WASHINGTON — The State Department announced Jan. 16 the U.S. will withhold $65 million from a $125 million package for humanitarian aid for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
The agency, founded in 1949, provides humanitarian services in the fields of education, health care and social and relief services to more than 5 million Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in January that the White House wanted to defund UNRWA outright.
That came after the Palestinian Authority said President Donald Trump’s plan to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem disqualifies America as an unbiased mediator for Mideast peace.
Trump reacted on Twitter, noting Jan. 2 “we pay the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars a year and get no appreciation or respect.”
“With the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them,” the tweet continued.
State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert declined to say if the Jan. 16 announcement was connected to the president’s tweet but said the aid reduction “is not aimed at punishing anyone.” (BNG)
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