Israel, US Working Against Peace

"Killing, expanding settlement[s], destruction, and the uprooting of the Palestinian population will not bring peace or security," Abbas said in a meeting with former Israeli left-wing lawmakers on Sunday, WAFA reported.

"This (Israeli) government's policies and the biased US decisions contradict the international resolutions and are harming the chances of making just peace based on the two-state solution along 1967 borders," the president added.

Palestinian officials have long sought to establish an independent Palestinian state within the borders that existed before the 1967 war between Israel and three other Arab states.

More than 230 illegal settlements have been constructed since 1967. In September 2016, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution — with a notable abstention vote by the then-administration of US president Barack Obama — that denounced Israeli settlements as a "flagrant violation of international law".

The US has recently announced its decision to shut down the PLO office in Washington. The move was condemned by the group as yet “another affirmation” of the US policy “to collectively punish the Palestinian people”.

The United States has also cut one of its last remaining aid programmes for Palestinians days ago, a move that is going to affect critical patients, including cancer victims and children with serious health conditions. Washington's decision to scrap its $25m financial assistance to a network of six hospitals in occupied East Jerusalem was sharply criticised by Palestinian leaders and health officials, who called it a "cruel" and "unjustified" act of "political blackmail".

The move came amid a vacuum in Middle East peace efforts as the US administration presses on with work on the peace plan that has been under discussion for months. US President Donald Trump has tasked his son-in-law Jared Kushner and lawyer Jason Greenblatt to draft the peace proposals.

Last month, Washington ended a $200m economic assistance for the West Bank and Gaza as part of its USAID programme.

A week later, the United States halted all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which provides much-needed services to Palestinians within and outside the occupied territories.

The massive cuts in aid for Palestine followed the Trump administration's controversial decisions to recognise of Jerusalem as Israel's capital last year and move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May.

Palestinian leaders, who see East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, stressed that the US had taken itself "off the table" as a peace mediator.

More than 180 Palestinians have been killed and thousands others injured since the outbreak of the Gaza border protests on March 30. The demonstrations call for ending the 12-year-long Israeli blockade of Gaza and for the right of return of the refugees.

Most of the casualties occurred on May 14 when Israeli forces attacked Palestinians marking the 70th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of historical Palestine and the ensuing ethnic cleansing of half a million Palestinian refugees.

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