The Trump administration has not yet transferred a planned $125 million payment to the United Nations (U.N.) agency charged with assisting Palestinian refugees amid frustrations over a lack of progress on a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Axios reported Friday that the Trump administration had frozen the funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and was conducting a broader review of U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority. That money, according to Axios, was supposed to be transferred on Jan. 1.

A State Department official denied that the department had missed a deadline, telling The Hill that funding decisions were still underway.

"Contrary to reports that we have halted funding to UNRWA, the decision is under review. There are still deliberations taking place, and we have missed no deadline," the official said.

A State Department official had told Axios that the funds were not necessarily frozen, and that the administration has until Jan. 15 to decide its next steps.

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There is no formal deadline for transferring the funds, though donors usually do so early in the year.

Chris Gunness, a spokesman for UNRWA, said in a statement that no decision had yet been made on the funding.

“Based on extensive conversations with interlocutors in the U.S. Administration, our understanding is that no decision has been made on the question of American funding to UNRWA,” he said.

The $125 million in question amounts to about a third of Washington's annual donations to the agency.

According to Axios, Trump is considering cutting that portion of the funding altogether, and is weighing slashing as much as $180 million in U.S. funding to UNRWA.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley Nimrata (Nikki) HaleySouth Carolina GOP appears to violate own rules in canceling primary for Trump Politico's Johnson to become Free Beacon's new editor-in-chief GOP voters overwhelmingly want Pence on 2020 ticket with Trump MORE suggested this week that the U.S. could cut funding for the Palestinians unless they agreed to return to the negotiating table with Israel.

Trump took to Twitter to make similar threats, blaming the Palestinians for the stalled peace process.

The State Department told UNRWA officials this week that no hold had been placed on the money, but that the Trump administration was conducting a review of funding to the Palestinians, according to a U.N. official who spoke on background to discuss internal deliberations on the matter.

That official also said, however, that Haley told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this week that the funding to UNRWA was, in fact, on hold.

The UNRWA is separate from the Palestinian Authority, and does not play a role in the decision on whether to enter peace talks with Israel.

The Palestinian Authority suspended contacts with the Trump administration last month after the president announced that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Palestinian officials and other leaders in the Arab and Muslim worlds have said that the move essentially disqualified the U.S. from brokering peace talks in the region.

Israelis consider Jerusalem their eternal capital, but Palestinians have also long aspired to establish the city's eastern sector as the capital of a future Palestinian state, making the city a sensitive subject in potential peace talks.

– This story was updated Jan. 6 at 3 p.m. with additional information</s>FILE PHOTO: A general view of Jerusalem shows the Dome of the Rock, located in Jerusalem's Old City on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount December 6, 2017. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has frozen $125 million in funding for a U.N. agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees, Axios news site reported on Friday, but a State Department official said no decision had been made on the payment.

Days after President Donald Trump threatened to withhold future aid payments to Palestinians, Axios said the funding was frozen until the U.S. government finishes its review of aid to the Palestinian Authority.

The sum, a third of the annual U.S. donation to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, was supposed to be delivered by Jan. 1, Axios said, citing three unidentified Western diplomats.

The State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “That (Axios) story is very misleading. Just because they were expecting the money on the first, and they did not get it at that time, does not mean it was suspended or canceled. Deliberations are ongoing, and we have until mid-January to make a final decision.”

Asked if any preliminary decision had been made, the official replied: “No. And reports to that effect are false.”

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the agency had not been “informed directly of a formal decision either way by the U.S. administration.”

Trump said on Tuesday he would withhold money from the Palestinians, accusing them of being “no longer willing to talk peace” with Israel.

“We pay HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel ... with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” Trump said on Twitter.

The United States is the largest donor to the agency, with a pledge of nearly $370 million as of 2016, according to UNRWA’s website.</s>A report that Washington has frozen a $125 million payment to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency is being denied by a US official, according to Reuters. UNRWA provides aid to Palestinian refugees.The $125 million, a third of what the US contributes annually, was supposed to be paid Monday.On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump tweeted he was considering halting payments to the PA. The sentiments were echoed by the US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley."But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?" Trump wrote.The frozen amount represents more than a third of the $300 million the US contributes to UNRWA annually. Haley threatened to withhold the funds last week, after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Trump's move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.Just because the funds were not transferred does not mean they were frozen, Ravid quotes a State Department official as saying.On January 3, Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum called the threats to defund UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority "cheap political blackmail" that "reflects American barbaric behavior."Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat Trump is "threatening to starve Palestinian children in refugee camps and deny their natural rights to health and education if we don't endorse his terms and dictations."On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly supported Trump's "critical attitude towards UNRWA," according to statement from his office.Privately, however, Netanyahu urged Trump not to enact the cuts, according to the Times of Israel . That assessment is shared by the Israeli security establishment and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) - the Israeli body that administers the West Bank and Gaza - according to Ravid's report. A senior Israeli official told him that the "humanitarian situation in Gaza is complicated enough and harming UNRWA funding will only make it more complicated."UNRWA was set up in 1949, following the establishment of the state of Israel. The agency provides education, social services and healthcare to more than</s>Washington has frozen a $125 million payment to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that was scheduled for January 1, according to a report citing unnamed diplomats. UNRWA provides aid to Palestinian refugees.

Citing “three Western diplomats,” Israeli Channel Ten diplomatic correspondent Barak Ravid reported the freeze on Friday at Axios. The diplomats reportedly said that the funding is being frozen until the Trump administration finishes a review of US aid to the Palestinian Authority.

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump tweeted he was considering halting payments to the PA. The sentiments were echoed by the US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley.

“But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” Trump wrote.

The frozen amount represents more than a third of the $300 million the US contributes to UNRWA annually. Haley threatened to withhold the funds last week, after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Trump’s move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Just because the funds were not transferred does not mean they were frozen, Ravid quotes a State Department official as saying. “There are still deliberations taking place, and we have until mid January to decide what we are going to do.”

Shuttering the UNRWA, which is already facing budget shortages, would leave millions of Palestinian refugees inside Israeli-controlled borders without their basic needs met. Destabilization could spark a popular uprising and potential armed conflict with Hamas, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip.

On January 3, Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum called the threats to defund UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority “cheap political blackmail” that “reflects American barbaric behavior.”

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat Trump is “threatening to starve Palestinian children in refugee camps and deny their natural rights to health and education if we don’t endorse his terms and dictations.”

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly supported Trump’s “critical attitude towards UNRWA,” according to statement from his office.

Privately, however, Netanyahu urged Trump not to enact the cuts, according to the Times of Israel. That assessment is shared by the Israeli security establishment and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) – the Israeli body that administers the West Bank and Gaza – according to Ravid’s report. A senior Israeli official told him that the “humanitarian situation in Gaza is complicated enough and harming UNRWA funding will only make it more complicated.”

UNRWA was set up in 1949, following the establishment of the state of Israel. The agency provides education, social services and healthcare to more than 5 million Palestinian refugees.</s>Days after President Donald Trump threatened to withhold future aid payments to Palestinians, Axios said the funding was frozen until the U.S. government finishes its review of aid to the Palestinian Authority.

The sum, a third of the annual U.S. donation to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, was supposed to be delivered by Jan. 1, Axios said, citing three unidentified Western diplomats.

The State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “That (Axios) story is very misleading. Just because they were expecting the money on the first, and they did not get it at that time, does not mean it was suspended or canceled. Deliberations are ongoing, and we have until mid-January to make a final decision.”

Asked if any preliminary decision had been made, the official replied: “No. And reports to that effect are false.”

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the agency had not been “informed directly of a formal decision either way by the U.S. administration.”

The United States is the largest donor to the agency, with a pledge of nearly $370 million as of 2016, according to UNRWA’s website.</s>The Trump administration is reportedly freezing $125 million in funding to the United Nations (U.N.) agency charged with assisting Palestinian refugees amid frustrations over a lack of progress on a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Axios reported Friday that the Trump administration did not transfer the funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on Jan. 1 as planned, and was conducting a broader review of U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority.

A State Department official denied that the department had missed a deadline, telling The Hill that funding decisions were still underway.

"Contrary to reports that we have halted funding to UNRWA, the decision is under review. There are still deliberations taking place, and we have missed no deadline," the official said.

A State Department official had told Axios that the funds were not necessarily frozen, and that the administration has until Jan. 15 to decide its next steps.

The $125 million in question amounts to about a third of Washington's annual donations to the agency.

According to Axios, Trump is considering cutting that portion of the funding altogether, and is weighing slashing as much as $180 million in U.S. funding to UNRWA.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley Nimrata (Nikki) HaleyHaley: 'Open question' if US athletes will attend Olympics amid North Korea tensions Haley: Trump isn't deciding who controls east Jerusalem Emergency UN Security Council meeting called after Trump's Jerusalem announcement: report MORE suggested this week that the U.S. could cut funding for the Palestinians unless they agreed to return to the negotiating table with Israel.

Trump took to Twitter to make similar threats, blaming the Palestinians for the stalled peace process.

The Palestinian Authority suspended contacts with the Trump administration last month after the president announced that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Palestinian officials and other leaders in the Arab and Muslim worlds have said that the move essentially disqualified the U.S. from brokering peace talks in the region.

Israelis consider Jerusalem their eternal capital, but Palestinians have also long aspired to establish the city's eastern sector as the capital of a future Palestinian state, making the city a sensitive subject in potential peace talks.</s>US freezes US$125m funds for Palestinian refugees, report says

Trump said on Tuesday he would withhold money from the Palestinians, accusing them of being ‘no longer willing to talk peace’ with Israel. ― Reuters picWASHINGTON, Jan 6 ― The United States has frozen US$125 million (RM499.6 million) in funding for a UN agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees, Axios news site reported yesterday, days after President Donald Trump threatened to withhold future aid payments to Palestinians.

But a State Department official said no decision had been made on the funding.

The funding, a third of the annual US donation to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, was supposed to be delivered by January 1 but was frozen until the US government finishes its review of aid to the Palestinian Authority, Axios reported, citing three unidentified Western diplomats.

The State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “That (Axios) story is very misleading. Just because they were expecting the money on the first, and they did not get it at that time, does not mean it was suspended or canceled. Deliberations are ongoing, and we have until mid-January to make a final decision.”

Asked if any preliminary decision had been made, the official replied: “No. And reports to that effect are false.”

Trump said on Tuesday he would withhold money from the Palestinians, accusing them of being “no longer willing to talk peace” with Israel.

“We pay HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel ... with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” Trump said on Twitter.

The United States is the largest donor to the agency, with a pledge of nearly US$370 million as of 2016, according to UNRWA’s website. ― Reuters</s>WASHINGTON: The United States has frozen US$125 million (£92.1 million) in funding for a U.N. agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees, Axios news site reported on Friday, days after President Donald Trump threatened to withhold future aid payments to Palestinians.

The funding, a third of the annual U.S. donation to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, was supposed to be delivered by Jan. 1 but was frozen until the U.S. government finishes its review of aid to the Palestinian Authority, Axios reported, citing three unidentified Western diplomats.

Trump said on Tuesday he would withhold money from the Palestinians, accusing them of being “no longer willing to talk peace” with Israel.

"We pay HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel ... with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” Trump said on Twitter.

The United States is the largest donor to the agency, with a pledge of nearly US$370 million as of 2016, according to UNRWA’s website.</s>On Tuesday, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, delivered a rather ambiguous threat in response to a question on the maintenance of the US level of funding to UNRWA. She replied; "the president has said that he doesn't want to give any additional funding or stop funding until the Palestinians are agreeing (sic) to come back to the negotiating table".

President Trump himself tweeted the following threat; "But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?"

Ambiguous threats and foreign policy statements are not a new phenomenon for the Trump administration, and whilst UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness maintains they have not been informed of any change in US policy, the consequences of potential funding withdrawal from the agency must also be considered in all seriousness.

UNRWA was established in 1950 in order to provide relief services for the 700,000 Palestinian refugees who had been expelled from Palestine following the establishment of Israel. It operates in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria and provides Palestinians with primary and secondary education, health services as well as various camp infrastructure projects.

Although millions of Palestinians rely on their services, UNRWA is also sometimes criticized for perpetuating the conflict and footing the bill that Israel should be paying.

The US is UNRWA's biggest donor with last year's donation totaling $368 m , nearly 30 percent of its total funding. In the past, when UNRWA has had a funding shortfall they have suspended programmes or certain aspects of programmes.

In 2015 they came close to delaying the start of the school year for nearly half a million Palestinian children. Luckily, they managed to overcome the $100m deficit after an urgent appeal by former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.

However, a total US funding cut would mean a serious reduction in services and the complete halt of many of the education and health programmes.

"Schools and health clinics would close leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees across the region without schooling, health care, jobs, making their situation even more dire."

In other words, schools and health clinics would close leaving hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees across the region without schooling, health care, jobs, making their situation even more dire.

Indeed, if it is left to function at two thirds of its capacity, the viability of the agency as a whole would be called into question.

On the other hand, if the Palestinian Authority is forced to return to US mediated negotiations in exchange for the continuation of funding, UNRWA's basic services would be left tainted with the political demands of an administration that is determined to defy international consensus.

Particularly in light of the recent of Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, defying international law.

This too, however, is not new, with aid and development in Palestine long being held captive to politics. In a recent piece for MEE, Alaa Tartir explained: "Aid flows over the decades resulted in entrenchment of aid dependency…which stripped the Palestinian people of power to resist colonialism, apartheid and oppression".

The political strings attached to aid, and Palestinian dependency to it, are among the main reasons that have kept Palestinians from developing a sustainable resistance to the Israeli settler colonial regime. Indeed, UNRWA, and other international agencies, are paying the bill for Israel's military occupation and thus are huge factors in maintaining the status quo.

Should UNRWA cease its operations, the gap will have to be filled by someone else. This is an important detail which seems to have escaped President Trump.

It's not yet clear whether the Trump administration's threats are directed towards UNRWA or the PA and it is very likely that the administration itself is also unsure of the recipient of these threats.

What is clear, however, is that if the threats were directed at the former, the Palestinian refugees will once again be the ones who suffer for the political decisions of a leadership that refuses to fight for their fundamental right to return home.

If it was directed at the latter, the PA is left with very few cards to play especially with its legitimacy among the Palestinian people dwindling.</s>Jerusalem would like to see US aid gradually reduced to the UN Relief and Works Agency, to wean the Palestinians of this assistance and serve as an incentive to reform the organization, rather than end the assistance all at once, The Jerusalem Post has learned.



This message has been relayed to the US administration, which is debating whether to cut funding to the organization in some form unless the Palestinians return to the negotiation table with Israel.





One idea Israel is proposing is that the money the US annually provides to UNRWA – which deals exclusively with Palestinian refugees and their descendants and in Jerusalem’s viewpoint perpetuates the refugee issue – is given instead to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is charged with providing protection and relief to refugees worldwide, Channel 2 reported on Saturday night.The Trump administration is in the throes of an internal debate over whether to reduce funding to the Palestinian Authority after the president threatened it with an aid cut last week.Discussions began on Friday among the administration’s national security principals and will continue throughout this week. The current debate focuses on whether to cut funding to UNRWA.Several US sources told the Post that Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, is the primary advocate for a cut in aid to UNRWA. But agency heads based in Washington support maintaining the aid, as do some inside the Israeli government, who fear a humanitarian and security crisis should the funding be slashed.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position is that UNRWA should be gradually defunded, in the hope that this will trigger change inside the organization. The way UNRWA is currently set up, Netanyahu maintains, perpetuates the refugee problem, rather than providing a permanent solution to those benefiting from its aid.Israel’s criticism of the organization is that it treats Palestinian refugees differently from refugees from every other conflict in the world, and that it “incentivizes” victimhood.Since the Palestinians are habituated to this aid, the argument runs, there is no incentive to significantly alter the situation by providing permanent homes outside of camps for the refugees and their descendants, and that keeping them dependent on the assistance only perpetuates the refugee problem into eternity.Channel 2 reported last week that an internal Foreign Ministry report, however, argued that cutting funds to UNRWA “may worsen the humanitarian situation and lead to catastrophe, especially in Gaza,” adding that “it will not help, but on the contrary, it will [put the burden on] Israel.” Senior security officials have reported similar sentiments.The United States is UNRWA’s largest donor. In 2016, it contributed $152 million directly to the organization and another $216m. to projects related to its work – totaling about a quarter of the agency’s budget – according to UNRWA’s donor charts.Erroneous reports circulated in Israeli media on Friday suggesting a decision in Washington had been made to cut $125m. of the aid, as the US funding had not been delivered by the first of the month.But “there is no existing schedule that obligates the United States to provide specific amounts of aid to UNRWA on specific dates,” a senior administration official told the Post. “The decisions of when to provide aid in the fiscal year, and in what allocations, lie with the secretary of state.“At this time no such decisions have been made,” the official added.The formal interagency review process began after Trump tweeted angrily last week that Palestinians were receiving “HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS” in US aid without offering Washington “appreciation or respect” in return.PA officials dismissed Trump as a serious peace broker last month after he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.“We are reviewing our assistance to the Palestinians in light of their recent conduct, per the president’s recent message,” the senior administration official told the Post.Earlier last week, the White House accused PA officials of “spreading falsehoods” about US policy and undermining its efforts to forge peace before they formally begin.In Israel, meanwhile, a number of ministers expressed support for cutting the aid.Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan responded to the report on Twitter, expressing astonishment.“I find it hard to believe that the Foreign Ministry of Israel opposes a cut to UNRWA – the body that perpetuates the refugee problem instead of solving it and that aids terror in all kinds of ways that have been proven – we have to dismantle it as quickly as possible,” Erdan wrote.And Education Minister Naftali Bennett issued a statement saying that “UNRWA is a terror-supporting organization.“Its very existence perpetuates the dire situation of Gaza’s population, who suffer under the rule of Hamas,” he said. “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.”Bennett said that he expected “all Israeli branches of government, including the Foreign Ministry, to support a decision to cut funding to an organization which employs Hamas terrorists and uses its schools to hide rockets.”Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
An anonymous U.S. State Department official says no decision has been made on the scheduled January 1, 2018, $125-million payment to the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency), which administers aid for Palestinian refugees. Media reports had stated the money was frozen. The official added the government is still reviewing U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority and has until January 15 to resolve the issue.