WASHINGTON POST
US ends funding of UN agency for Palestinian refugees
by Susannah George
September 1, 2018

The United States is ending its decades of funding for the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees, the State Department announced Friday, a week after slashing bilateral U.S. aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza. The U.S. supplies nearly 30 percent of the total budget of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, and had been demanding reforms in the way it is run. The department said in a written statement that the United States “will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation.” The decision cuts nearly $300 million of planned support. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL After defunding UNRWA, US said seeking to limit others’ aid to it, then close it A day after the US announced it will not give any further funding to UNWRA, the UN agency that aids Palestinian refugees, Israeli officials said the Trump Administration has made clear to them that it intends to see UNRWA closed down altogether and all its functions taken over by other agencies.

JNS UNRWA lobbyists: Israel and Saudia Arabia keep it afloat as US funds dry up There is concern that if UNRWA is unable to help hundreds of thousands of needy Palestinians due to budget cuts, Israel will see rioting, an escalation in violence and terrorist attacks.

MIDDLE EAST FORUM Trump Administration Implements MEF Plan to Sideline UNRWA In announcing today an immediate end to all U.S. government funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the Trump administration has adopted one of the Middle East Forum’s signature policy prescriptions.