US former envoy to UN slams US resumption of UNRWA funding
Washington (QNN)- Former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley slammed the Biden administration’s decision to resume funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on Thursday, calling it a waste of tax dollars and an obstacle to peace.
The US announced on Wednesday that it would renew $150 million in funding for UNRWA, along with other aid to the occupied West Bank and Gaza, reversing a 2018 decision by the former Trump administration.
The United States announced on Wednesday that it would restart the economic, development, and humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people.
This includes $75 million in economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza, $10 million for peace building programs through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and $150 million in humanitarian assistance for UNRWA.
“The United States is resuming support for UNRWA’s services, including education for over 500,000 Palestinian boys and girls, thereby providing hope and stability in UNRWA’s five fields of operation in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
“Funding to UNRWA also provides critical COVID-19 assistance, including healthcare, medicine, and medical supplies, as well as cash and food assistance to families severely impacted by COVID-19.”
Ambassador Haley strongly criticized the decision, telling The Algemeiner, “The Palestinian aid agency UNRWA is among the most corrupt and counterproductive of all UN agencies. President Trump was right to abandon it.”
“President Biden is wasting millions of American tax dollars and undermining the great progress being made on Middle East peace,” she asserted.
The Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, is among the most corrupt and counterproductive of all UN agencies. President Trump was right to abandon it.
President Biden is wasting millions of American tax dollars and undermining the great progress being made on Middle East peace.
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) April 8, 2021
A group of Republican senators also objected to the White House’s decision.
Bloomberg reported that the lawmakers, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, sent a letter to President Joe Biden saying, “We call on you to halt these expenditures until the State Department accounts for statutory restrictions and remedies known deficiencies in the distribution of such assistance, which have for years promoted and facilitated terrorism against Americans and Israelis.”
“The Biden‐Harris administration should focus on the necessary programs Congress has consistently envisioned, and for which it has appropriated resources and carved out exceptions from restrictions on assistance, including those related to critical medical and wastewater sanitation programs that the Palestinian people immediately need,” the letter asserted.
Israel’s envoy to the UN Gilad Erdan also criticized the administration’s move on Wednesday, saying that “Israel is strongly opposed to the anti-Israel and antisemitic activity happening in UNRWA’s facilities.”
“We believe that this UN agency for so-called ‘refugees’ should not exist in its current format,” he said in a statement.
“UNRWA schools regularly use materials that incite against Israel and the twisted definition used by the agency to determine who is a ‘refugee’ only perpetuates the conflict.”
In 2018, the Trump administration had cut financial aid to the UN body, which supports more than 5 million Palestinian refugees, and also slashed an aid of more than $200 million to Palestine in the same year.
