Hundreds in Gaza Protest US Decision to Scale Down Aid to UNRWA

Rasa - Hundreds of Palestinian refugees gathered on Wednesday in Jabalya refugee camp, to the Northeast of Gaza, to protest the United States recent decision to scale down its financial contribution and food aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which will affect the livelihoods of thousands of refugee families in the besieged Gaza Strip.

News ID: 436014

Date: 26 January 2018 - 20:33

RNA - The protesters waved banners that condemned Washington move against UNRWA as well as the decision of US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the United States embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, WAFA reported.

The gathering, which was called for by the national and Islamic forces, also denounced the biased US position toward Israel, calling on the international community not to give in to the Israeli and US dictates.

Washington announced mid-January that it would withhold about half the initial aid it planned to give a UN agency that serves the Palestinians, after US President questioned the value of such funding.

The US State Department said the United States would provide $60 million to the UN Relief and Welfare Agency (UNRWA) while withholding a further $65 million for now, adding that the aid group needed to make unspecified reforms.

The US also withheld another payment to the UN's relief agency for Palestinian refugees, as $45 million dollars pledged for food aid is now frozen.

Trump had said the US is getting “no appreciation or respect” from the Palestinians though it sends “hundreds of millions of dollars” a year, stressing that “They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel".

“We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table,” he added, saying “But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then stressed that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) needs to pass away from the world, amid reports that Israel really doesn't want the US to stop funding the organization.

The tweets come after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Trump’s move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, stressing that the US can no longer be considered an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

The US President announced early December 2017 that Washington would be recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s capital, stressing that the United States would relocate the embassy in the occupied lands from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds.

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