 |
| Palestinians stage an anti-American rally in downtown Bethlehem, demanding an end to the split between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, the Israeli occupation and freedom for the people of Palestine |
Hatem Abdel Kader, the senior Fatah official who holds the Jerusalem portfolio, said the boycott would see the 28 Arab local councils in Jerusalem cutting ties with the consulate which is located in the city’s occupied and annexed eastern sector.
“The Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem have decided to boycott the US consulate in Jerusalem in protest against the US veto,” he said, just days after the Obama administration used its first-ever veto to nix a resolution that would have condemned Israeli settlement building.
“We will cut our relationship with all American institutions, including with USAID and we will not take any help or money from them,” he said, referring to the US Agency for International Development.
Some 28 local councils are to join in the boycott, which would include political meetings and contact with US officials, said Abdel Kader who belongs to the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“The boycott will continue until the US administration changes its stance on the Palestinian issue, especially towards the settlements,” he said, adding that the Palestinians also wanted the Obama administration “to apologise” to the people and to Abbas for using the veto.
US officials had no immediate response to the move, which looks set to affect a range of joint activities, many of them cultural and academic, that are organised by America House, a centre which offers programmes and workshops for young people.
Those involved in the boycott are local Palestinian institutions which are not officially affiliated with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, which is barred by Israel from holding any political activity in east Jerusalem.
The resolution, which was aimed at pressuring Israel into halting settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, was supported by all 14 other members of the Security Council.
Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians ground to a halt late last year in a thorny dispute over Jewish settlement building.
The Palestinians insist they will not negotiate while Israel builds on land they want for a future state.
Palestinian officials have said they will launch a new bid for UN condemnation of Israeli settlement building, bringing a resolution before the General Assembly.
Israel regards the whole of Jerusalem, including the eastern sector which it occupied during the 1967 Six Day War, as its “united and undivided capital” in a move which has never been recognised by the international community.
The Palestinians want the city’s eastern sector as the capital of their promised state.