Relatives of Americans killed in Palestine want Abbas to be barred from entering US

Relatives of Americans killed in Palestine want Abbas to be barred from entering US
A group of Americans whose relatives died due to violence in Palestine are calling on President Trump to bar Palestinian Authority president from entering the US.
2 min read
23 September, 2018
Abbas addresses UN assembly in New York City [Getty]

A group of Americans whose relatives died in violence in Palestine are asking President Donald Trump to bar the Palestinian Authority president from entering the US for the annual UN General Assembly meeting. 

The group appealed on Sunday for Trump to declare Abbas a "persona non grata" because of the Palestinian Authority's payment of stipends to relatives of Palestinians involved in violence.

Micah Lakin Avni, whose father Richard Lakin was killed by Palestinians in 2015, called Abbas "the Grand Wizard of incitement to violence and terror".

The group includes the families of 15 other American citizens killed by Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territories, including Ari Fuld, a settler in the occupied West Bank who was killed last week. Also signed are the parents of Taylor Force, a 28-year-old university student and military veteran who was stabbed to death during a 2016 visit to the holy land.

The Palestinian Authority which Abbas leads makes a variety of social payments to the relatives of Palestinians detained by Israel or killed in violence, whether they were carrying out attacks or shot dead by Israeli military forces.

A dedicated fund was set up in the 1960s and estimates suggest it distributes as much as $100 million a year.

Around 35,000 families receive support from the fund. 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has defended the payments in the past as a “social responsibility,” and said Israel uses the issue as a pretext to avoid peace talks.

The Trump administration has long backed a bill -- named the Taylor Force Act after the US veteran -- that would suspend financial aid to the Palestinian Authority until it ends social payments to the families of Palestinians detained or killed in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Abbas has come under increasing fire among Palestinians for what critics say is his autocratic style of rule. 

The Palestine Liberation Organisation, founded in the 1960s and which Abbas also heads, was meant to represent Palestinians everywhere but the absence of general elections has largely shifted decision-making to the Abbas-led West Bank autonomy government.

A majority of Palestinians want Abbas to resign while over half of the Palestinian public fear publicly criticising the Palestinian Authority, a poll conducted late last year found.

At the same time, relations between Abbas and the Trump administration have broken down since the White House recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December.

The Palestinians see the Israeli-occupied city as the capital of their future state and have refused to meet with Trump's envoys since.

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