Twenty-eight Palestinian organizations in East Jerusalem decided Wednesday to boycott the U. S. official and non-governmental organizations, in protest of the U.S. veto against an UN anti-Israeli settlement resolution.
Hatem Abdul Kader, the representative of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement in Jerusalem, told Xinhua that all forms of relations between Palestinians' local councils in East Jerusalem and the United States would be broken.
This includes stopping receiving funds from the U.S. development organizations, such as the USAID, which operates in east Jerusalem. The U.S. funds usually go to small projects, most of which are involved in improving the infrastructure, according to Abdul Kader.
The U.S.-funded projects "are trivial" compared to the "hostile act" the U.S. committed last Friday by using its veto in the UN Security Council against the Arab-endorsed draft resolution, Abdul Kader said.
He said the decision to boycott the U.S. was made without any encouragement from the Palestinian National Authority.
The U.S. should apologize to the Palestinians before the Palestinian organizations stop the boycott, he added.
U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians stopped in September 2010 after Israel resumed the Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinians seek a future capital in east Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967.