<p class="title">US President Donald Trump's administration is resorting to "cheap blackmail" against the Palestinians with its decision to cut more than $200 million in aid for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a senior Palestinian official said today.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A State Department official said on Friday that the decision, made "at the direction of the president," came after a review of aid programmes to the Palestinian territories. The funding would "now address high-priority projects elsewhere".</p>.<p class="bodytext">Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's (PLO) executive committee, hit back, saying: "The US administration is demonstrating the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool."</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion. The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale," Ashrawi countered.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In January, the United States had already made drastic cuts to its contribution to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Relations between the US administration and the Palestinian Authority took a nosedive after Trump last December decided to recognise the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Palestinians have suspended contacts with Washington and consider that it can no longer be an impartial mediator in the Middle East peace process.</p>.<p class="bodytext">After the latest blow, Ashrawi insisted that the Palestinians, living under Israeli occupation, would not be coerced into surrendering their rights.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"There is no glory in constantly bullying and punishing a people under occupation," she wrote in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The US administration has already demonstrated meanness of spirit in its collusion with the Israeli occupation and its theft of land and resources; now it is exercising economic meanness by punishing the Palestinian victims of this occupation."</p>.<p class="bodytext">In an initial reaction on Friday, the PLO's representative in Washington, Husam Zomlot, said the US administration was "dismantling decades of US vision and engagement in Palestine".</p>.<p class="bodytext">"After Jerusalem and UNRWA, this is another confirmation of abandoning the two-state solution and fully embracing (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's anti-peace agenda," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The decision to cut Palestinian funding comes amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has seen a surge of violence since Palestinian protests erupted in March.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At least 172 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, the vast majority of them during demonstrations near the border.</p>
<p class="title">US President Donald Trump's administration is resorting to "cheap blackmail" against the Palestinians with its decision to cut more than $200 million in aid for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a senior Palestinian official said today.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A State Department official said on Friday that the decision, made "at the direction of the president," came after a review of aid programmes to the Palestinian territories. The funding would "now address high-priority projects elsewhere".</p>.<p class="bodytext">Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's (PLO) executive committee, hit back, saying: "The US administration is demonstrating the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool."</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The Palestinian people and leadership will not be intimidated and will not succumb to coercion. The rights of the Palestinian people are not for sale," Ashrawi countered.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In January, the United States had already made drastic cuts to its contribution to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Relations between the US administration and the Palestinian Authority took a nosedive after Trump last December decided to recognise the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The Palestinians have suspended contacts with Washington and consider that it can no longer be an impartial mediator in the Middle East peace process.</p>.<p class="bodytext">After the latest blow, Ashrawi insisted that the Palestinians, living under Israeli occupation, would not be coerced into surrendering their rights.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"There is no glory in constantly bullying and punishing a people under occupation," she wrote in a statement.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"The US administration has already demonstrated meanness of spirit in its collusion with the Israeli occupation and its theft of land and resources; now it is exercising economic meanness by punishing the Palestinian victims of this occupation."</p>.<p class="bodytext">In an initial reaction on Friday, the PLO's representative in Washington, Husam Zomlot, said the US administration was "dismantling decades of US vision and engagement in Palestine".</p>.<p class="bodytext">"After Jerusalem and UNRWA, this is another confirmation of abandoning the two-state solution and fully embracing (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's anti-peace agenda," he said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The decision to cut Palestinian funding comes amid a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has seen a surge of violence since Palestinian protests erupted in March.</p>.<p class="bodytext">At least 172 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, the vast majority of them during demonstrations near the border.</p>