last month that it would stop funding <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/unrwa">UNRWA</a>,
the UN agency for Palestine refugees, after freezing
$300 million in aid in January, throwing the body into
unprecedented financial crisis.</p>
<p>The US has also decided to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/us-slashes-aid-gaza-hospitals-run-out-fuel">cut
$200 million more</a> in bilateral aid to the West
Bank and Gaza.</p>
<p>The Trump administration <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-to-cut-budge-of-e-jerusalem-hospitals-experts-warn-collapse-1.6463851">reportedly
delayed</a> the cuts to the East Jerusalem hospitals
after influential Christian supporters of the
facilities lobbied for the exclusion of three of them
from legislation placing severe restrictions on aid to
Palestinians approved by Congress earlier this year.</p>
<p>Walid Nammour, director of the Augusta Victoria
Hospital, told NPR’s Jerusalem correspondent that East
Jerusalem hospitals weren’t notified of the the cuts.</p>
<p>Nammour said that US aid had been held up for months
before it was finally cut this week, forcing the
hospital to take out loans.</p>
<div id="file-69221">
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<blockquote data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">More on news that US is
cutting <a
href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Palestinian?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Palestinian</a>
medical aid: Augusta Victoria hospital director
tells me the US didn't notify east Jerusalem
hospitals. The hospitals give cancer/other
treatments unavailable in West Bank & Gaza.
The US used to pay 25% of the hospital's bills.
1/3 <a href="https://t.co/oEuN5Dz0GZ">pic.twitter.com/oEuN5Dz0GZ</a></p>
— Daniel Estrin (@DanielEstrin) <a
href="https://twitter.com/DanielEstrin/status/1038481768171626496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September
8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<p>A journalist with the Israeli daily <em>Haaretz</em>
<a
href="https://twitter.com/amirtibon/status/1038390488703873024">noted</a>
that Trump’s Middle East peace envoy had praised the
work of the 130-year-old St. John Eye Hospital,
another institution affected by the funding cuts, as
recently as March:</p>
<div id="file-69226">
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<blockquote data-width="550">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Through a medical mission
supported by <a
href="https://twitter.com/USAIDWBG?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@USAIDWBG</a>,
a team of dedicated <a
href="https://twitter.com/StJohnEyeHosp?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StJohnEyeHosp</a>
surgeons traveled to Gaza to provide critical
specialized operations rarely available there.
Thanks to their skilled work, this single mother
has regained her eyesight. <a
href="https://t.co/abezpWP6ob">pic.twitter.com/abezpWP6ob</a></p>
— Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) <a
href="https://twitter.com/jdgreenblatt45/status/977293890473558016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March
23, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<h2>Replicating Israeli cruelty in Gaza</h2>
<p>By cutting funds for food aid programs, education and
healthcare, the US is banking on the same strategy of
collective punishment behind Israel’s siege on Gaza.</p>
<p>The blockade, imposed in 2007, has failed to achieve
Israel’s aims to end Hamas’ political and military
control over the interior of the territory, but has
plunged the two million Palestinians living there into
poverty and despair.</p>
<div id="file-69231">
<div>
<blockquote data-width="550">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
<p>Augusta Victoria Hospital on Mt. of Olives
does God's work. Universally admired, licensed
by Israel, they provide life-saving services
to West Bank/Gazan Palestinians available
nowhere else: oncology, pediatric dialysis
etc.</p>
<p>This is unmitigated, unforgivable evil. <a
href="https://t.co/TcLzqLo0D1">https://t.co/TcLzqLo0D1</a></p>
</div>
— Daniel Seidemann (@DanielSeidemann) <a
href="https://twitter.com/DanielSeidemann/status/1038337064826232832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September
8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<p>“Let America know that all these acts will not change
our position toward our cause one bit. On the
contrary, it consolidates our positions toward every
issue, including Jerusalem,” Adnan Husseini,
Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs, told NPR.</p>
<p>The group Physicians for Human Rights-Israel <a
href="https://twitter.com/PHRIsrael/status/1038705009997819904">warned</a>
that the decision to stop funding East Jerusalem
hospitals may lead to the “collapse” of the
Palestinian healthcare system.</p>
<p>“Israel – the occupier – will have to fill the void
in patient care,” the group added.</p>
<p>Israel is not likely to fulfill its obligations under
international law and provide essential services for
the millions of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza
living under military occupation, and has been content
for third party states to fulfill that role through
aid.</p>
<p>But the Israeli military establishment believes that
without any alternative to UNRWA, US aid cuts will
lead to an even worse humanitarian disaster in Gaza,
and a “nearly inevitable” escalation in violence, <em>Haaretz</em>
<a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-defense-officials-government-must-create-unrwa-alternative-1.6464659">reported</a>.</p>
<p>“An Israeli delegation to a donor conference in New
York later this month is expected to encourage donor
countries to pitch in to guarantee the continued
delivery of food, education services and the salaries
of the UN’s 30,000 employees in the Strip,” according
to <em>Haaretz</em>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile Trump boasted of his use of humanitarian
aid for political leverage during a phone call last
week described by a White House <a
href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-rosh-hashanah-national-press-call-jewish-faith-leaders-rabbis/">transcript</a>
as including Jewish faith leaders and rabbis ahead of
the Jewish new year.</p>
<p>“The United States was paying them [the Palestinians]
tremendous amounts of money. And I’d say, you’ll get
money, but we’re not paying you until we make a deal.
If we don’t make a deal, we’re not paying. And that’s
going to have a little impact,” Trump said.</p>
<p>Trump recently <a
href="https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Trump-signs-defense-bill-into-law-codifying-Obama-era-aid-564760">signed
a military spending bill</a> codifying into law a
record-breaking pledge made by his predecessor to give
Israel $38 billion in military assistance over 10
years.</p>
<p>The US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman,
meanwhile, <a
href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/friedman-israel-shouldn-t-have-to-ask-permission-to-build-in-w-bank-1.6464206">told
an Israeli newspaper</a> that the Trump
administration has not made any challenge to Israeli
settlement building in the West Bank.</p>
<p>“Israel shouldn’t have to ask permission from the US”
to build settlements, Friedman told <em>Yisrael Hayom</em>
last week.</p>
<p>He also denied a claim made by Trump that Israel
would have to pay a price for the move of the US
embassy to Jerusalem.</p>
<p>“There’s nothing expected of Israel to give in return
for the embassy move,” he said.</p>
<p>Friedman also <a
href="https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/US-Ambassador-to-Israel-Its-possible-we-will-recognize-Golan-Heights-566643">said</a>
that “it’s possible” that the US would recognize
Israeli claims to the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/golan-heights">Golan
Heights</a>, Syrian territory seized and occupied
during the 1967 War.</p>
<p>“I personally cannot imagine a situation in which the
Golan Heights will be returned to Syria,” Friedman
said.</p>
<h2>Bolton threatens ICC</h2>
<p>Friedman was responding to comments made by John
Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, who stated
last month that there had been no discussion or
decision made about the Golan Heights.</p>
<p>Bolton made clear on Monday that the US would impose
sanctions or seek to criminally prosecute officials at
the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-criminal-court">International
Criminal Court</a> if they pursue investigations
into alleged American war crimes in Afghanistan or
those committed by Israel.</p>
<p>The situation in Palestine has been under <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israels-high-court-blesses-killing-and-maiming-gaza-protesters">preliminary
examination</a> by the prosecutor’s office since
2015.</p>
<p>“If the court comes after us, Israel, or other US
allies we will not sit quietly,” Bolton <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/10/john-bolton-castigate-icc-washington-speech">said</a>
during an address to the right-wing Federalist Society
in Washington.</p>
<p>During his speech Bolton added that the closure of
the Palestine Liberation Office office in Washington
was due to Palestinian efforts to prosecute Israeli
leaders at The Hague.</p>
<p>He also said that the US would negotiate bilateral
agreements to prohibit other states from surrendering
Americans to the court.</p>
<p>In addition to breaking with decades of US policy
over Israeli settlements, and enshrining US aid to
Israel in law, the White House is abandoning and
subverting any international body that might challenge
Israeli impunity.</p>
<p>During last week’s phone call with Jewish leaders,
Trump celebrated the withdrawal of the US from the UN
Human Rights Council in June.</p>
<p>The US “will continue to defend Israel’s sovereign
rights in all international forums,” Trump stated.</p>
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