RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on Monday was forced to postpone a conference it organized in the West Bank city of Ramallah after Palestinian officials and factions called for a boycott and threatened to organize protests.
The Palestinians cut all ties with the U.S. after it recognized disputed Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017. They also view President Donald Trump's administration as unfairly biased against them after a series of actions seen as hostile to their aspirations for an independent state.
The embassy had organized a conference this week to bring together alumni of U.S. educational and cultural programs, including dozens of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who received permission from Israel to attend. The territory has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power there in 2007.
The Palestinian leadership viewed the conference as an attempt to circumvent its boycott of the U.S. administration.
"We are aware of recent statements regarding a planned event for alumni of U.S. educational and cultural programs," the U.S. Embassy said. "In order to avoid the Palestinian participants being put in a difficult situation, we have decided to postpone the event for now."
It said this and other events "are designed to create opportunities for exchange and dialogue between Americans and Palestinians at the grassroots level."
"This event in particular is intended to give alumni of all ages and backgrounds from Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza an opportunity to network with each other and to engage in leadership and capacity building activities," it said.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for their future state. The Trump administration is at work on a peace plan, but the Palestinians have already dismissed it, saying it is certain to be slanted toward Israel.
Representatives of several Palestinian factions held a press conference Monday at the hotel where the meeting was to have taken place.
Spokesman Isam Baker said the Palestine Liberation Organization, an umbrella group, had reached out to the hotel management and the invitees asking them to boycott the meeting.
"Most of the invitees and the hotel administration agreed with us that the invitation has political implications and it is not innocent," he said.
"The U.S. administration -- which has cut off all aid to our people, shut down our office in Washington and placed huge pressure on our leadership to accept a pro-Israel political plan -- will not do any good for our people," he said. "Therefore, we are boycotting any activities it organizes."
The U.S. cut more than $200 million in development aid to the Palestinians last year, gutting several long-running programs. In addition, Israel has stopped delivering tax revenue to Palestinian officials, calling it a protest of the Palestinian Authority's payments to the families of militants who have been killed or imprisoned.
With money in short supply, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday laid off all of his advisers and ordered a former prime minister and other ex-Cabinet ministers to return tens of thousands of dollars from a pay raise he had secretly approved.
Palestinian officials said the decisions, announced in official statements, came as part of efforts to cut costs and recuperate funds. However, the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has long faced claims of corruption and mismanagement.
Abbas has cycled through dozens of advisers since he was first elected president in 2005, with many continuing to receive salaries and benefits after leaving office.
In a separate decision, Abbas ordered former Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and other Cabinet ministers to return bonuses the president had secretly approved in 2017.
Documents leaked earlier this year showed that ministers' pay had climbed from $3,000 a month to $5,000 -- a 67% raise -- and that the prime minister's salary was raised to $6,000 a month. Unemployment in the West Bank is near 20%, and a typical salary for those who do work, such as civil servants, is roughly $700 to $1,000 a month.
A Section on 08/20/2019