Palestinians Angered by Appointment of Ambassador Friedman to Head Annexation Committee

Already having broken off relations with the United States because of what the Palestinians see as lopsided support for Israel’s side of the negotiations, new and greater angst followed the announcement that American ambassador to the state of Israel David Friedman has been appointed by President Trump to head-up the committee of Israelis and Americans who will decide issues of annexation land. This, after Friedman initially green-lighted the immediate annexation of the land after details of the Trump “vision for peace” were revealed at the White House two weeks ago. Following the international uproar, Friedman qualified his comments and said the issue would be handled by a joint American-Israeli committee but not before Israelis hold their third attempt to elect a government on March 2. Nevertheless, with no Palestinians involved –albeit by their own design in protest to the perceived inequity – the Palestinians argue that Friedman is an inappropriate choice to oversee the process since he is a major supporter of and donor to the Israeli settlement enterprise. Typical of the reactions by Palestinians, Wasel Abu Yousef, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, told The Media Line that, “The American ambassador’s position to head this committee proves that there is a full partnership between the American administration and the occupation and that they want to impose facts on the ground by the Trump administration. Without [Palestinian participation] any plan will fail. There’s a conflict of interests here: [Friedman] is a settler ambassador who is working on annexation of an occupied territory? He is an ambassador of the US not Israel.”