News
PM Netanyahu opposes UNRWA cuts
Israel’s Channel 2 News reported yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is privately urging the US not to cut funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The US said earlier this week it would consider cutting funding to UNRWA if the Palestinians refused to “come to the negotiation table”.
The report claims that: “behind the scenes, the Prime Minister is now in contact with the Americans in order to prevent the massive cut,” noting that Netanyahu “wants to steer between the desire to publicly back [US President Donald] Trump and to prevent a disaster in Gaza”.
It adds that “professional sources in the Israeli Foreign Ministry are ‘determinedly opposed’ to ending aid to UNRWA,” and that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) “also think it will hurt, not help”.
In July, Prime Minister Netanyahu told Likud Ministers: “I told US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley that it was time to dismantle UNRWA.”
Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett supported the US announcement and yesterday said the UN body is a “terror-supporting organisation” that “perpetuates the dire situation of Gaza’s population, who suffer under the rule of Hamas. Aiding the residents of Gaza should be no different than aiding the Syrian residents suffering under a terror regime, or from aiding any other group of descendants of refugees.”
Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan also refuted the report’s findings, saying that he finds it hard to believe the Foreign Ministry “opposes cuts to UNRWA, a body which perpetuates the problem of the refugees”.
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley announced the idea to cut UNRWA funding during a press conference on Tuesday. When asked whether the US would continue supporting UNRWA, Haley said that US President Trump “doesn’t want to give any additional funding until the Palestinians agree to come back to the negotiation table”.
In 2016, the US donated $368m to UNRWA, which totalled 29 per cent of pledges in 2016 (the 2nd largest donor was the EU with $160m, with the UK donating $73m in 2016).