Last year, Trump administration decided to cut more than $200 million in development aid to Palestine. As a result, tens of thousands of Palestinians are no longer getting food aid or basic health services from America. Other projects such as a peace-building and infrastructure projects have been scaling back.
NGOs are forced to slash programs and lay off staff. And this has a ripple effect through a community that has spent more than two decades promoting peace in the Middle East. Just last week, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced severe reduction in aid for Palestinian beneficiaries in the occupied West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip, due to aid cuts by the US.
USAID, the US government's development agency, has provided more than $5.5 billion as aid to the Palestinians since 1994 for infrastructure, health, education and governance so that eventually, an independent state may be created. The aid cuts was done with an intention to pressure the Palestinians to return to peace talks. But, Palestinian officials say, ever since US recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital last year, the move has worsened Palestine-US relations.
The aid groups, many of which have little or no connection to the Palestinian Authority, say the cuts hurt the most vulnerable Palestinians and those most committed to peace with Israel. 165,000 Palestinians, have seen a 20 per cent dip in aid they have been receiving from the WFP.
"If you want to maintain the idea of the peace process, you have to maintain the people who would be part of the peace process," said Lana Abu Hijleh, the local director for Global Communities, an international NGO active in the Palestinian territories since 1995.
Global Communities can now only provide aid to 90,000 people through March, and Abu Hijleh had to lay off around 30 staff, including in Gaza, where unemployment exceeds 50 per cent.
Sadeqa Nasser, a woman living in Gaza's Jebaliya refugee camp, used her voucher to support her disabled husband, their six children and four grandchildren.
She says her sons each bring in less than $5 a day from odd jobs. "They cannot afford to buy food for their families, so I help them out," she said.
Since the aid was cut off, she's been able to qualify for welfare payments from the Palestinian Authority, which itself relies heavily on foreign aid.
Health care has also been provided through aid, which is now cut and many people cannot be treated for serious illnesses including breast cancer.
Infrastructure projects, including desperately needed water treatment facilities in the blockaded Gaza Strip, have also been put on hold.
The NGOs are reaching out to other donors, but USAID is one of the biggest sources of funding for a global aid community overwhelmed by conflicts in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.
Kids4Peace, a group founded by Israeli and Palestinian families in Jerusalem in 2002, brings Jewish, Christian and Muslim teenagers together for seminars and summer camps where they can share their experiences and learn more about one another.
The group's organizers acknowledge the long-standing criticism of such initiatives that campfires and sing-alongs won't bring peace to the Middle East, especially after a decade of diplomatic paralysis and little hope for resuming meaningful negotiations.
But they say that with a USD 1.5 million USAID grant in 2016 they tripled the number of annual participants to around 70 and revamped programs.
