New Legislation Introduced in Congress Would Reduce Funding for UNRWA

New Legislation Introduced in Congress Would Reduce Funding for UNRWA
U.S. lawmakers have introduced a new bill that would drastically reduce U.S. funding for the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, The Algemeiner reported Tuesday.
The UNRWA Reform and Refugee Support Act (H.R. 6451) is “long-overdue, common-sense legislation,” Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn of Colorado, the sponsor or the bill, said in a statement.
The bill is backed by at least 10 members of the House of Representatives.
The U.S. Department of State in January notified UNRWA that the U.S. would be withholding $65 million of the $125 million assigned for it, saying that additional U.S. donations would be contingent on major reforms at the agency.
“We must return UNRWA to its original framework and address this false narrative of an inflated refugee population,” Lamborn declared.
“This is an important first step to help Palestinians who are truly in need,” he added. “Palestinians in Gaza are not refugees; they are a population suffering under the Hamas terror regime, whose leaders take aid money and instead of building schools and hospitals, build terror tunnels and send rockets hidden under UNRWA schools in Gaza into kindergartens in Israel. The United States should continue to help these and other needy populations around the world through already-established, appropriately identified humanitarian programs.”
UNRWA’s policy of inflating the number of Palestinian refugees recently came under fire from European governments. In May, the Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said that UNRWA hindered the prospects of peace in the Middle East by fueling “unrealistic” hopes of Palestinians returning to their homes.
He explained that the number of Palestinians classified as refugees by UNRWA rose from 750, 000 in 1950 to 5 million in 2013 due to that organization’s unique policy of automatically awarding hereditary refugee status. The vast majority of the descendants of refugees are living in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank, and Gaza.
“It provides ammunition to continue the conflict. For as long as Palestinians live in refugee camps, they will want to return to their homeland,” Cassis said, adding that “by supporting UNRWA, we are keeping the conflict alive.”
[Photo: Alberto Hugo Rojas / Flickr]