Without UNRWA I wouldn’t be alive today

Palestine Center Brief No. 309 (January 19, 2018)

By Mohamed Mohamed

“It is regrettable that the most basic human needs of millions of Palestinian refugees are now being used as a weapon in the Trump administration’s political assault on Palestinians.

On January 16, the administration decided to withhold $65 million of a planned $125 million in US funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

UNRWA was established in 1949 to provide direct relief and public works programs for the Palestinian refugees who were expelled after the creation of Israel in 1948. For almost 70 years, Israel has failed to address the problem of the refugees that it created, so the UN General Assembly has regularly extended UNRWA’s mandate since then.”

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This article originally appeared in Mondoweiss.

Mohamed Mohamed is the Executive Director of the Palestine Center. 

The views in this brief are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Jerusalem Fund.