Tlaib, Lowenthal pen op-ed asking Trump administration to release aid to Palestinians to fight COVID-19

Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post on Saturday  asking for President Trump to release congressionally approved aid to Palestine to help combat the coronavirus pandemic.

“The Palestinian people are particularly vulnerable at this moment,” Tlaib and Lowenthal wrote, citing a decision by President Trump in 2018 to eliminate funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The UNRWA provides humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees.  According to the article, the held-up aid adds up to $75 million that was “appropriated with bipartisan support by Congress.”

“While covid-19 does not recognize borders, we must recognize that without aid and assistance, the Palestinian people will be greatly affected by this health crisis,” Tlaib and Lowenthal wrote.

The two asserted that division and nationalism has “undermined” the global response to the pandemic, and by witholding funding to international bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and certain groups of people, “the Trump administration has pursued counterproductive policies that make the world less safe,” they said. 

Last month, Trump announced that the United States would halt funding to the WHO pending an investigation for what he deemed to be a mismanagement of the coronavirus outbreak.

The president also criticized  the health body for opposing large-scale travel restrictions, and maintained that the U.S. had been treated unfairly. The president noted the difference in the amount funding the organization receives from America in comparison to China. 

Health officials, world leaders and congressional lawmakers criticized Trump following the move. Former secretary of State Madeline Albright most recently asserted that Trump’s “America First” policy has hampered the U.S.’s response to the pandemic. 

In addition to releasing the congressionally approved aid, the members of Congress want Trump to “restore the U.S. relationship with UNRWA.”