VISITORS to UNRWA’s website will have seen the home page having been turned into a call for donations after the US froze tens of millions of dollars in funding. The cutoff of funds put the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in its worst funding crisis in its 68-year history, prompting global powers to meet in Rome where the UN on Thursday received pledges of nearly $100 million in new funding but is still facing a nearly $350 million shortfall this year. The new money will keep schools and medical services open a few months more than what UNRWA initially predicted, however, a looming all-around humanitarian crisis could still be on the horizon.
The US has long been the largest donor to UNRWA, providing funds for a major portion of its budget. But US President Donald Trump's administration has so far committed only $60 million to the agency this year. The assumption is that the US will not provide any more money to UNRWA for the rest of the year after Trump said the US would only deliver American aid money for the benefit of Palestinians if the Palestinian leadership returns to the peace negotiations table with Israel. Palestinians have all but abandoned hope in America’s willingness and ability to help them obtain their own state following Trump’s unilateral decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Which puts the Palestinians in a no-win situation. Either they take the money and accept a peace deal which will probably fall far short of what is rightfully theirs or forget about a Palestinian state as well as the money.
In the Italian capital, donors have stepped up, but donors committing money is one thing. As is so often the case, actually ceding the money could be quite another story. And a ton of money is needed for Palestinians and their descendants, in total around 5.3 million.
The US withdrawal of funding to UNRWA could not only cause a humanitarian disaster but could trigger a severe backlash from the Palestinians. It was ironically Israel’s Foreign Ministry itself that — in the middle of joyous scenes when the US threatened to reduce funding for UNRWA — privately urged President Trump’s administration to back down from its aid cutoff threat for fear of an ensuing humanitarian disaster in Gaza, perhaps a deterioration of the security cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and the potential for radicalization.
UNRWA is a UN agency, not a Palestinian organization. As such, its funding is an international commitment and as many countries as possible should thus participate. UNRWA is an important humanitarian agency whose sustainability is crucial. The idea of a sustainable funding mechanism is necessary. Any agency that depends on a single donor is vulnerable. Sharing the responsibility in equal measure is much more reasonable. It is very risky for UNRWA to put all its eggs in one basket called the United States. Millions of destitute Palestinian refugees and their descendants in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the West Bank and Gaza depend on what UNRWA provides in terms of services. This includes education for around half a million students, with nearly 30 percent of its funding coming from the US.
Washington’s money has now been reduced to a trickle and not a drop more is forthcoming. This is especially dire since the US cannot be expected to be more generous than under the just-ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Tillerson supported a sustainably funded UNRWA which departs from the position of the Trump administration which instead wants to be the Palestinians’ sole provider for purposes of more control and leverage.
So the much wiser long-term UNRWA strategy would be not to depend exclusively on one nest egg.
The message from Rome to the Palestinian refugees is that they have not been forgotten. But for how long will they be remembered?
