UN schools running on empty
Institutions reopen in Palestine but funding in jeopardy
gaza City: Tens of thousands of Palestinian children returned to United Nations-run schools after the summer holidays, though major US cuts have thrown their funding into jeopardy beyond next month.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said all 711 schools it runs for 526,000 pupils in Gaza and the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria would reopen in the next few days despite the US$300mil (RM1.2bil) US funding cut.
Fears raised by UN chief Antonio Guterres that the schools might not be able to reopen at all have failed to materialise, but UNRWA warned it might still be forced to close them again in a month if additional new funding is not found.
“At the moment, we do not have enough money to keep the schools open after the end of September,” UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said.
“At the end of September, UNRWA will be running on empty for all its services, including schools and medical facilities.”
In 2017, the United States, which is traditionally the largest single donor to UNRWA, contributed more than US$360mil (RM1.4bil).
But so far this year, it has given just US$60mil (RM246mil) following President Donald Trump’s decision to withhold aid to the Palestinians.
Parents expressed deep concern about the uncertainty hanging over their children’s education.
“We are afraid of the schools closing,” Soha Abu Hasara said in Gaza City as she dropped her children off for their first day back in the classroom.
“There is fear and the situation is not stable, and there is tension within UNRWA,” she added.
Pupil Hala Muhanna, 11, said her “message to the world is that no-one has the right to close schools”.
“Even if they take away our schools we will bring them back, and we will become more knowl- edgeable than any other country,” she said.
UNRWA was formed to support 750,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war that accompanied the creation of Israel.
With their descendants, they now number more than five million across the Middle East. — AFP