US ends funding of UN agency for Palestinian refugees

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is ending its decades of funding for the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees, the State Department announced Friday, a week after slashing bilateral U.S. aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza.

The U.S. supplies nearly 30 percent of the total budget of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, and had been demanding reforms in the way it is run. The department said in a written statement that the United States "will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation." The decision cuts nearly $300 million of planned support.

It comes as President Donald Trump and his Middle East pointmen, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, prepare for the rollout of a much-vaunted but as yet unclear peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians, and it could intensify Palestinian suspicions that Washington is using the humanitarian funding as leverage.

The Palestinian leadership has been openly hostile to any proposal from the administration, citing what it says is a pro-Israel bias, notably after Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December and moved the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv in May. The Palestinian Authority broke off contact with the U.S. after the Jerusalem announcement.

In 2016, the U.S. donated $355 million to the UNRWA, which provides health care, education and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and it was set to make a similar contribution this year.

In January the Trump administration released $60 million in funds but withheld a further $65 million it had been due to provide. The remaining amount – about $290 million – had yet to be allocated.

"When we made a U.S. contribution of $60 million in January, we made it clear that the United States was no longer willing to shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWA's costs that we had assumed for many years," the statement said. "Several countries, including Jordan, Egypt, Sweden, Qatar, and the UAE [United Arab Emirates] have shown leadership in addressing this problem, but the overall international response has not been sufficient."

The statement criticized the "fundamental business model and fiscal practices" of UNRWA, and what the department characterized as the "endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries."