Palestinian refugee agency gets US$118 mln in new funding

UNITED NATIONS, US: The Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA on Thursday received pledges of US$118 million from donor countries to help it overcome a crisis triggered by US funding cuts.

Kuwait and the European Union were among the biggest contributors along with Germany, Ireland and Norway, UN Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) chief Pierre Kraehenbuehl told a news conference. France said it would contribute next year.

The US, which was by far the biggest contributor to Unrwa, announced in August that it would no longer fund the agency.

Kraehenbuehl said the new funds were “a significant step in the direction of overcoming Unrwa’s greatest and gravest financial crisis ever”, adding that the shortfall in the annual budget now stood at US$68 million.

The administration of President Donald Trump has backed Israel in accusing Unrwa of perpetuating the Middle East conflict by maintaining the idea that millions of Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to homes in what is now Israel.

Created in 1949, the agency supplies aid to more than three million of the five million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, who co-hosted the meeting on Unrwa’s funding crisis on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, said discussions were under way on ensuring long-term financing for the agency.

— AFP photo A Palestinian amputee protester stands with a crutch on a concrete barricade while smoke plumes from burning tires billow in the background, during clashes with Israeli forces following a demonstration at the Erez border crossing with Israel in the northern Gaza Strip.