Millions of Palestinian refugees "cannot simply be wished away," the head of a UN support agency said on Monday, hitting back at a US aid cutoff and allegations the agency's perpetuates the Palestinian plight rather than helping them.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency provides services to some 5.3 million Palestinian refugees across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Most are descendants of some 700,000 Palestinians who were displaced during and after the 1948 war that led to Israel's establishment.
US State Department data disputes UNRWA's count, saying that there are currently only about 20,000 Palestinian refugees worldwide.
The exaggerated refugee count was cited by Washington, UNRWA's biggest donor, in its decision last week to withhold funding, and has potential ramifications for the Palestinians' pursuit of a right of return to land now in Israel.
Successive Israeli governments have ruled out such an influx of Palestinian refugees, fearing the country would lose its Jewish majority.
"I express deep regret and disappointment at the nature of the US decision," UNRWA Director Pierre Krähenbühl said in an open letter to Palestinian refugees and the agency's staff, in which he pledged the agency's operations would continue.
Appearing to echo Israel's view that descendants of the 1948 refugees should not be eligible for refugee status, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert criticised UNRWA on Friday for "endlessly and exponentially expanding the community of entitled beneficiaries."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described UNRWA on Sunday as "the refugee perpetuation agency" whose money "should be taken and be used to really help rehabilitate the refugees, whose real number is a sliver of that reported by UNRWA."
But Krähenbühl said, "The protracted nature of the Palestine refugee crisis" was not unique. He said the children and grandchildren of long-displaced refugees in Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, Congo and elsewhere are also recognized as refugees and assisted by the United Nations.
"No matter how often attempts are made to minimize or delegitimize the individual and collective experiences of Palestine refugees, the undeniable fact remains that they have rights under international law and represent a community of 5.3 million men, women and children who cannot simply be wished away," he said.
The United States paid out $60 million to UNRWA in January, withholding another $65 million, from a promised $365 million for the year. Krähenbühl said Gulf states had injected funds but UNRWA still needed more than $200 million.
