Palestinians condemn US ending funding for UN refugee agency
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) – A spokesman for the Palestinian president says the American decision to cut funding for the U.N. agency aiding Palestinian refugees is “an attack on the rights of the Palestinian people.”
Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeneh, says Saturday the move does “not serve peace but rather strengthens terrorism in the region.”
The U.S. supplies nearly 30 percent of the total budget of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, and had been demanding it carry out significant reforms. The decision cuts nearly $300 million of planned support.
File – In this Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018 file photo, girls sit inside a classroom at an UNRWA school during the first day of a new school year in Gaza City. A spokesman for the Palestinian president says the American decision to cut funding for the U.N. agency aiding Palestinian refugees is “an attack on the rights of the Palestinian people.” The U.S. supplies nearly 30 percent of the total budget of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, and had been demanding it carry out significant reforms. The decision cuts nearly $300 million of planned support. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana, File)
UNRWA was established after Israel’s 1948 War of Independence to singularly aid some 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes – and later their millions of descendants too. Israel has long argued the agency merely perpetuates the refugee crisis.
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