Participants in the protest outside an American-run office in Ramallah denouncing US cut in aid to UNRWA. (WAFA Images / Tamer Bana) 

RAMALLAH, September 4, 2018 (WAFA) – Dozens of Palestinians protested in Ramallah on Tuesday the US cut in aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) organized by the nationalist and Islamic forces in the city.

Participants gathered outside an office for the  US Agency for International Development (USAID) and held posters denouncing the US step, which they said aims at ending the Palestinian right of return by dismantling the agency looking after the interest of 5.3 million Palestinian refugees.

Issam Baker, one of the participants, said the protest aimed to express rejection of what he described as American extortion policy.

He said by stopping aid to UNRWA, the US has declared war on the refugees’ right of return.

Muwafaq Suhwail, another participant in the protest, said the American position is an aggression against the Palestinian people.

The US, the largest financial contributor to UNRWA with $360 million annual aid, decided last week to stop all aid to the humanitarian agency in what the Palestinians said was an attempt to pressure them to accept its vision for a settlement for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

M.K.