JERUSALEM – As President Donald Trump focuses on cutting new deals during his first major foreign trip to Arab Gulf states this week, questions still linger over the long-term impact of the termination of hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid supporting the Palestinians.
“What we are seeing now is a slow, brutal process of mass starvation and death by the denial of basic necessities,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., in a Thursday speech on the Senate floor. “This is methodical, it is intentional, it is the stated policy of the [Benjamin] Netanyahu government.”
While the congressional spotlight is focused on the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, the evaporation of U.S. development assistance has put the future economic viability of a sovereign state for Palestinians even further at risk.
