The United States has taken the welcome step of cutting half of our planned $125 million in funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA, which provides aid to Palestinians displaced by the Israeli War of Independence and their descendants, has been referred to as “one of the greatest obstacles to peace.” Despite the jeremiads of people who who believe U.S. aid is charity untethered to policy outcomes, this is a peace-encouraging development toward dismantling UNRWA entirely, folding its operations into those of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and ending international maintenance of the Palestinian “refugee crisis” now reaching into its fourth generation.
UNRWA says its mission is “to carry out direct relief and works programmes for Palestine refugees.” UNRWA claims it “protects and assists Palestine refugees, seeking to help them achieve their full potential in human development.” According to its website, “when the Agency began operations in 1950, it was responding to the needs of about 750,000 Palestine refugees. Today, some 5 million Palestine refugees are eligible for UNRWA services.”
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