US cuts aid payments to UN organ serving Palestinians

The United States on Tuesday said it would withhold about half the initial aid it planned to give a UN agency that serves the Palestinians, two weeks after President Donald Trump questioned the value of such funding.

In announcing that it would provide $60 million to the UN Relief and Welfare Agency (UNRWA) while withholding a further $65 million for now, the US State Department said the aid group needed to make unspecified reforms.

Saying the decision would sustain schools and health services, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the State Department wrote a letter notifying UNRWA of the decision.

She said that while UNRWA reforms were a condition of releasing more money, the aid decision was "not aimed at punishing" anyone.

TRT World's Ediz Tiyansan has more details.

Decision hits peace efforts

The decision to keep back some money is likely to compound the difficulty of reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and to further undermine Arabs' faith that the United States can act as an impartial arbitrator.

The last talks collapsed in 2014, partly because of Israel’s opposition to an attempted unity pact between the Fatah and Hamas Palestinian factions and to Israeli settlement building on occupied land that Palestinians seek for a state, among other factors.

Even if Washington provided the additional $65 million, the $125 million total would be well below the $355 million that a US official said it gave UNRWA in the 2017 fiscal year that ended on September 30.

PLO and UN criticise US

Palestine Liberation Organization official Wasel Abu Youssef immediately criticised the move, casting it as a deliberate US effort to deny the Palestinians their rights and linking it to Trump's widely criticised December 6 decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was unaware of any cut in aid but he was "very concerned" about the possibility because it "is an important factor of stability."

UNRWA provides vital services to 5.2 million refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories. 

UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl said in a statement that the reduced US contribution "threatens one of the most successful and innovative human development endeavors in the Middle East."

Israel welcomes move

Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, praised the move, arguing that UNRWA misuses humanitarian aid to support propaganda against the Jewish state and perpetuate the Palestinians' plight.

"It is time for this absurdity to end and for humanitarian funds to be directed towards their intended purpose: the welfare of refugees," Danon said in a statement.

Trump's controversial post

In a Twitter post on January 2, Trump said that Washington gives the Palestinians hundreds of millions a year "and get no appreciation or respect." 

Trump added that "with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?"

While US officials did not link the decision to Trump's tweet, they made a point often advanced by him, saying the United States had been UNRWA’s single largest donor for decades.

Trump's aides initially debated whether to cut off all UNRWA aid, an unidentified US official said, but those opposed argued that it could further destabilise the region.  

'We do not look for aid'

But for the Palestinian refugees, who will be most affected by this decision, the ultimate hope is for a lasting solution to their plight and return to their lands Israel occupies.

"My biggest dream is to return to my land which I was forced to leave, it is called Deir Eban‚ This is our goal as a Palestinian people. We do not look for aid because we look for freedom, we look for justice – not more, not less," said Naji Ouwda,  a Palestinian refugee.