The funding goes to a UN agency specially designated for the descendants of Palestinian refugees.
BY Michael Wilner, JPOST JANUARY 16, 2018
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration informed the UN Relief and Works Agency on Tuesday that it was cutting tens of millions of dollars in aid to the organization, amid an escalating diplomatic crisis between Washington and Ramallah, a US official told The Jerusalem Post.
Trump heeded the advice of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster— in addition to that of the Israeli government— and agreed to deliver $60 million in US assistance to the UN body for now, as opposed to cutting all aid outright. But the remaining pledge— $65 million— has been withheld “for future consideration,” according to a letter sent to the agency.
UNRWA is a unique international body originally set up to assist hundreds of thousands of refugees displaced by the war against Israel’s independence. Now, 70 years later, the organization offers aid the descendants of those refugees, numbering in the millions.
Informing UNRWA of its decision, the Trump administration called for a “fundamental reexamination” of the agency.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed alarm at the consequences of such a move. “I’m very concerned,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
A dramatic slashing of US aid to UNRWA amounts to yet another blow to the Trump administration’s fast-deteriorating relationship with the Palestinian Authority, after the White House within the span of months threatened to shut its offices in Washington for its stance on peace talks with Israel, recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and vowed to move the US embassy there, declared the Western Wall as presumed Israeli territory in any final status negotiations, condemned a PA program that compensates the families of Palestinians convicted of murdering Israelis, left UNESCO, kept quiet on Israeli settlement growth relative to prior administrations and taunted PA leadership with sweeping aid cuts via Twitter.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas effectively threw in the towel over the weekend, offering a scathing speech targeting the US administration generally and President Donald Trump personally by dismissing their peace effort and calling for the demolishing of his home. “Damn your money!” he declared.
Israeli politicians and Jewish American groups decried the speech as a racist diatribe that revealed Abbas’ true colors. The speech also included conspiracy theories and fundamental questioning of the existence and justification for a Jewish state.
But the US “peace team” tasked with negotiating a comprehensive agreement between Israel and the Palestinians stayed quiet, declining to respond. That team was not involved in the UNRWA decision, although its members— Jared Kushner, White House adviser; Jason Greenblatt, special representative for international negotiations; and David Friedman, US ambassador to Israel— understand the consequences any cut of Palestinian aid will have on their effort.
Greenblatt, for one, has strongly advocated for the economic revitalization of Gaza, the coastal strip of Palestinian land that receives the lion’s share of UNRWA aid and relief.
PLO Executive Committee Member Mustafa Barghouti, however, accused Trump of trying “to liquidate the rights of Palestinian refugees.”
“This is not merely a decision to cut money. This is a political decision that is aiming to liquidate the rights of the Palestinian refugees,” Barghouti told The Jerusalem Post in a phone call, adding that, “It will not affect the determination of the Palestinians to keep the issue of refugees alive.
Barghouti also said the international community has “an obligation to find an alternative to the funding” Trump cut to UNRWA.
Despite acknowledging a crisis of trust with the PA, the White House team still plans to proceed with the release of detailed policy proposals addressing the thorniest sticking points in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Senior administration officials tell the Post that their critics will be surprised by its contents, which they expect will appeal to Palestinians and draw them back to the table.
“We still want to continue to have conversations and have a peace process,” one US official said.
The officials declined to offer a timeline for the release of the their plan.
Adam Rasgon contributed to this report.
As if Abbas or anyone who would succeed him would ever agree to any of this.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-tv-abbas-fury-a-response-to-saudis-revealing-trump-peace-plan/
time to face facts, u s of a did not create the problem! let those who did solve. u k as the occupying acted in total violation of the l of n mandate. the arab/muzzies + the u k + the u n hordes who attacked ISRAEL should be paying the piper to look after those whom they made homeless.