Washington _ Agencies
The Washington Post newspaper said that the administration of President Donald Trump has decided to cancel its financial support for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
The White House will announce the decision in the coming weeks and will also call for a reduction in the number of internationally recognized Palestinian refugees, which number 5 million Palestine refugees, to just 10 percent of their real number, the paper said.
The decision is due to the "dissatisfaction of the US administration with UNRWA activities and events," she said.
"Applying the new policies of the United States to UNRWA will actually begin at the beginning of next month, when the US government will announce its new policy of dealing with UNRWA, starting with the recognition by Washington that there are only half a million Palestine refugees out of the 5 million Palestine refugees, "UNRWA refers."
The report comes less than a week after Hebrew media reports that the White House is ready to announce a new policy aimed at abolishing the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homes, through a series of steps aimed primarily at abolishing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency Palestine refugees "UNRWA ".
The US State Department announced a week ago that the US aid budget for the Palestinian Authority had been reduced by 200 million dollars.
At the end of September September, a donor conference will be held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York to discuss the issue of funding for "UNRWA", which has a financial deficit that threatens to curtail its services to Palestine refugees in its five areas of operation (Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The West Bank and Gaza Strip).
"UNRWA" was established as a United Nations agency by a resolution of the General Assembly in 1949 and mandated to provide assistance and protection to some 5 million registered Palestine refugees.
The agency´s services include education, health care, relief, social services, infrastructure, camp improvement, protection and micro-credit.
"UNRWA" operations are funded almost entirely through voluntary contributions from Member States of the United Nations, where the United States is the largest donor; its contributions to the Agency last year amounted to US $368 million, approximately 30 per cent of the total Funding received.
