WASHINGTON – With the deadline fast approaching for President Donald Trump’s threatened cut in millions of dollars of aid to Palestinians, the United Nations agency providing the assistance warned that it would further fuel a humanitarian crisis in the Middle East.
At risk is aid for food and social services for five million Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Most of that assistance has been channeled through the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA.
Trump first tweeted on Jan. 2 that “We pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect.” State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert subsequently announced a cut of more than half from UNRWA’s 2018 funding. She said the rest of the funds have been “frozen for future consideration.”
“Emergency money in the West Bank ends at the end of March as things currently stand, which means all West Bank emergency appeal work would stop,” said Chris Gunness, the chief spokesperson for UNRWA. “In Gaza, the UNRWA needs to procure food within the next two weeks.
Trump recently threatened to withdraw much of the aid unless Palestinian Authority officials return to the bargaining table to resume peace talks with Israel.
Trump also claimed Palestinian authorities were not respectful of Vice President Mike Pence during his recent visit to the Middle East. The Palestinians “disrespected us” by not “allowing our great vice president to see them, and we give them hundreds of millions of dollars in aid support,” Trump said during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The U.S. became the largest donor of the UNRWA’S budget with almost $370 million of support in 2016. The agency was set up 70 years ago to provide humanitarian aid following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is widely viewed as one of the oldest and successful programs of humanitarian assistance in the UN system.
“They told us that we would get $60 million, when we were expecting $350 million plus,” Gunness said. “We are working robustly to ensure that we do not suspend services to the refugees we serve as the consequences of that could be catastrophic, given our huge humanitarian foot print.”
Beyond possibly fueling another humanitarian crisis, Trump’s threat runs counter to his professed goal of obtaining peace in the region. The threat came after the Trump administration formally recognized Jerusalem as the Israeli capital last month and announced plans to move the U.S. embassy to the holy city long contested by Israel and the Palestinians.
“The message sent by the Trump administration is that they are going to reward those who violate International Law. In doing so, they are clearly promoting international anarchy and disrespect for international institutions, something that would not only have repercussions in Palestine,” said Xavier Abu Eid an advisor in the Palestine Liberation Organization. “The main political consequence of the U.S. policies of dictation is that it has disqualified itself from playing any role as the sole broker between Israelis and Palestinians.”
Some conservative foreign policy experts believe Trump’s statement is a justifiable response to Palestinian unwillingness to achieve stability in the region. They say the president’s hard line on funding would force Palestinian authorities to renew negotiations with Israel.
“The future of U.S. assistance to Palestinians in the hands of [President] Mahmoud] Abbas and Palestinian authority. If they actually come to the negotiating table in an honest way, I think they don’t have to worry about the potential and more U.S. suspension of aid to Palestinians, “said Brett D. Schaefer, Jay Kingham Fellow at Heritage’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom.
Schafer says President Abbas made some heated remarks about the United States and Trump which are not helpful to bring peace.” I think that he would be better served putting his effort and his energy into negotiations with Israel.”
Following the funding crisis, the State Department on Wednesday announced it had added Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to a U.S. terror list – a move likely to further raise tensions between the U.S. and Palestinians.