The head of the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees said Monday that U.S. plans to cut funding to the organization were "abrupt and harmful" and risked further destabilizing the already tumultuous Middle East.
Pierre Krahenbuhl, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, visited the Gaza Strip on the same day that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence told the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem that the U.S. would move its embassy there by the end of 2019.
The United States, by far the largest contributor to UNRWA, announced on Jan. 16 that Washington will withhold $65 million of $125 million that it had planned to send to UNRWA this year. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from U.N. member states
Krahenbuhl used his visit to launch the agency's unprecedented global fundraising appeal, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in hopes of making up for funding cuts announced by the United States.
He said the agency will create new funding alliances and get U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres involved in high-level ministerial meetings to generate donations from countries.
The Dignity Is Priceless campaign aims to raise $500 million to ensure that the agency's core services are unaffected.
"We cannot accept that this investment in education, in health care and in dignity and respect would be interrupted in any way. It's much too risky for the entire Middle East," Krahenbuhl warned.
The American aid cuts would cause difficulties for the agency he said, adding, "The reduction is a very severe one, it is abrupt and is harmful. ... The world has to ask itself this question: Does the Middle East need more instability? Is it reasonable to think that by reducing amounts to UNRWA one is achieving anything else but greater instability in the region?"
UNRWA was established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1949. According to Krahenbuhl, around 525,000 boys and girls in 700 UNRWA schools could be affected by the U.S. cuts.
"I can't imagine to come to this school or to any other school in UNRWA in few weeks and say to the students, 'Sadly we failed.' Failing is not an option," he said.
Washington gave $355 million to UNRWA in the 2017 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, U.S. officials say.
In a Twitter post on Jan. 2, U.S. President Donald Trump said that the U.S. gives the Palestinians "HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect." He added that "with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?"
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has called for a gradual cut in UNRWA funding and transferring its responsibilities to the U.N. global refugee agency, voiced measured support for the U.S. step but has also acknowledged the move could leave Israel with a potential humanitarian crisis on its doorstep.
Netanyahu has proposed the gradual dismantling of UNRWA, arguing it "perpetuates the Palestinian problem," and moving funds to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
