US halts funding to UN agency helping Palestinian refugees

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The United States on Friday halted all funding to a UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees in a decision further heightening tensions between the Palestinian leadership and the Trump administration.

A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the decision as "a flagrant assault against the Palestinian people and a defiance of UN resolutions."

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the business model and fiscal practices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were an "irredeemably flawed operation."

"The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to (the) UNRWA," she said in a statement.

Nauert said the agency's "endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years."

Palestinian students on their first day of new academic year at a school operated by the UNRWA in Gaza City, August 29, 2018. /VCG Photo

The latest announcement comes a week after the administration said it would redirect 200 million US dollars in Palestinian economic support funds for programs in the West Bank and Gaza.

The UNRWA did not immediately comment on the US decision.

The 68-year-old agency says it provides services to about five million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza. Most are descendants of people who were driven out of their homes or fled the fighting in the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation.

US President Donald Trump and his aides say they want to improve the Palestinians' plight, as well as start negotiations on an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

But under Trump, Washington has taken a number of actions that have alienated the Palestinians, including the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. That move was a reversal of longtime US policy and led the Palestinian leadership to boycott the Washington peace efforts being led by Jared Kushner, Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law.

The first day of the first semester: Palestinian students at a school operated by the UNRWA in Gaza City, August 29, 2018. /VCG Photo

The United States paid out 60 million US dollars to UNRWA in January, withholding another 65 US million dollars, from a promised 365 million US dollars for the year.

"Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution," Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters.

He said "neither the United States nor anybody else will be able to dissolve" the UNRWA.

"The American decision aims to wipe out the right of return and is a grave US escalation against the Palestinian people," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

He told Reuters the "US leadership has become an enemy of our people and of our nation and we will not surrender before such unjust decisions."

Earlier on Friday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Germany would increase its contributions to UNRWA because the funding crisis was fueling uncertainty.

"The loss of this organization could unleash an uncontrollable chain reaction," Maas said.

Source(s): Reuters