US cancels funding for UN program for Palestinian refugees
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US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley.
Photo: Polaris
Washington The Trump administration will cancel all US funding of the United Nations aid program for Palestinian refugees.
The move is part of the administration’s determination to put its money where its policy is as it seeks a recalculation of US foreign aid spending and prepares its own Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
In an announcement to be made within the next several weeks, the administration plans to voice its disapproval of the way the UN Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, spends the funds and to call for a sharp reduction in the number of Palestinians recognised as refugees.
This would drop the number from more than 5 million, including descendants, to fewer than a tenth of that number or less, comprised of those still alive from when the agency was created seven decades ago, according to officials familiar with the decision.
Any such reduction would effectively eliminate, for most Palestinians, the “right of return” to land contested with Israel. More immediately, many regional foreign policy and security experts, including in Israel, say that slashing UNRWA’s budget, amid a call to “de-register” refugees, would worsen an already disastrous humanitarian situation, especially in Gaza, and sharply increase the level of violence.
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