The leaders of 21 international aid organizations sent a letter on Wednesday to top members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration strongly protesting a decision to slash $65 million in aid from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
“As leaders of organizations deeply involved in programs and advocacy surrounding international humanitarian response we write to object in the strongest of terms to the decision to withhold $65 million of the planned United States contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)” said the letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson Secretary of Defense James Mattis U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster.
“We are deeply concerned about the humanitarian consequences of this decision on life-sustaining assistance to children women and men in Jordan Lebanon Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip” it said. “Whether it is emergency food aid access to primary healthcare access to primary education or other critical support to vulnerable populations there is no question that these cuts if maintained will have dire consequences.”
“We are particularly alarmed that this decision impacting humanitarian aid to civilians is not based on any assessment of need but rather designed both to punish Palestinian political leaders and to force political concessions from them. This is simply unacceptable as a rationale for denying civilians humanitarian assistance and a dangerous and striking departure from U.S. policy on international humanitarian assistance” said the letter.
The letter concluded by urging the Trump administration to “reconsider this unfortunate decision which we believe undermines critically important values as well as U.S. leadership around the world.”
The letter was signed by leaders of American Friends Service Committee Oxfam America Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Church World Service Catholic Relief Services Jesuit Refugee Service/USA Norwegian Refugee Council USA Save the Children Women’s Refugee Commission International Rescue Committee Zakat Foundation of America U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants HIAS CARE USA Amnesty International USA Refugees International American Relief Agency for the Horn of Africa Global Communities Mercy Corps InterAction and Islamic Relief U.S.
