Palestinian anger as US ends funding for UN agency
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Palestinians reacted angrily Saturday to a US decision to end all funding for the UN agency that assists millions of refugees, seeing it as a new policy shift aimed at undermining their cause.
Washington, which until last year was by far the biggest contributor to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), announced on Friday that it would no longer make any contributions to the “irredeemably flawed operation”.
The move by President Donald Trump’s administration was described as “cruel and irresponsible” by senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi.
“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,” she said.
The US has backed Israel in accusing the agency of perpetuating the Middle East conflict by maintaining the idea that many Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to homes in what is now Israel.
But to Palestinians, the right of return for the hundreds of thousands who fled or were expelled during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation is central to their cause.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the American administration was invalidating future peace talks by “preempting, prejudging issues reserved for permanent status” negotiations.
Palestinian and Israeli“elements that want to achieve peace peacefully, based on a two states solution, are being destroyed,” he told AFP.
Israel however welcomed the US move.
“Consolidating the refugee status of Palestinians is one of the problems that perpetuates the conflict,” an official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
Trump had already angered Palestinians by his December recognition of the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and axing more than 200 million in bilateral aid for Gaza and the West Bank.
The new policy on Jerusalem overturned decades of precedent and prompted the Palestinian leadership to break off relations with the White House.
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said Washington’s latest decision “promotes terrorism” and was a violation of UN resolutions.
He said Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was considering appealing to UN bodies to challenge the US decision.
UNRWA, established in 1949, was already facing financial crisis after Trump announced a 300 million funding freeze in January.
The agency, which helps more than five million registered Palestinian refugees, says it now faces major closures to its network of schools and health centres.