UN Palestinian refugee agency gets new cash pledges, needs much more

ROME: The United Nations agency that helps Palestinian refugees said on Thursday it had received new cash pledges to enable it to keep working for a few more months, but warned its long-term outlook remains in doubt.

The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is looking to cover an estimated $446 million budget shortfall that was largely caused by President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision in January to effectively freeze US aid to the Palestinians.

A donors’ conference in Rome drew promises from countries around the world of additional funds of some $100 million, leaving UNWRA with a uphill task to keep its core education, healthcare and food security services afloat.

“A very important first stop was reached today, but a long way is in front of us,” UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres told reporters after the meeting. “If UNWRA did not exist, if its services were not provided, the security of the region would be undermined,” he added.

Washington donates about $350 million a year to UNRWA, which was founded in 1949 to aid Palestinian refugees, but so far this year has handed over $60 million. UN officials fear they might not receive any more from the United States in 2018.

Trump said in January the United States would only give aid if the Palestinians agreed to renew peace talks with Israel. The talks have been frozen since 2014, and with no negotiations in sight, envoys from around 70 countries and organisations met in Rome to discuss the funding crisis.

Going into the meeting, UNRWA Commissionergeneral Pierre Krähenbühl had warned his organisation would run out of funds in May. The new pledges gave the agency a bit more breathing room.

“It will last us a couple of months more into the middle or beginning of the summer,” he said. “We need to be optimistic.”

Among the countries that had offered more money were France, Qatar, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Mexico, Slovakia and India, he said, without giving any further details.

UNRWA operates in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. It runs 710 schools, its doctors carry out a total 9 million consultancies a year and it feeds some 1.7 million people — mostly in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians say funding cuts would especially impact Gaza, an impoverished enclave blockaded by Israel and Egypt where half of its 2 million population rely on humanitarian aid. — Reuters