Saudi help to overcome US aid cuts
US had been by far the biggest contributor to UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees and its decision to cut aid dealt a blow to the agency’s finances
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia pledged $50 million in aid on Wednesday to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), which has been hit by the withdrawal of all US funding.
The announcement was made at a news conference in the Saudi capital by the director of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, Abdullah Al-rabeea.
UNRWA commissioner general Pierre Krahenbuhl told the news conference that the agency had succeeded in containing spending following the decision by the administration of President Donald Trump in August to end all funding.
The United States had been by far the biggest contributor to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees and the move dealt a massive Blow to Its ALREADY STRETCHED inances.
It threatened the closure of UNRWA schools both in the Palestinian territories and in the diaspora just weeks into the new academic year, as well as clinic closures and major job cuts.
Krahenbuhl said in Jordan last week that new funding pledges from Europe and other Gulf Arab states had allowed the agency to dramatically reduce the resulting budget shortfall, to just $21 million from $446 million at the start of the year.
More than ive million REGISTERED Palestinian refugees are eligible to receive support from UNRWA, which was set up after Israel’s creation in 1948.
The Trump administration has backed Israel in accusing the agency of perpetuating THE MIDDLE East Conlict by maintaining the idea that millions of Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to homes in what is now Israel.
Aside from ending all US funding of UNRWA, the Trump administration has also cut $200 million in bilateral aid to the Palestinians for projects in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
In his address to the General Assembly in September, Trump said the United States would only give foreign aid “to those who respect us and frankly are our friends”.
The Palestinians severed all ties with the administration after Trump’s decision last December to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and declare the disputed city Israel’s capital in a break with a decades-old bipartisan policy.
The United States has spoken with Israel about possibly presenting a longawaited Middle East peace plan at the start of next year, which could avoid interfering with the country’s election, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon said on Tuesday.
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has been preparing a plan for peace between the Palestinians and Israel. But the Palestinians are skeptical and have accused the Trump administration of siding with Israel on the core issues relating to THE DECADES-OLD Conlict, burying all chances for peace.
“We don’t know the details of the plan but we know that it’s completed. So now the question is when will they submit it. As far as we know they speak with us about the beginning of ‘19,” Danon told reporters.
At the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders in September, Trump said in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he wanted to unveil a peace plan over the next two to three months.
“We always spoke about the fact that maybe we are going to elections in Israel and the issue was whether you present the plan in the middle of a campaign. As it looks now we are going for elections but not immediately,” Danon said on Tuesday.
“So basically today the president is able to come and present it without interfering in a political debate in Israel,” he said. “If you present it during an election it will be horrendous.” The next national election in Israel is scheduled for November 2019, but politicians and political analysts have speculated the poll could be brought forward to March or May after Netanyahu’s governing coalition was reduced to a one-seat majority in parliament earlier this month.