The officials’ response came shortly after the White House published the economic portion of its long-awaited plan for peace in the Middle East.
A PLO official said that the PLO leaders will discuss ways of foiling Trump’s unseen plan and the Palestinian response to Israeli and US policies towards the Palestinians.
The $50-billion Middle East economic plan calls for creation of a global fund to lift the Palestinian and neighboring Arab state economies. More than half of the $50b. would reportedly be spent in the Palestinian territories over 10 years.
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Munir al-Jaghoub, a senior official with the Palestinian ruling Fatah faction, said in response that the US administration was proposing a solution based on Arab money to “kill the political ambitions of the Palestinian people.”
He said that it would be better if the Arabs “did not allow the US to blackmail them in this humiliating manner.”
Two senior Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah also immediately rejected the economic plan, which is expected to be presented at the upcoming conference in Bahrain.
They said that the US administration was making a big mistake by assuming that the Palestinians would make any concessions on their rights in return for financial aid.
Several Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, also issued statements rejecting the economic plan. “Palestine is not for sale,” the factions said. “We don’t accept bribes from the Americans or anyone else.”
Earlier, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said that US President Donald Trump’s plan for peace in the Middle East will not pass because it “ends” the Palestinian cause.
Abbas, who was speaking during a meeting of Fatah leaders in Ramallah before the publication of the economic plan, said the Palestinians will not attend the US-led economic conference in Bahrain, which is expected to begin on Tuesday, “because there can be no economic solution before there’s a political solution.”
Abbas’s remarks came as several Palestinian factions called for mass demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to protest the Bahrain conference.
The demonstrations will begin on Monday and continue until the end of the conference two days later.
The protests will be held under the banner “The Manama Workshop is Treason.”
Arab finance ministers, meanwhile, are scheduled to hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the financial crisis the PA has been facing in recent months.
The meeting is being held at the request of the Arab League to discuss the PA’s request for a “financial security net” from the Arab world after Israel deducted large sums from the tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians because of payments to families of security prisoners and “martyrs.”
PA officials have expressed disappointment over the failure of the Arab states to fulfill previous promises to financially support the Palestinians.
Abbas’s Fatah faction on Saturday called on Arabs to stage demonstrations in front of the Bahrain embassy in their country to protest the economic workshop.
“We appeal to the masses of our Arab nation to go to the embassies of Bahrain in all capitals to condemn this disgraceful position,” Fatah said in a statement. “We call for the cancellation of the workshop. Our people will continue their struggle, reject humiliation and defend their freedom and dignity. Let everyone rise to denounce this Zionist-American terrorism, which is backed by traitors from our nation.” 218/
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