http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1178141.htmRAMALLAH, West Bank, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Palestinian officials and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on Sunday rejected a U.S. preconditioning of financial aid on them repudiating terrorism in a three-year uprising against Israel.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said last year Palestinian NGOs should sign a "Certification Regarding Terrorist Financing" to make sure U.S. funds did not go to entities "engaged in terrorist acts".
USAID said that if this stipulation was not fulfilled by Palestinian recipients, they would get no more money.
Its conditions angered the Palestinian Authority and NGOs after Washington branded 27 Palestinian groups including the Palestine Liberation Organisation, which signed an interim peace deal with Israel on the White House lawn in 1993, as terrorist.
"The Palestinian Authority rejects the labelling of the PLO as a terrorist organisation and we also reject the labelling of our people's efforts to gain freedom as terrorism," said Finance Minister Salam Fayyad, praised as a reformer by Washington.
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