BRUSSELS—The European Union said it regrets the U.S. decision to stop funding UNWRA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
On Friday, the Trump administration announced that it would cut nearly $300 million from its UNRWA funding and slammed the organization for perpetuating conflict between Israel and the Palestinians by perpetuating the idea that all Palestinians are refugees.
In a written statement released Friday, the State Department said the U.S. “will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation” and its “exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries.” The U.S. said it would find other ways to fund projects to benefit the Palestinians.
In a statement, an EU foreign affairs spokesperson said : ‘’The regrettable decision of the US to no longer be part of this international and multilateral effort leaves a substantial gap and we hope that the US can reconsider their decision.’’
‘’The EU and its Member States are collectively the largest contributors to UNRWA’s budget, and we are proud to support UNRWA’s work in providing essential services to Palestine refugees,’’ the statement added, citing the reopening of schools for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children across Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria this weekend.
‘’ The US have always played, and will continue to play, an essential role in any effort to achieve peace in the Middle East. The EU will continue to engage with the US and its other regional and international partners to work towards that common goal,’’ the statement said.
The EU said UNRWA ‘’has recently expanded its donor base and taken internal management measures to increase efficiencies and reduce costs.’’ ‘’UNRWA should pursue these reforms and further engage in a transformative process. The EU is committed to continue discussing these matters with UNRWA so as to secure the continuation and sustainability of the agency’s work which is vital for stability and security in the region.’’
Germany announced it will step up its contributions to UNWRA following the US cuts. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the loss of the UN agency “could unleash an uncontrollable chain reaction.”
“We are currently preparing to provide an additional amount of significant funds,” Maas said in a letter to European Union Foreign Ministers.
UNRWA, which was created in 1949, claims a number of 5 million Palestinian refugees, including in that figure every descendant of Arabs who fled Israel during Israel’s War of Independence. However, international law states that refugee status cannot be passed down to descendants, meaning that only the original 750,000 refugees of 70 years ago can be legally defined as refugees.
Speaking at a ceremony for Israel’s first day of school, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the United States for its decision.
“The U.S. did something very important by stopping funding for the refugee perpetuation agency known as UNRWA. It is finally starting to solve the problem. The funds must be taken and used to genuinely help rehabilitate the refugees, whose true number is a fraction of the number reported by UNRWA,” he declared.
Netanyahu asked, “Have displaced people not come to us from various countries? Holocaust survivors torn from their land? They were displaced, survived and came here. Did we keep them in the status of refugees? No, we absorbed them, including hundreds of thousands of Jews who left all their property behind and were expelled from Arab countries in the [1948] War of Independence.”
“We did not keep them as refugees. We made them equal and contributing citizens of our state,” Netanyahu added. “That is not what is happening with the Palestinians, in which 70 years ago they created a special institution: not absorbing refugees, and instead perpetuating refugees.”
The U.S. administration said it was willing to continue working with UNRWA if the body amended its numbers to reflect the number of people who were original refugees of the war in 1948.