Washington:
U.S. officials are preparing to pause funding for the main U.N. agency for Palestinians so it can become permanent amid opposition in Congress, even as the Biden administration insists the aid group's humanitarian work is indispensable.
The United States, along with more than a dozen countries, suspended funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in January after Israel accused 12 of the organization's 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the Palestinian refugee crisis. deadly attack by Hamas on October 7.
The UN launched an investigation into the allegations, and UNRWA dismissed a number of staff after Israel provided the organization with information about the allegations.
The United States — UNRWA's largest donor, providing $300 million to $400 million annually — said it wants to see the results of that investigation and corrective actions taken before considering resuming funding.
Even if the pause is lifted, only about $300,000 – what remains of the funds already allocated – would be released to UNRWA. Anything beyond that would require congressional approval.
Bipartisan opposition in Congress to UNRWA funding makes it unlikely that the United States will resume regular donations anytime soon, even though countries including Sweden and Canada have said they will resume contributions.
A supplemental funding bill in the US Congress that includes military aid to Israel and Ukraine and is backed by the Biden administration includes a provision that would block UNRWA from receiving funds if it becomes law.
U.S. officials say they recognize “the critical role” UNRWA plays in distributing aid in the densely populated enclave that has been brought close to famine by Israel's attack over the past five months.
“We should keep in mind that Congress could make this pause permanent,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Tuesday.
Washington has looked to work with humanitarian partners on the ground, such as UNICEF and the World Food Program (WFP), to continue delivering aid.
But officials are aware that UNRWA will be difficult to replace.
“There are other organizations that are now doing some distribution of aid within Gaza, but that is primarily the role that UNRWA can play that no one else can play because of their longstanding work and their distribution networks and their history in Gaza. said Molenaar.
“UNRWA is a front”
Some Senate Democrats, including Senator Chris Van Hollen, and some progressive members of the House of Representatives, have opposed an indefinite ban on UNRWA funding.
But any new funding would need support from at least some Republicans, who hold a majority in the House of Representatives. Many have expressed their opposition to UNRWA.
“UNRWA is a front, plain and simple,” Republican lawmaker Brian Mast, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability, said in a statement.
“It's masquerading as an aid organization while building the infrastructure to support Hamas… It's literally funneling American taxpayer money to terrorism,” Mast said.
UNRWA was established in 1949 by a resolution of the UN General Assembly, after the war that followed Israel's creation, when 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes.
Today it directly employs 30,000 Palestinians, serving the civil and humanitarian needs of 5.9 million descendants of these refugees, in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and in major camps in neighboring Arab countries.
In Gaza, UNRWA runs the enclave's schools, primary health clinics and other social services, and distributes humanitarian aid.
William Deere, director of UNRWA's Washington Representative Office, told Reuters that U.S. aid makes up a third of UNRWA's budget.
“That will be very difficult to overcome,” he said. “Please remember that UNRWA is more than Gaza. This concerns healthcare, education and social services. It's East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon.”
Fighters from Hamas, which controls Gaza, killed 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack and took 253 hostages, according to Israeli figures, an attack that led to one of the bloodiest wars in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel's military retaliatory campaign against the densely populated enclave has killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza authorities, while infrastructure has been wiped out and hundreds of thousands are now close to famine.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)