Global Geopolitical Series: Mark your calendars for PLO central committee meeting on January 14th

Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) central committee will meet on January 14th at Ramallah, the second most important city for the PLO after Jerusalem to decide on the next course of action and how to respond to President Trump’s latest threat to cut off U.S. funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) which has received over $5 billion in US aid since 1994. In 2016, the US gave the agency over $368 million and financed more than 30 percent of its overall budget. UNRWA is entirely dependent on voluntary contributions from UN member states. More than 80 officials are expected to attend the central committee meeting on 14th.

Earlier this week President Trump angrily lashed out at PLO for their refusal to accept the United States as a mediator in the peace process over President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and his decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump tweeted, “It's not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others. As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue... ...peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

However, PLO has refused to back down with some members of the central committee saying that Jerusalem is not for sale and all of the world’s money won’t make PLO surrender the city to Israel.