Washington The Trump administration will cancel all US funding of the United Nations aid program for Palestinian refugees.
The move is part of the administration’s determination to put its money where its policy is as it seeks a recalculation of US foreign aid spending and prepares its own Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
In an announcement to be made within the next several weeks, the administration plans to voice its disapproval of the way the UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, spends the funds and to call for a sharp reduction in the number of Palestinians recognised as refugees.
This would drop the number from more than 5 million, including descendants, to fewer than a tenth of that number or less, comprised of those still alive from when the agency was created seven decades ago, according to officials familiar with the decision.
Any such reduction would effectively eliminate, for most Palestinians, the “right of return” to land contested with Israel. More immediately, many regional foreign policy and security experts, including in Israel, say that slashing UNRWA’s budget, amid a call to “de-register” refugees, would worsen an already disastrous humanitarian situation, especially in Gaza, and sharply increase the level of violence.
In addition to contributions to UNRWA, the United States has provided direct, bilateral assistance to the West Bank and Gaza. Last week, the State Department announced that more than $200 million in already-appropriated aid for this year would be “redirected” elsewhere. The cuts in funding, along with shifts in policy, including recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, are part of a major reshaping of Middle East policy under President Donald Trump.
Read the article by Karen DeYoung and Ruth Eglash in The Sydney Morning Herald (from The Washington Post).