RAMALLAH, September 1, 2018 (WAFA) – Palestinian officials condemned on Saturday the decision by the United States administration to stop all funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) saying the decision is contrary to international law.
The US State Department announced on Friday that the US, the largest contributor to UNRWA with $350 million annual aid, will not make any additional contributions to the humanitarian UN agency. The decision was part of a new strategy by the administration of President Donald Trump to cancel the refugee issue from any future negotiations with Israel, just as it did with Jerusalem when it recognized it in December as capital of Israel. The Palestinians have strongly rejected this strategy and vowed to fight it.
"We totally reject and condemn this American decision,” said Saeb Erekat, Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). “UNRWA was established by UN General Assembly Resolution 302 of 1949, which stipulated that UNRWA should provide services in all areas until the refugee issue in all its aspects is resolved."
Erekat stressed in a statement that the decision was contrary to international law and to United Nations Resolution 302 of 1949 establishing UNRWA to provide services to Palestinian refugees until a final solution is found to their plight.
"The United States does not have the right to support and condone the theft of Palestinian land, the illegal Israeli colonization of Palestinian land and the theft of Jerusalem and its annexation to Israel, and does not have the right to act according to the whims of Sheldon Adelson and Benjamin Netanyahu," he said in reference to the Israeli premier and his American financier.
“The decisions of the US administration toward Jerusalem, refugees and settlements are recipes for the obliteration of international law as well as security and stability in the region, and represent gifts to the forces of extremism and terrorism in the region," said Erekat, who urged the world to reject this decision and to provide all possible support to UNRWA.
"UNRWA is not an institution of the Palestinian National Authority. It was created by a resolution of the United Nations and therefore the entire international community must 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," he said.
Foreign Minister Riyad Malki has also condemned the US decision on UNRWA, stressing that the US will never succeed in dismantling the UN agency or marginalize the Palestinian refugees issue as US President Donald Trump and his administration contemplate.
"On the contrary, this decision will lead to strong reactions from many countries that will not accept the American policy of bullying towards the Palestinian refugees file and UNRWA," Malki said in a statement. "We will act to protect UNRWA from attacks by Trump and his administration.”
He pointed out that the immediate reactions of the German foreign minister, the European Union’s foreign policy chief and other officials were “the biggest proof that the international community will not forsake UNRWA and the refugees, and will again stand up to the acts of the American administration and its foolish policies that show ignorance and hatred towards the Palestinian cause and its core issues, primarily the refugees issue.”
Malki stressed that Palestine will work closely with Jordan to protect UNRWA since its role from birth was to provide assistance to the Palestinian refugees until the right of return or an acceptable agreement between the Palestinians and Israelis is reached.
He called upon his Arab counterparts “to do what they can to protect UNRWA from American bullying and to send a strong message to President Trump that the Arab states will continue to stand with the Palestinian cause in all its components, including the refugees file, and to cover any deficit that will arise from this policy that is consistent with the instructions of the occupying state that seeks to liquidate the Palestinian issue and eliminate the two-state solution, which calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.”
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