Trump’s threat to defund UNRWA could cost Israel as much as the Palestinians - U.S. News - Haaretz.com
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U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley’s declaration that the United States intends to cut aid the Palestinians, and possibly to UNRWA, the United Nations’ relief agency for Palestinian refugees, is no less worrying to Israel than it is to the Palestinian Authority. Officially, Israel has come out time after time against UNRWA employees’ flirtation with messages supporting terror and the funding the agency provides for the grandchildren of the original Palestinian refugees from 1948. In practice, however, the agency is funds educational activities and medical services for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and a sharp cut in its resources could bring thousands of them into the streets to confront the Israeli army.
Moreover, if a war were to break out in Gaza, international organizations would be the only ones that Israel could turn to in order to prevent a humanitarian disaster in the enclave. The Israeli army is being careful to maintain an ongoing working relationship with UNRWA, and recently a senior official from the agency was even invited to speak to a group of top Israeli army commanders to explain the severe state of Gaza’s infrastructure.