Aid groups slam US for withholding Palestinian refugee funds

WASHINGTON: The leaders of 21 humanitarian aid groups wrote to the Trump administration to object ‘in the strongest terms’ to a decision to withhold US$ 65 million in planned US contributions to the United Nations agency that serves Palestinian refugees.

The US State Department said last week that Washington would withhold US$ 65 million it had planned to pay the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), saying it needed to make unspecified reforms.

The leaders of the aid groups warned of ‘dire consequences’ if the cut was maintained, according to the letter, a copy of which was given to Reuters.

“We are deeply concerned by the humanitarian consequences of this decision on life-sustaining assistance to children, women and men in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” the letter said.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert denied the move was to punish Palestinians, who have been sharply critical of President Donald Trump’s announcement last month that he would move the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

She repeated the US view that UNRWA needs reform, saying there are a lot more refugees in the programme than previously, and that “money coming in from other countries needs to increase as well to continue paying for all those refugees.”

Eric Schwartz, president of Refugees International and former US Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, said the comments by Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, was aimed at punishing Palestinian political leaders and forcing them to make political concessions.

“But it is wrong to punish political leaders by denying life- sustaining aid to civilians. This is a dangerous and striking departure from US policy on international humanitarian assistance which conflicts starkly with values that US administrations and the American people have embraced,” Schwartz said in the letter. — Reuters