On Tuesday, Jan. 16, President Trump announced plans to withhold 65 million U.S. dollars of a $125 million aid package for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA) – an agency which provides aid to Palestinian refugees.
UNRWA operates across five three countries and two Palestinian territories. It supplies food, access to education, healthcare, social services, and employment to about 5.8 million Palestinians who have registered and qualify for aid, according to Political Science Professor Vaughn Shannon.
U.S. contributions make up about 30 percent of UNRWA’s budget. In 2016, the U.S. provided $355 million in aid to UNRWA and was set to contribute about as much, according to The Independent.
In a tweet from January 2, Trump claimed that the U.S. receives “no appreciation or respect” for its contributions and also criticized Palestinians for not negotiating a peace treaty with Israel. “But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” He said in the tweet.
To compensate for the U.S. cut, the Belgian government pledged to contribute €19 million to UNRWA. The Middle East Forum think tank also offered $1 million to the agency.
This cut comes in response to the December 2017 United Nations General Assembly vote, in which 128 countries voted to reject Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, according to Shannon.
“This move [of cutting foreign aid] is in line with the Trump view of America first and using diplomatic tools and leverage to try to influence foreign governments. In this case, to punish countries for voting against U.S. interests,” he said.
Senior Palestinian Official Hanan Ashrawi responded to Trump, claiming that he is “targeting the most vulnerable segment of the Palestinian people” and that the U.S. is “creating conditions that will generate further instability throughout the region.”
Israeli officials have also warned that the U.S. cuts may cause more people to turn to Hamas, a Palestinian militant group.
Trump’s stances on Jerusalem and UNRWA clearly will play in the Middle East as being strictly in favor of Israel, which may result in anti-American sentiment and violence as well as hurt our standing in the region, according to Shannon. “This may further destabilize an already unstable region,” he said.
