美国国家公共电台 NPR U.S. Aid Agency Is Preparing To Lay Off Most Local Staff For Palestinian Projects

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We are revealing news this morning that shows the Trump¹ administration's approach to Israelis and Palestinians. The story involves the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID. NPR has learned the agency is preparing to lay off most of its Palestinian aid workers in its West Bank and Gaza mission. NPR's Daniel Estrin bases that revelation on U.S. government communications that he has reviewed, and Daniel's on the line from Jerusalem.

Good morning.

DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE²: Hi. Good morning.

INSKEEP: What are these - who are these USAID people, and what have they been doing?

ESTRIN: Well, there are about a hundred local staffers in the USAID mission here. Mostly, they're Palestinian employees; there are also Israelis. And the plan is to lay off all but 14 of them this summer. And these are people who have, you know, been in this mission - which has been here for several decades - trying to invest in the Palestinian territories, investing in infrastructure³, in sewage, in clean water and people trying to - well, they say - prepare the path for a peace deal and an independent Palestinian state.

And it's a really emotional moment for people I've been speaking with who've been involved in these efforts because - well, I spoke⁴ with one Palestinian man who was on the verge⁵ of tears. He spent years working with USAID here. He says USAID had the resources, the connections to open doors and invest. And it gave people hope that things were going in the right direction, and he says now that's vanishing.

INSKEEP: OK. Just to repeat that number, you said there's about a hundred staffers, and it's going to go down to 14...

ESTRIN: Correct.

INSKEEP: ...Local staffers, everybody else being laid off, according to your reporting. How does that fit in with the Trump administration's approach to Palestinians over the past couple of years?

ESTRIN: Well, this is really just the latest chapter in a very long saga⁶, a kind of - a diplomatic war, I guess you could call it, between the U.S. and the Palestinians. It goes all the way back to, well, when you were here, Steve, in Jerusalem when the U.S. moved its embassy here. Trump was backing Israel's claims to the city. Palestinian leaders cut ties with the U.S., said the U.S. can't lead a peace process.

So then president Trump said, well, why do we give the Palestinians all this money when they won't cooperate with us? And then we started to see, as the months went on, the U.S. cut all kinds of money to the Palestinians - money for hospitals for cancer treatment, money for food for poor people in Gaza. And now all USAID projects for the Palestinians have stopped.

INSKEEP: I suppose this has been the Trump administration negotiating strategy up to now - right? - and fairly overt⁷, essentially⁸ saying to the Palestinians - take what you believe is a bad deal because if you don't, we're just going to make the deal worse and worse.

ESTRIN: Yes. Well, they've also been saying, you haven't seen the deal yet. And the Trump administration just yesterday said that it will be soon unveiling this long-awaited peace plan at - by early June at the earliest. And they're saying wait to see what the peace plan has in store, and then judge it.

INSKEEP: Is this peace plan likely to be consistent with what the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been saying? - because of course, he made a last-minute election promise very recently that he would begin annexing⁹ parts of the West Bank, territory that Palestinians claim for themselves.

ESTRIN: Right. Honestly, we don't know. The White House is keeping their cards close to their chest. But they have said that this plan is going to feature a big economic component¹⁰, economic investment in the Palestinian territories. And so going back to these USAID layoffs¹¹ expected, it raises the question - who is going to be on the ground here to oversee¹² a U.S. plan for economic investment if economic aid experts are laid off?

INSKEEP: Yeah. Well, let's just go back and repeat Daniel Estrin's revelation based on U.S. government communications - and the government has confirmed it, by the way - of about a hundred local aid workers in USAID in the West Bank and Gaza, all but 14 are being laid off.

Daniel, thank you so much.

ESTRIN: Thank you, Steve.

INSKEEP: NPR's Daniel Estrin is in Jerusalem.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 verge   

n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。

6 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。

7 overt   

adj.公开的，明显的，公然的

参考例句：

• His opponent's intention is quite overt.他的对手的意图很明显。
• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。

8 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

9 annexing   

并吞( annex的现在分词 )； 兼并； 强占； 并吞（国家、地区等）

参考例句：

• In addition to annexing territory, they exacted huge indemnities. 割地之外，又索去了巨大的赔款。
• He succeeded in annexing all the property of Hindley's and the Linton's. 他成功的占有了亨得利和林顿的所有财产。

10 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

11 layoffs   

临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 )； 停工，停止活动

参考例句：

• Textile companies announced 2000 fresh layoffs last week. 各纺织公司上周宣布再次裁员两千人。
• Stock prices broke when the firm suddenly announced layoffs. 当公司突然宣布裁员时，股票价格便大跌

12 oversee   

vt.监督，管理

参考例句：

• Soldiers oversee the food handouts.士兵们看管着救济食品。
• Use a surveyor or architect to oversee and inspect the different stages of the work.请一位房产检视员或建筑师来监督并检查不同阶段的工作。