US PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ and the forthcoming economic summit in Bahrain have reaped a multitude of analyses, not least from US officials themselves.
Jared Kushner, senior advisor to Trump, has now undertaken to impose his definitions regarding the difference between the Palestinian leadership, with reference to the Palestinian Authority, and the Palestinian people.
In a recent interview, in which he declared: ‘I’m not here to be trusted’, Kushner claimed the US actions which have throttled the PA politically and financially are a response to the Palestinian leadership’s reactions to US diplomacy.
‘America’s aid is not entitlement,’ he stated.
Kushner’s rhetoric defies all logic. The PA has squandered Palestine, of that there is no doubt. However, to say that US diplomacy was affected by the PA’s decisions is beyond any stretch of the imagination.
On the other hand, Kushner’s surmising about the Palestinian people carried a sinister significance, and one that avails itself yet again of the current rift between the US and the international community.
‘With regards to the Palestinian people,’ he said, ‘I do believe that they want to have a better life.’
The international community has invested heavily in rhetoric rejecting Trump’s deal. Yet, like the US, it has based its diplomacy on conjectures.
Neither has yet clearly articulated the fact that international scheming – be it collective or unilateral – manipulates what Palestinians want because there is not a single entity committed to listening to, and implementing, the legitimate demands of the Palestinian people.
Under the guise of ‘Palestinians want a better life’ the US is inventing ‘economic incentives’ for investors, while the EU gives the PA financial aid, ostensibly for state building. To emphasise the cliché, the UN has recently been at the helm blaming Hamas for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
Palestinians want liberation, which is the prelude to the ‘better life’ that the US and the international community harp on about. But diplomacy is concerned with what Israel wants, so it seeks to extend the meagre concessions to Palestinians that are nevertheless granted in terms of how Israel benefits from the agreements.
Both the US and the international community are committed to sustaining this decades-long perverse form of politics by entertaining discourse of imposed Palestinian needs while eliminating Israel’s colonial role in the process.
There is no need to excavate within the international conspiracy that has buried the Palestinian people in oblivion since before the 1948 Nakba.
To take that route would play directly into the scheming that perpetually speaks over Palestinians and pretends to voice their demands.
Indeed, there is a growing danger that Palestinian rights will continue to be dissociated from the Palestinians themselves, by the constant referencing of the international actors to determine what constitute such rights.
Since Palestinians have determined what they want, the international community should not take precedence.
Trump’s deal must not be used as an excuse to further another collective, dangerous agenda.
As this diplomatic battlefront continues between the US and the international community, Palestinians risk additional losses; the result being a scramble to determine compensation from an external narrative which seeks to eliminate all concepts of Palestine and Palestinians.
- Less than a week after Saudi authorities arrested more than 60 people, including Palestinian expatriates and Saudi nationals, on charges of supporting the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement, they have now blocked money transfers between the kingdom and the Gaza Strip.
The new step taken by the Riyadh regime against Palestinians involves official and non-official money transfers as the procedure has witnessed a marked decline over the past week and during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, reports the Arabic-language al-Khaleej Online news website.
The report described residents of the besieged and impoverished Gaza Strip as the main victims of the move.
Most of the bank transfers that used to be carried out normally in the past, were frozen just a few days before the start of the holiday.
Remittance transactions are taking much longer time than usual – something that used to be done in a matter of few hours.
Many Palestinians have complained of the move, and termed it as ‘unprecedented.’
They argue that the process of transferring money between Saudi Arabia and the Gaza Strip has become extraordinarily difficult.
Abu Fuad, a resident of the Gaza Strip who refused to give his last name for fear that his family could be persecuted in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah, said he has experienced difficulty receiving money from his family.
‘It is three days since the remittance has been made, but I have not received anything. Financial transfers used to be done in a few hours and without any obstacles in the past.
‘But since the week before the Eid, the procedures have become complex and most of the transfers are frozen without any obvious reason,’ he said.
Abu Fuad considered the measure as a ‘new crackdown on the Palestinian community living in Saudi Arabia,’ stressing that it would aggravate their sufferings as students rely heavily on money transferred from their families living outside the kingdom.
- Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reportedly offered Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas $10bn to accept the controversial US-backed ‘deal of century’.
He called upon the Palestinian Embassy in Riyadh to intervene immediately, and try to work out a quick and practical solution to the crisis, which has negatively affected the Palestinian community in Saudi Arabia.
Over the past two years, Saudi authorities have deported more than 100 Palestinians from the kingdom, mostly on charges of supporting the Hamas resistance movement financially, politically or through social networking sites.
The Riyadh regime has imposed strict control over Palestinian funds in Saudi Arabia since the end of 2017.
All remittances of Palestinian expatriates are being tightly controlled, fearing that these funds could be diverted indirectly and through other countries to Hamas. Money transfer offices are asking the Palestinians to produce strong proof for money conversions, and have imposed a money transfer ceiling of $3,000.