The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on Monday that it had run out of funding to pay the salaries of its staff across the Middle East.
The agency announced it would need $70 million by the end of the month to completely pay 28,000 staff for November and December. It called for donations in order to avoid the halt of its essential services.
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"Despite all of our efforts to raise the resources needed to keep our humanitarian and development programs running, it was with great regret that I informed our staff today that we don't have sufficient funding at this stage to honor their salaries this month," said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini in a statement. "If additional funding is not pledged in the next weeks, UNRWA will be forced to defer partial salaries to all staff."
Under US President Donald Trump, Washington cut all US funding to UNRWA in September 2018 over criticism the agency perpetuates the Palestinian refugee issue and teaches anti-Israel material in its student textbooks.
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Although President-elect Joe Biden is expected to restore funding, UNRWA officials said that the resumption would likely take months and would be "late to meet the hole in the agency's $1.4 billion annual budget, including emergency programs for Gaza, Syria and COVID-19," reported Reuters.
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org
