‘Reckless’: Proposed ban on US funding for UNRWA raises alarm
Al Jazeera
Advocates say growing bipartisan support for curbs to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is ‘concerning’ and ‘reckless’.
A United States security bill that would curtail funding to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees is raising alarm, as rights advocates say a years-long effort to dismantle the agency is gaining steam amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
The proposed $118bn legislation, a draft of which was released by the US Senate on Sunday (PDF), includes a provision prohibiting Washington from allocating any funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
Seth Binder, advocacy director at the Middle East Democracy Center, said this would apply to humanitarian assistance included in the bill as well as any previously approved funds for UNRWA that have not yet been allocated, a sum totalling about $300,000.
“It’s unclear … where and how this specific provision may become law, if it ever is able to,” Binder told Al Jazeera. “But it is concerning nonetheless just given recent developments.”
UNRWA came under renewed scrutiny last month after the Israeli government accused around a dozen of the agency’s more than 13,000 Gaza employees of taking part in Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed a reported 1,139 people.
