The US decision to cut financial aid to the UNRWA would put at risk the jobs of nearly 20000 teachers working in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan Lebanon Syria West Bank and Gaza Strip Haaretz newspaper said on Sunday.
The US aid payments to the UNRWA amount to $300 million a year about one-third of the Agency’s total budget.
Quoting diplomats familiar with the US discussions on the funding cut decision the Hebrew newspaper reported that this step is mainly adopted by the UN ambassador Nikki Haley in keeping with the policy of penalties declared after the UN vote against the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Other US administration officials believe that reducing financial support for the UN Agency would not necessarily affect senior Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah and force them to return to the negotiating table.
A senior Israeli official has told Haaretz that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports a gradual cut of financial aid. Israeli security officials fear that the collapse of humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip might involve many risks.
Netanyahu’s office last week said that the Prime Minister supports the US president Donald Trump’s approach and believes that practical steps should be taken to change the situation in which the UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian refugees problem rather than resolving it.
Trump said on Twitter last week that the US gives the Palestinians “hundreds of millions of dollars” but gets “no respect” and wondered why the UN continues to support the Palestinian Authority which is no longer interested in peace talks with Israel.
Another possibility on the table is a cutback in other US payments for humanitarian and economic projects in the West Bank via the US Agency for International Development (USAID). According to a congressional report in 2017 approximately $330 million was invested in USAID projects.
