Donald Trump and Mahmoud Abbas at the White House, May 3, 2017 Image by Getty Images

By Aiden Pink September 16, 2018

Palestinian Ambassador to the United States Husam Zomlot said that he had been expelled from the country and that the bank accounts of his family had been frozen, days after the State Department ordered the closure of the PLO embassy in Washington.

“Ambassador Zomlot’s son Said, 7, who is in second grade, and daughter Alma, 5, who is in kindergarten were pulled out of Horace Mann Elementary School in Washington DC last week and have since left the country,” the PLO said in a statement.

All American bank accounts affiliated with the PLO have also been frozen as part of a ploy to pressure the Palestinians to begin peace negotiations with Israel, the Israeli news site Ynet reported, citing Al Jazeera.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“By deliberately targeting the family of Ambassador Zomlot, the US administration has gone from cruel punishment to revenge against the Palestinians and their leadership even to the point of causing hardship to their innocent children and families,” PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashwari said in a statement.

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has frozen nearly all foreign funding for Palestinians, including support for the East Jerusalem Hospital Network and the United Nations’s Palestinian refugee agency.

Trump said during the president’s traditional pre-Rosh Hashanah phone call with Jewish leaders that funding to the Palestinians would cease until a peace agreement was reached. “You’ll get money, but we’re not paying you until we make a deal. If we don’t make a deal, we’re not paying,” Trump said.

Palestinian leaders have boycotted meeting with Trump administration officials ever since the president recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last December.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount