"Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution," Nabil Abu Rudeina told Reuters news agency.<doc-sep>JERUSALEM — The Trump administration is cutting funding to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees, raising fears that programs already straining to help some 5.4 million people will collapse. A State Department statement Friday announcing the dramatic change in American policy called the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) an "irredeemably flawed operation." It also pinned the blame on other countries for not doing enough to support Palestinian refugees. But the chief spokesman for UNRWA, which provides schooling, health services and food assistance to refugees in the occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, said U.S. criticism of the agency was unfair and unfounded. Palestinian refugees and Bedouins receive medical check ups from the UNRWA' mobile team on the outskirts of of Hebron, in the West Bank, on August 9, 2018. Hazem Bader / AFP - Getty Images "These very programs have a proven track record in creating one of the most successful human development processes and results in the Middle East," said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness. "The international state community, our donors and host countries have consistently praised UNRWA for its achievements and standards." Later on Friday, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres released a statement that also pushed back against the Trump administration's claim that the agency is inefficient, and called on other countries to fill the gap left by the United States. "We regret the United States’ decision to provide no further funding to UNRWA, which provides essential services to Palestine refugees and contributes to stability in the region," the statement said. "The U.S. has traditionally been the largest single contributor to UNRWA. We appreciate its support over the years." Saeb Erakat, secretary general of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), called on the international community to "reject and condemn the American decision and provide all necessary assistance to UNRWA to enable it to continue to shoulder its responsibility towards the Palestinian refugees." UNRWA was set up to serve Palestinians driven from their homes after the creation of Israel in 1948. In 2017, the United States covered about a third of the agency's budget of $1.1 billion. In January, the Trump administration provided $60 million compared to $364 million in 2017, and called on Palestinians to restart peace talks with Israel. Friday's decision comes as President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner tries to craft a peace plan meant to launch negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinian leadership cut off direct links with the Americans in November last year, and on Aug. 25 the U.S. announced it was cutting more than $200 million in aid to the Palestinians. "The fundamental business model and fiscal practices that have marked UNRWA for years — tied to UNRWA's endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries — is simply unsustainable," the State Department statement said. Key to the administration's criticism of UNRWA is the way it counts the descendants of refugees as refugees themselves. By undermining UNRWA, the administration is attempting to remove a pervasive Palestinian belief in the "right of return" — the conviction that refugees will one day be able to go back to their ancestral homes. UNWRA "nurtures unrealistic expectations that are jamming up the peace process," one Republican congressional staffer told NBC News familiar with the administration's thinking on condition of anonymity. "It takes the right of return off the table." The administration and its allies in Congress also claim that the agency is biased against Israel, overestimates the number of refugees and wastes money. Republican lawmakers sparred with President Barack Obama on this issue and have been pushing for such a decision on UNRWA. A Palestinian child receives medical check ups and aid from the UNRWA's mobile team on the outskirts of Hebron on August 9, 2018. Hazem Bader / AFP - Getty Images But the decision will not be universally welcomed in Israel, where some in the military have warned that a reduction of services could lead to unrest. Another fear is that Hamas — the militant group that runs Gaza — will step into the void left by UNRWA. Others in Congress raised the alarm after the announcement. Ending the funding, "especially against the recommendation of Israeli defense officials, will be devastating to the lives of millions of Palestinians — 526,000 of which are students in UNRWA schools," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in a statement. The member of the Armed Services and the Foreign Relations committees added that it will "increase instability in a region already reeling from wars and humanitarian crises." Even before the announcement, UNRWA in Gaza warned that schools there could close and the primary educational system could collapse altogether if money wasn't found to cover its deficits. Earlier, UNRWA Gaza spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna told a local radio station that the collapse of the school system could cause a "disaster" and would likely undermine security in the strip. Life in Gaza, which is ruled by militant group Hamas and under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade, has become increasingly intolerable for many of its 2 million residents — 70 percent of whom are themselves refugees. Almost none of the water is clean, raw sewage is pumped straight into the sea, and worsening power shortages mean Gazans have electricity for only about four hours a day on average. Unemployment rates are close to 50 percent — more than 65 percent among those under 30, officials say. Yasser Abu Jamei, the executive head of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program — the largest independent mental health network in the strip — and who has a unique insight into dramatically deteriorating conditions there, warned that further cuts to UNRWA will be seen as a great injustice by residents. "If the international community allows this to happen, it will be in trouble not just in Gaza but other places," he said. "The world is getting very dark," he added. "We have suffered enough of that at the beginning of 20th century. We have to stop moving toward the dark side and return to the right way." F. Brinley Bruton reported from Jerusalem, and Dan De Luce from Washington.<doc-sep>TOPSHOT - Palestinian protesters pull a metal cable as they try to take down a section of barbed wire during clashes with Israeli forces on April 20, 2018, east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip during mass protests along the border of the Palestinian enclave, dubbed "The Great March of Return," which has the backing of Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo credit should read SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images) Violence between Israelis and Palestinians reignites: How did we get here? Palestinian protesters throw stones during clashes with Israeli forces in the Shuafat Palestinian neighborhood of East Jerusalem on May 14. President Joe Biden speaks about a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, in the Cross Hall of the White House, Thursday, May 20, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) New generation of Palestinians and Israeli soldiers facing off in West Bank GAZA CITY, GAZA - MAY 20: Palestinians inspect damage to buildings in Al-Saftawi street northern Gaza City on May 20, 2021 in Gaza City, Gaza. Civilian casualties continue to rise as Israel-Gaza violence entered a tenth day. More than 220 people in Gaza and twelve people in Israel have been killed as cross-border rocket exchanges continue. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the bombing campaign despite increasing calls from the United Nations and the international community to end the conflict. The conflict which erupted May 10, comes after weeks of rising Israeli-Palestinian tension in East Jerusalem, which peaked with violent clashes inside the holy site of Al-Aqsa Mosque. (Photo by Fatima Shbair/Getty Images) This child's plea from Gaza went viral. See what her life is like now A ceasefire is in the offing, but not peace. The guns and rockets may soon fall silent, but the underlying causes for tension and the next war are still present, as CNN's Ben Wedeman reports from the West Bank. What UNRWA does, and why it matters Palestinian children walk outside of the United Nations' school in the Askar refugee camp, near Nablus in the Israeli occupied West Bank, on January 17, 2018 after the White House froze tens of millions of dollars in contributions. The agency provides Palestinian refugees and their descendants across the Middle East with services including schools and medical care, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long accused it of hostility toward Israel and called for its closure. / AFP PHOTO / JAAFAR ASHTIYEH (Photo credit should read JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP/Getty Images) (CNN) — The United States is ending all funding to the United Nations agency tasked with supporting Palestinian refugees, the US State Department said Friday, describing the body as “irredeemably flawed.” The United States has long been the biggest single donor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, known as UNRWA, donating more than $350 million to the agency in 2017. The agency offers educational, health and social services across the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon to more than 5 million registered Palestinian refugees. It educates about 500,000 children in nearly 700 schools and its doctors see more than 9 million patients in nearly 150 primary health clinics every year. JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP/AFP/Getty Images Palestinian children walk outside the Askar refugee camp, near Nablus in the West Bank, in January 2018. In January this year, the United States said it would withhold $65 million, from an initial installment of $125 million it was expected to hand over to UNRWA at the start of the year. The US said it wanted UNRWA to reform and believed other countries should increase the amounts they contributed to the agency. “When we made a US contribution of $60 million in January, we made it clear that the United States was no longer willing to shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWA’s costs that we had assumed for many years,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement Friday. “Several countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Sweden, Qatar, and the UAE have shown leadership in addressing this problem, but the overall international response has not been sufficient.” Nauert criticized the agency’s business model and fiscal practices as “unsustainable” and having been in “crisis mode” for many years. “The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation,” she said. “We are very mindful of and deeply concerned regarding the impact upon innocent Palestinians, especially school children, of the failure of UNRWA and key members of the regional and international donor community to reform and reset the UNRWA way of doing business.” Chris Gunness, spokesman for UNRWA, voiced “deep regret” over the US decision and pushed back against its criticism of UNRWA’s work. “We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that UNRWA’s schools, health centers, and emergency assistance programs are ‘irredeemably flawed,’” he said. “These very programs have a proven track record in creating one of the most successful human development processes and results in the Middle East. The international state community, our donors and host countries have consistently praised UNRWA for its achievements and standards.” Foreign Policy first reported the Trump administration’s decision to end funding for the UN agency, which was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949. A senior administration official told CNN the decision was made at a meeting between Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and a White House senior adviser, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, but that US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley had also been pushing for the move. The Trump administration will also call for a large reduction in the number of Palestinians considered to be refugees, the administration official and a regional diplomat briefed on the decision told CNN. The White House did not immediately return a request for comment on the decision. A senior administration official criticized the agency in a statement to CNN earlier this month, saying that it “has perpetuated and exacerbated the refugee crisis and must be changed so the Palestinian people can reach their full potential.” The statement followed a Foreign Policy report in early August that revealed leaked emails in which Kushner pressed fellow officials to engage in “an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA.” ’Right of return’ Removal of Palestinians’ refugee status would effectively mean they would lose the “right of return” to homes that are now in Israel and reclaim lost property – a move that would have enormous significance for the approximately 5.3 million Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA. During the Arab-Israeli War of 1948/49, which followed the establishment of the State of Israel, about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from or fled their homes, a period the Palestinians call “Nakba,” meaning catastrophe. Most Palestinians consider the right of return to be an inalienable right of the Palestinian people. It has long been considered what is called a “final status” issue in peace talks, an acknowledgment that it is among the toughest areas for Israelis and Palestinians to reach agreement. This would be the second final status issue that the US President has sought to take off the table, the first being Jerusalem. For decades, US policy was to avoid declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel in the absence of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, as the Palestinians also claim Jerusalem as their capital and its final status was supposed to be left to negotiations. But Trump upended that policy in December when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Anat Berko, an Israeli lawmaker with the governing Likud party, told CNN she supported the US move on UNRWA and said she hoped other countries would follow suit. “An end to UNRWA will bring an end to the ‘refugee forever’ status. We cannot solve any conflict with this definition of refugees. Humanitarian aid – yes. But UNRWA – no,” Berko said. Al-Awda, a Florida-based NGO that advocates for the right of return, talks of the “fundamental, inalienable, historical, legal, individual and collective rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their original towns, villages and lands anywhere in Palestine from which they were expelled.”<doc-sep>
cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); }); if(window.location.pathname.indexOf("656089") != -1){console.log("hedva connatix");document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none";} WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration has cut all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), questioning the organization's "fundamental business model" of servicing an "endlessly and exponentially expanding community" of declared Palestinian refugees.The move was previewed by US media outlets in recent weeks after e-mails from President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were leaked showing his interest in "disrupting" the UN body. "The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA," the State Department said in a statement. "When we made a US contribution of $60 million in January, we made it clear that the United States was no longer willing to shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWA’s costs that we had assumed for many years. ""Beyond the budget gap itself and failure to mobilize adequate and appropriate burden sharing, the fundamental business model and fiscal practices that have marked UNRWA for years– tied to UNRWA’s endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries– is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years," it continued. "The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation. "The Palestinian Authority envoy to Washington, Husam Zomlot, said in a statement that the US was "reneging on its international commitments" by cutting its aid– the most generous of any country. "It’s not up to the US administration to define the status of Palestinian refugees," Zomlot said. "The only status the US can define is, its own role in peacemaking in the region. By endorsing the most extreme Israeli narrative on all issues including the rights of more than 5 million Palestinian refugees, the US administration has lost its status as peacemaker and is damaging not only an already volatile situation but the prospects for future peace in the Middle East. "A State Department official confirmed to The Jerusalem Post earlier this week that, while the administration would disapprove of UNRWA's definition for Palestinian refugees qualifying for aid, it would not redefine nor enumerate the category.UNRWA claims that the descendants of refugees from 1940s Mandate Palestine qualify as refugees themselves– a definition that has allowed the number of beneficiaries to balloon in recent years. "We are very mindful of and deeply concerned regarding the impact upon innocent Palestinians, especially school children, of the failure of UNRWA and key members of the regional and international donor community to reform and reset the UNRWA way of doing business," the State Department said. "These children are part of the future of the Middle East. Palestinians, wherever they live, deserve better than an endlessly crisis-driven service provision model. They deserve to be able to plan for the future. "US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joined Kushner in support of the decision. The administration had already cut much of its aid to UNRWA earlier in the year. "UNRWA can stay there, and we will be a donor if it reforms what it does," Haley told the Foundation for Defense of Democracies earlier this week. "If it goes and makes sure that they're not doing those teachings in textbooks, if they actually change the number of refugees to an accurate account. We will look back at partnering them. "A spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called the US decision a "flagrant assault" against the Palestinian people, and a "defiance of UN resolutions. ""Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution. "In Gaza, the Islamist group Hamas also condemned the US move as a "grave escalation against the Palestinian people. ""The American decision aims to wipe out the right of return and is a grave US escalation against the Palestinian people," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.Abu Zuhri told Reuters the "US leadership has become an enemy of our people and of our nation and we will not surrender before such unjust decisions. "Reuters contributed to this report.