Senior Palestinian Authority leaders slammed President Donald Trump Thursday, rejecting his demand that they agree to renew final status negotiations with Israel and ‘show respect’ to the United States for the hundreds of millions of dollars a year they receive in aid.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Thursday, President Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, touting the planned transfer of the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and declaring the issue of Jerusalem “off the table” in terms of final status talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
“The hardest subject they had to talk about was Jerusalem. We took Jerusalem off the table. So we don’t have to talk about it anymore. They never got past Jerusalem. We took it off the table. We don’t have to talk about it anymore," said Trump.
The president added that the PA had “disrespected” the US when it snubbed Vice President Mike Pence during his recent visit to Israel.
"They disrespected us a week ago by not allowing our great vice president to see them, and we give them hundreds of millions of dollars in aid and support — tremendous numbers, numbers that nobody understands" charged the president.
Following President Trump’s declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, PA chief Mahmoud Abbas nixed a planned meeting with Pence, whose trip to Israel had originally been scheduled for December 18th. The PA also labelled Pence persona non-grata.
Responding on Thursday to President Trump’s comments at Davos, senior PA lawmaker and diplomat Hanan Ashrawi the president, labelling him and Vice President Pence ‘oppressors’.
“Not meeting your oppressor is not a sign of disrespect, it is a sign of self-respect,” said Ashrawi.
Another spokesperson for the PA said that no meetings with the US government would be held until the White House renounces its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
"If the American administration will not go back on their decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, it will remain outside the [negotiating] table," Nabil Abu Rudeina said.