The Emerging Unholy Alliance Threatening Palestine’s Future
On Jan. 16, sources within the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) acknowledged to Al Bawaba that it had not received the full amount promised by the U.S. in payments to the UN institution. On the same day, the U.S. Department of State announced it was withholding $65 million in contributions to UNRWA.
The U.S. was slated to provide $125 million, but now UNRWA must cope with a suddenly smaller budget.UNRWA’s website now contains an urgent plea for donations, saying “Dramatic reduction of U.S. funding will have huge impact on the daily lives of millions of vulnerable Palestine refugees: Today more than ever before, Palestine refugees need you to stand with them and show solidarity.”
After Trump’s rash decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, his supposed ‘deal of the century’ being pressed onto the PLO, and now his partial defunding of UNRWA, it is clear that the Palestinian people are being treated as diplomatic tools in a geopolitical game that is rigged against Palestinians.