‘A FLAGRANT ASSAULT ON THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE’
US decision to stop funding UN agency for refugees triggers response from America’s allies
The US decision to end all funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees drew condemnation from the Palestinian leadership and American allies yesterday.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the US move was “a flagrant assault against the Palestinian people” while senior Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Hanan Ashrawi called it a “cruel and irresponsible” act that would destabilise the region.
The US State Department announced the decision on Friday, saying the UN Relief and Works Agency was an “irredeemably flawed operation”.
“The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the US will not make additional contributions to UNRWA,” department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
The agency provides services to more than five million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza.
Most are descendants of people who fled Palestine in the 1948 war that led to the creation of the state of Israel.
“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,” Ms Ashrawi said on behalf of the PLO executive committee.
“Once again, they are being victimised by the US administration in support of Israel’s decades-long military occupation and impunity.
“The real outcome of the US administration’s latest unilateral and reckless policy is the destabilisation of the entire region and the creation of unimaginable suffering and hardship for the Palestinian refugees.”
Dr Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said the US decision was “regrettable and complicates the life of the refugees with its humanitarian and political dimensions”.
“We cannot but emphasise that the historic commitment
of the UAE to support UNRWA and its humanitarian work continues,” Dr Gargash wrote on Twitter.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, spokesman for Mr Abbas, told Reuters: “Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the US no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution.”
The US decision on Friday is the second from the government of President Donald Trump to deeply anger Palestinians.
Last December, Mr Trump announced US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, a reversal of long-standing policy that led the Palestinian leadership to reject Washington as a broker of Middle East peace.
The UN agency has faced a cash crisis since January when the US, its biggest single donor, paid $60m (Dh220m) but withheld $65m. The agency, set up in 1949, runs Palestinian refugee camps and provides schooling and health care.
Arab League Secretary General, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said the US move was “complicating the problems in the Middle East and does not contribute to the stability of the region in any way”.
He said the agency’s crisis would be at the top of the agenda at the next meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo.
Jordan has announced plans to organise a fund-raising conference at the UN General Assembly in New York next month.
The EU said the US decision was regrettable and urged Washington to reconsider.
“The US have always played, and will continue to play, an essential role in any effort to achieve peace in the Middle East,” the EU said. “The EU will continue to engage with the US and its other regional and international partners to work towards that common goal.”
The agency’s spokesman, Chris Gunness, said it would try to make up its $217m shortfall.
“If not, some of the most marginalised and vulnerable people on the planet may well suffer,” Mr Gunness told AFP.
“People are going to become more desperate and marginalised,” he said, warning of “widespread, profound and unpredictable” consequences.
Palestinians voiced alarm at the US move. Mahmoud Mubarak, director of the community-run committees managing the 19 refugee camps that accommodate about 500,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, warned of the “very serious repercussions”.
Representatives of the committees would be meeting on Tuesday to discuss their options, Mr Mubarak said.
In the impoverished Gaza Strip, where most children attend schools run by the agency, Hisham Saqallah, 55, said the US move was “political blackmail” that would merely increase unrest.
“If they stop aid to schools, this means destroying the futures of a large number of students and throwing them into the street,” Mr Saqallah said. “If they stop the aid completely it would have a major effect on our children.”
Before the US decision on Friday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that his country would increase its contributions to the agency because the funding crisis was fuelling uncertainty.
“The loss of this organisation could unleash an uncontrollable chain reaction,” Mr Maas said.