[IMRA commentary: Mr. Asour makes clear once again that reams of documents signed at photo opportunities proclaiming Palestinian renunciation or objection to “terror” are meaningless since, as this PA official himself notes, when it comes to Palestinian actions against Israel it isn’t “terror”.]

Hassan Asfour, Head of the Palestinian Authority for NGOs Affairs, regarded the latest United States Agency for Development (USAID) document as an extension of the United States policy concerning the Palestinian people, attempting to extort the Palestinians for political reasons.

Asfour’s remarks came in a press conference held in the State Information Service’s International Press Center in Gaza, on an official U.S State Department document, outlining the USAID’s policy for development worldwide.

The document is said to be considering a number of Palestinian bodies including the Palestine Liberation Organization and other Palestinian factions as terrorists, accusing some of Palestinian NGOs of fundraising ‘terrorist actions’.

It also connects financial assistance to any Palestinian NGO with noninvolvement in any actions referred to in the items of the document.

Asfour called upon all Palestinian NGOs that signed the USAID document to reverse their acceptance to such ‘U.S extortion’, given the ad-hoc situation of the Palestinian people under the Israeli occupation.

He laid out a number of recommendations for the Palestinian NGOs to develop community service in the Palestinian cities, towns, refugee camps and villages, away from any outside extortion (USAID document).

Along with Mr. Asfour, Abdel-AZiz Abu Qaraya, member of the Palestinian Network of NGOs, voiced his rejection to the said document, stressing that the document can never be applied on the Palestinian people, who are living under the occupation, and at the same time have the right to resist.

Abu Qaraya, confirmed that representatives of his network met with their counterparts of the USAID, to convey their dissatisfaction to the document. He asserted that the USAID promised to report the networks’ reservations to the U.S State Department.

USAID had recently issued a document, outlining its own fundraising conditions worldwide, including non-affiliation with ‘terrorist groups’. It also labeled the Palestinian people resistance of the Israeli occupation forces as ‘terrorism’.

Such an official U.S development agency has so far executed several projects throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories, related mainly to infrastructure.

http://www.ipc.gov.ps/ipc_e/ipc_e-1/e_News/news2004/2004_01/050.html

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR