Abbas rebukes Trump: ‘Shame on you’
RAMALLAH, PALESTINIAN TERRITORY — The Palestinian president railed at President Donald Trump in a fiery, two-hourlong speech on Sunday, saying “shame on you” for his treatment of the Palestinians and warning that he would have no problem rejecting what he suggested would be an unacceptable peace plan.
The speech by Mahmoud Abbas ratcheted up what has been more than a month of harsh rhetoric toward Trump since the president’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Relations between Washington and the Palestinians have sunk to a new low, boding poorly for a peace plan the White House has promised to present.
Speaking to the Palestinian Central Council, a decision-making body, Abbas repeated the Palestinians’ opposition to Trump’s Jerusalem recognition and censured Trump for accusing the Palestinians of refusing to negotiate.
“He (Trump) said in a tweet: ‘We won’t give money to the Palestinians because they rejected the negotiations,’” Abbas said. “Shame on you. When did we reject the talks? Where is the negotiation that we rejected?”
Trump infuriated Palestinians and Muslims around the world when he announced late last year that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy there, upending decades of U.S. policy and countering an international consensus that the fate of Jerusalem should be decided in negotiations between the sides.
Abbas has said that by siding with the Israelis on a sensitive issue, the announcement had destroyed Trump’s credibility as a Mideast peace broker.
“We can say no to anyone if things are related to our fate and our people, and now we have said no to Trump,” he said. “We told him the deal of the century was the slap of the century. But we will slap back.”
Abbas also said that the Palestinians have rejected a U.S. request to halt payments to roughly 35,000 families of Palestinians killed and wounded in the conflict with Israel, including suicide bombers and other militants. Israel argues that the practice encourages violence.