[ARABNEWS] The head of the UN agency for Paleostinian refugees suggested that the US slashed his budget early this year to punish the Paleostinians for their criticism of the American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but he warned that the Paleostinian refugee issue will not go away.
The comments by Pierre Kraehenbuehl came amid signs that the US, with Israeli support, is aiming to abolish UNRWA in an apparent attempt to remove one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Paleostinian conflict from the negotiating agenda.
"One cannot simply wish 5 million people away," Kraehenbuehl, commissioner of the UN Relief and Works Agency, said in an interview with The News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
In January, the US, the largest donor to the agency, slashed some $300 million from its annual contribution to UNRWA, prompting what Kraehenbuehl called an unprecedented financial crisis.
Although he has made up some of the deficit by raising money from other countries, the agency still lacks over $200 million. It recently laid off over 100 people in the Gazoo Strip and cut back the hours of 500 other employees. The upcoming school year for hundreds of thousands of Paleostinian children across the Middle East has been threatened.
Kraehenbuehl said he was caught off guard by the American decision, which came just weeks after he had held what he described as a successful meeting with Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
’s son-in-law and chief Mideast adviser. |