UNRWA: US aid too little after Biden resumes funding Palestinians

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) welcomes the new US administration's decision to resume aid to Palestinian refugees, but says the contribution is too little to cover all their needs.

The administration of former US president Donald Trump decided to cancel all the US funding to UNRWA in 2018 under its extremely pro-Israeli policies. 

US interim ambassador to the UN, Richard Mills, said Thursday Biden intends to “restore US assistance programs that support economic development and humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people”, without mentioning UNRWA by name.

UNRWA’s spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai warmly hailed the move.

“We welcome the Biden administration's decision to restore assistance to Palestinians and look forward to continuing conversation with them about the resumption of aid to” the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, she said.

Nevertheless, Alrifai said, the 2021 financial year for UNRWA "looks very difficult.”

UNRWA, whose headquarters are in Jordan and the besieged Gaza Strip, was originally founded in 1949 to protect hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war mainly through providing them with humanitarian aid. It was initially set up as a temporary agency but has continued to support the Palestinian refugees for the better part of six decades.

It currently supports an estimated 5.7 million Palestinians with refugee status across the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, providing them with healthcare, education, and social services. Most are descendants of the roughly 700,000 Palestinians who were driven out of their homes or fled the 1948 war, which led to the creation of Israel.

Before Trump's cuts, the US had been providing UNRWA $365 million a year, roughly a third of its core annual budget.

Alrifai said, "While the overall budget will remain at US$806 million, same as 2020, the income forecast in the best estimates will lead to an expected shortfall equivalent to three months of operations.”  

Therefore, she added, the agency expects a cash flow crisis as of March of the current year, warning that the expected deficit would be untenable and could lead to a financial collapse of UNRWA.

“Our financial forecast takes into consideration the expected re-engagement of the US administration, so we predict a bit more income than 2020 but this slightly improved income will not cover the huge liabilities that UNRWA already has,” Alrifai added.

According to the official, the agency began 2021 with liabilities of $75 million from the last financial year, and its annual deficit is expected to reach $200 million in the current year.

UNRWA warns budget crisis could spell ‘disaster’ in Gaza, cause insecurity in Lebanon

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s chief, says, “It would be a total disaster.”

Back in November, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned that the “worst financial crisis” the UN agency has ever experienced could spell “disaster” in the besieged Gaza Strip and cause insecurity in Lebanon.

“It is in the interest of no one to see schools suddenly suspended... health services being suspended (in Gaza), at a time when people are hit by the (coronavirus) pandemic,” he said at the time, adding, “It would be a total disaster.”

Lazzarini said the agency had to raise $70 million by the end of November to be able to pay full salaries to its staff for the months of November and December.

Some 28,000 staffers of the agency across the West Bank, East Jerusalem al-Quds, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Jordan will be affected by the shortfall. Most of the staffers are refugees themselves.

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