Move angers Palestinians

GAZA CITY: Palestinians reacted angrily yesterday to a United States decision to end funding for the United Nations agency that helps millions of needy refugees, seeing it as a new policy shift aimed at undermining their cause.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has backed Israel in accusing the nearly 70-year-old agency of perpetuating the Middle East conflict by maintaining the idea that many Palestinians were refugees with a right to return to homes in what was now Israel, something they both opposed.

But to Palestinians, the right of return for the hundreds of thousands who fled or were expelled during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation is a central plank of their cause.

Its calling into question by Trump follows his December recognition of the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and axing of more than US$200 million (RM822 million) in bilateral aid for Gaza and the West Bank.

The new policy on Jerusalem overturned decades of precedent and prompted the Palestinian leadership to break off relations with the White House.

Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashwrawi called the US move as “cruel and irresponsible”.

“The Palestinian refugees are already the victims who have lost their homes, livelihoods and security as a result of the creation of the state of Israel,” she said.

“Once again, they are being victimised by the US administration in support of Israel’s decadeslong military occupation and impunity.”

In the impoverished Gaza Strip, where most children learn in UNRWA schools, the US decision has raised fears for their future education.

“If they stop the aid completely, it would have a major effect on our children,” said Abu Mohammed Huweila, 40, from the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza.

Huweila, whose nine children all attended UNRWA’s schools, called the move “an unjust decision” that went against their right to education.