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Senior Palestinian official rejects US economic initiative for peace
Ramallah, Palestinian Territories, June 22 (AFP) Jun 22, 2019
Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi on Saturday dismissed a US economic initiative for peace saying Washington should work first on ending "Israeli theft of our land".

"First lift the siege of Gaza, stop the Israeli theft of our land, resources and funds, give us our freedom of movement and control over our borders, airspace, territorial waters etc. Then watch us build a vibrant prosperous economy as a free and sovereign people," Ashrawi said in a tweet after the US unveiled details for the first time of its long-awaited peace initiative.

Ashrawi is a longtime aide to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's executive committee who has been involved in Palestinian politics for decades.

Her comments came as the United States said Saturday that its Middle East peace plan to be presented next week in Bahrain aims to raise more than $50 billion for the Palestinians and create one million jobs for them within a decade.

In a step likely to outrage Palestinian leaders, it said that money would be administered by a multinational development bank as a way to ensure better governance and prevent corruption.

The Palestinian Authority is boycotting the two-day conference -- dubbed the Peace to Prosperity Workshop -- that opens on Tuesday, charging that pro-Israel Trump is seeking to buy the Palestinians and deprive them of an independent state.

"Peace to Prosperity represents the most ambitious and comprehensive international effort for the Palestinian people to date," the plan released by the White House Saturday said.

The White House cast the plan -- to be discussed in more detail in Bahrain with finance chiefs of oil-rich Gulf Arab states -- as historic.

Trump's son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner spent more than two years working on the plan, which was also crafted by Jason Greenblatt, the American president's Middle East envoy.

The Palestinian leadership is deeply distrustful of Kushner, a family friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a recent tweet Ashrawi referred to Greenblatt as a "self-appointed advocate/apologist for Israel".


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