US cuts aid to Palestinians through UN to $60 million

Bloomberg

The US has told the United Nations agency that aids Palestinians that it will contribute only about half of a $125 million payment to the body, while demanding a “fundamental reexamination” of the social-service agency’s mission and funding before deciding whether to pay the rest.
“It is time other countries, some of them quite wealthy, step in and do their part to advance regional security and stability,” the State Department said in a statement, saying the money is enough to keep the agency from running out of funds while the remaining $65 million is withheld “for future consideration.”
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees ensures salaries for teachers and health-care workers in Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza.
President Donald Trump has denounced the aid amid tensions over his decision to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Palestinian leaders have said the US decision disqualifies
it from serving as a mediator in long-stymied peace talks.
The US provided more than $368 million in funding to UNRWA in 2016, and usually sends the money in two installments during the year. The State Department hasn’t decided what to do about the second tranche due later this year.

TRUMP’S TWEET
In a tweet on January 2, Trump said, “we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue” peace treaty with Israel.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert declined to discuss Trump’s tweet or say whether it played any role in the funding decision. “We’re taking a look at the organization, we’re monitoring it, and we’d like to see some reforms being made,” Nauert told reporters in Washington.
Palestinian officials criticised the shortfall in funding, saying it would impact “the most vulnerable segment of the Palestinian people” and would deprive “refugees of the right to education, health, shelter and a dignified life.”
“It is also creating conditions that will generate further instability throughout the region and will demonstrate that it has no compunction in targeting the innocent,” according to the statement by Dr. Hanan Ashrawi on behalf of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

TILLERSON VERSUS HALEY
The decision to send any money at all was a victory for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, who had supported funding the aid program. UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and coordinator for stalled peace efforts in the region, wanted to cut off the money completely.
Haley and Trump have expressed outrage about a December vote in the UN General Assembly in which other countries voted overwhelmingly to condemn a US decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Nauert acknowledged that the criticism played a role, saying the US was asking “other countries that have criticized us to step forward and actually help with UNRWA.”
While Trump’s vow to cut the UN funding is popular in Israel, government security officials have warned that reducing the assistance that goes for food, education and health care could fuel violence and strengthen radical Palestinian forces in the West Bank.