U.S. cuts $65M in Palestinian aid for now, prompting UN donations appeal

The head of the UNagency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees appealed onWednesday for world donations after the United States withheldabout half its planned funding for the organization, a move hesaid risks instability in the region.

Washington said on Tuesday it would provide $60million tothe UNRelief and Welfare Agency while keeping back a further$65million for now. The U.S. State Department said UNRWA neededto make unspecified reforms.

Palestinians, already angered by U.S. President DonaldTrump's Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, denounced the decision, which could deepen hardship in the GazaStrip where UNRWA helps much of its population of twomillion.

UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl said he wouldappeal to other donor nations for money and launch "a globalfundraising campaign" aimed at keeping the agency's schools andclinics for refugees open through 2018 and beyond.

"At stake is the dignity and human security of millions ofPalestine refugees, in need of emergency food assistance and other support in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank andGaza Strip," he said in a statement.

Krahenbuhl said 525,000 boys and girls in 700 UNRWA schoolscould be affected by the funding cut, as well as Palestinian accessto primary health care, but he pledged to keep facilities openthrough 2018 and beyond.

"The reduced contribution also impacts regional security ata time when the Middle East faces multiple risks and threats, notably that of further radicalization," he said.

UNRWA was established by the UNGeneral Assembly in 1949after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in the 1948 war that followed Israel'screation. It says it currently aids five million registered Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.

Trump threat

In a Twitter post on Jan. 2, Trump said Washingtongives the Palestinians "HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a yearand get no appreciation or respect." Trump wrotethat "with thePalestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we makeany of these massive future payments to them?"

While U.S. officials did not link the decision to Trump'stweet, they made a point often advanced by him, saying the United States had been UNRWA's single largest donor for decades.

Trump's aides initially debated whether to cut off all UNRWAaid, an unidentified U.S. official said, but those opposed argued that could further destabilize the region.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior official in the Palestine LiberationOrganization, said the White House was "targeting the mostvulnerable segment of the Palestinian people."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has calledfor a gradual cut in UNRWA funding and transferring its responsibilities to the UNglobal refugee agency, voicedmeasured support for the U.S. step.

But he appeared to acknowledge it could leave Israel whichmaintains tight restrictions on the movement of people and goodsacross its border with Hamas Islamist-controlled Gaza with apotential humanitarian crisis on its doorstep.

Netanyahu this month proposed gradually dismantling UNRWA,arguing it "perpetuates the Palestinian problem,"and movingfunds to the UNHCR agency. UNRWA said the Palestinian refugeecrisis stems from the failure of Israel and the Palestinians toagree a solution for Palestinian refugees.

Asked on Wednesday by Israeli reporters accompanying him ona diplomatic trip to India whether he supports the U.S. fundingcut, Netanyahu said: "Of course, but I still suggest, because Ithink there are certain needs, to do what I have said... everystep taken also contains some risk."