Congress wrong to target UN Palestinian refugee relief agency

Earlier this month, two Republican lawmakers serving on influential committees blocked the transfer of $75 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The efforts by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) fit into a larger pattern of targeting UNRWA and punishing Palestinian refugees.  

Earlier this year, Risch and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced a bill that would prevent the Biden administration from providing funding to UNRWA. It requires the agency pass an audit and implements “reforms” to ensure its employees are not members of a terrorist organization or engage in anti-Semitic activities. However, UNRWA already agreed to similar measures in a 2021 agreement with the Biden administration that was recently renewed. Thus, the legislation’s real goal is not to reform UNRWA, but dismantle it. 

UNRWA was established to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees during and after the Nakba, the destruction of Palestinian society that accompanied the creation of the state of Israel. UNRWA is the main provider of health, education and relief services to over 5.5 million Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, as well as under Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.  

Palestinian refugees are the oldest refugee population in the world and nearly half of UNRWA’s recipients live under Israeli occupation. While the actions by Risch, McCaul and Roy are aimed at the West Bank and Gaza, the repercussions of UNRWA’s forced financial austerity will be felt across all of its areas of operation.  

Eliminating UNRWA has been a long-term project of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu sought to change the definition of “refugee” in order to reduce the number of Palestinians eligible to receive UNRWA services. However, the definition applies to all refugees around the world and not just Palestinians. Nevertheless, Netanyahu found support in the Trump White House and the U.S. Congress.  

Although the United States was the main contributor to UNRWA’s budget for decades, this changed under the Trump administration. In 2018, Trump eliminated U.S. funding in an attempt to pressure the Palestinian Authority to accept his “deal of the century.” Trump also pressured the Gulf Arab states to reduce their support for UNRWA and set in motion a financial crisis that the agency has yet to recover from. The Biden administration restored U.S. funding with conditions in 2021, but the Arab Gulf states have not followed suit.  

UNRWA is currently facing a financial gap of $75 million for 2023. At the beginning of the year, the agency issued an appeal for $1.6 billion, but has only received a quarter of the amount. In late June, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini informed a meeting of the Advisory Committee in Beirut that the agency needs $200 million to continue providing its services for the rest of the year.   

UNRWA has been forced to reduce its services at a difficult time. The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic, regional and international strife, and escalating food prices have placed Palestinian refugees on the brink of a humanitarian crisis. Lebanon is in the midst of an economic collapse and 86 percent of the estimated 480,000 registered Palestinian refugees in the country live below the global poverty line. In Syria, Palestinian refugees must navigate between the sanctions on Bashir al-Assad’s government as well as the country’s civil war that devastated refugee camps, schools, clinics and hospitals.  

For the occupied West Bank, the disruption of U.S. funding comes in the wake of the Israeli military operation in the Jenin refugee camp in early July. The assault led to the death of 14 residents, including a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy attending an UNRWA school, as well as the destruction of the camp’s infrastructure. By cutting off funding for the West Bank, it will be difficult for UNRWA to provide services to the refugees in Jenin or any of the other camps and restore the basic services that were destroyed.  

UNRWA is the main source for education and health care as well as food relief for 1.4 million refugees in Gaza. Blocking UNRWA’s funds will only add to the misery of the population already suffering from high levels of poverty and unemployment and a 17-year siege by Israel.  

The continued targeting of UNRWA will not resolve the Palestinian refugee issue. And it will not provide Israel with a way to avoid negotiations with the Palestinians nor negate the refugees’ right of return and the international community’s obligations. Rather than adding to the grim reality of Palestinian refugees, members of Congress should devote their efforts to upholding the U.S.’s obligations and advocate for a just and lasting solution. 

Dalal Yassine is a non-resident fellow with the Jerusalem Fund/Palestine Center in Washington, D.C. The views in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Jerusalem Fund and Palestine Center.