Report: Trump Prepares Executive Orders to Reduce Funds for UN Bodies Giving Palestinians Full Membership

The administration of new U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly preparing executive orders that aim to minimize the role the U.S. plays in the UN and other international bodies, including organizations supporting the Palestinians or in which the Palestinian Authority has official representatives.

According to a report published in the New York Times on Wednesday, the first of two draft orders calls for stopping US funding to any UN or other global agency according to a list of criteria.

One of these criteria is giving the Palestinian Authority or the Palestinian Liberation Organization full membership, or any organization that “is controlled or substantially influenced by any state that sponsors terrorism” or is blamed for the persecution of marginalized groups or any other systematic violation of human rights.

The order, the Times reported, calls for a reduction of “at least 40 percent” in funding toward such organizations.
A committee to be established by the executive order will make recommendations on where funding should be cut

The second executive order, “Moratorium on New Multilateral Treaties,” calls for reviewing existing and pending treaties between the US and more than one other nation.

The order asks for recommendations on which negotiations or treaties the US should abandon.

Both orders call for reviewing funding that could go toward the International Criminal Court, even though the US does not currently provide any funding to that body.

Both orders also call for terminating funding to UN bodies in which the Palestinians are full members, but the US has already withdrawn its funding from the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) during former President Barack Obama’s term, when the international accepted the Palestinians as full members.