Senior Palestinian Official: US trying to bring down PA

Saeb Erekat, former chief Palestinian negotiator and a senior PLO official, accused the United states of attempting to undermine the Palestinian Authority and overthrow the regime of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, according to the official Wafa news agency.

Senior Advisor to President Donald Trump Jared Kushner and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt are currently in the region to present details of the administration’s long-awaited peace plan, which President Trump has called the “deal of the century.” The envoys have met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordan’s King Abdullah and other regional leaders. Palestinian officials have refused to meet the envoys.

In a meeting with Netanyahu Friday, Erekat said, the prime minister proposed easing the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip by diverting tax and customs revenue that Israel collects on behalf of the PA to Gaza.

Other Israeli officials had voiced similar proposals earlier in the week, and a statement by Kushner and Greenblatt after the meeting stated that they had discussed “the means by which the humanitarian situation in Gaza can be alleviated, while maintaining Israel’s security.”

“The goal behind this is to sustain the coup and keep Gaza separated from the West Bank on the way to creating a mini-state in Gaza while bringing down the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank,” Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio Saturday, Wafa reported.

Erekat also accused Greenblatt of advocating removing PA President Mahmoud Abbas from power in a recently published article.

In the wake of the US government’s move of its embassy to Jerusalem, and official recognition of the city as Israel’s capital, Erekat said that now the Trump administration was hoping to sideline the central issue of the right of return for Palestinian refugees by bypassing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that has been responsible for refugees since 1948.

“They want to terminate the role of UNRWA by proposing direct aid to the countries hosting the Palestinian refugees and sideline the UN agency,” he said. “On top of this, they are planning financial aid to the Gaza Strip worth one billion dollars for projects, also separate from UNRWA and under the title of solving a humanitarian crisis. All this is actually aimed at liquidating the issue of the Palestinian refugees.”

The United States has become “nothing else than spokespeople for the Israeli occupation” aiming to “normalize Israeli apartheid,” Erekat said in a separate interview with Middle East Eye.