Palestine’s ‘opportunity’ or ‘entirely wrong’? Rocky reception for dawn of $50-bn Trump Mideast plan

Palestinian groups were quick to respond to the “challenge” by outright rejecting the very premise of Kushner’s proposal. Widely expected to be biased to favour Israel, based on Trump’s policy choices alone, there are no great hopes that it will address the Israeli occupation in a way acceptable to Palestinians. Worse still, many have chosen to boycott the proposal in advance.

“The plan cannot pass because it ends the Palestinian cause,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said a meeting of Fatah leaders in Ramallah on Saturday, adding that “there can be no economic solution before there’s a political solution.”

“Palestine isn’t for sale, and it is not an issue for bargaining. Palestine is a sacred land and there is no option for the [Israeli] occupation except to leave,” was the response of Hamas, which is in control of Gaza. Hamas has said that it will reject Trump’s upcoming deal in its entirety.

“They can end the occupation, which is the most basic requirement for prosperity. There can be no prosperity under occupation,” Ashrawi said.

There’s not much new about Kushner’s plan, Nimr pointed out, as “during Shimon Peres as a Prime Minister in Israel (1995-96), he tried that approach of talking economic ease to the Palestinians instead of talking about a political solution,” but without success.

Palestine would earn $5.5 billion extra every year if it had access to the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, which is now blocked by Israel, Nimr pointed out, citing a World Bank report.

The whole issue is a political issue. Give us our freedom and we are able to live equally, normally and in prosperity in Palestine.
Kushner will present the ambitious economic plan at a US-led conference in Bahrain on June 25 and 26. The White House senior adviser will be flying to Manama in order to get feedback from finance ministers and investors from countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco.

The Saudis said their participation was in line with their “permanent and supportive stance to the Palestinian people and what would help it achieve stability, development and good living.” Jordan’s King Abdullah II explained his country’s attendance is based on the need to “listen and remain knowledgeable of what is taking place.”

However, the so-called “workshop” will proceed without Palestinian representatives, who refused to participate in it or accept its results. They said that to discuss economy ahead of a political solution was “offering a carrot before the stick” on the part of the Americans.

With the Palestinians absent, Washington ruled against inviting the Israeli government to Manama, with the event to be attended only by a small delegation of businessmen from Israel.