Analysts: Washington's decision to extend the freeze on UNRWA's funding is political and will lead to its execution

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Experts and political analysts believe that Washington's extension of the suspension of funding allocated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) for the next year is a political decision aimed at liquidating the Palestinian issue, and it would also lead to the execution of the agency's various services.

Reuters quoted two sources as saying that the US Congress and the White House agreed to continue stopping funding allocated to UNRWA until March 2025, and to open a discussion about alternative ways to assist the Palestinians humanitarianly.

Last January, US President Joe Biden announced the cessation of funding for UNRWA shortly after Tel Aviv launched its allegations accusing employees of the agency of participating in the attack of last October 7.

During his participation in the program “Gaza... What Next?”, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, considered Washington’s decision to continue to stop funding UNRWA a continuation of its biased policies towards Israel, which aim to try to liquidate the right of Palestinian refugees to return.

Liquidation of the Palestinian issue

In this context, Barghouti points out that UN recognition was conditional on the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that was not implemented by the occupying state, as well as the return of refugees, which UNRWA was established to remain until it was achieved, and therefore targeting it comes within the framework of liquidating this right and is part of an attempt to liquidate the Palestinian issue. Fully.

The second reason for the decision - according to the Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative - is related to drying up the sources of life on the historic land of Palestine, which comes among other measures of the occupation, including attacks on Palestinian civil platforms and pirating Palestinian tax funds, to undermine the economic ability to live in Palestine.

Barghouti believes that stopping American aid to the agency is tantamount to a death sentence for its services, and will harm the Palestinians in their various places of refuge and displacement, while Washington’s efforts to establish a port in the Gaza Strip come as a suspicious position whose goals cannot be trusted.

He added that the central goal of the occupation and its supporters to deport the Palestinian people from the Gaza Strip has not changed, pointing in this context to what the occupation Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated that the port could be used to deport Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

In turn, Professor Lex Tackenberg, former director of operations for UNRWA, said that, given that the United States is the largest donor to the agency, its continued suspension of funding for the coming year will have major consequences that will affect all areas where refugees are located, namely the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, in addition to the Gaza Strip.

Double the agency's problems

He pointed out that the agency was facing difficult financial problems in the past that extended for years due to the increase in its requirements, and therefore these problems will increase due to Washington’s freezing of its support, which makes the agency work month by month according to the support it receives from other donors.

He stressed that stopping American funding leads to an extremely dangerous situation that could lead to a complete suspension of UNRWA services, which will lead to a more tragic situation in the Gaza Strip, stressing at the same time that this crisis is an integral part of Israel’s actions that lead to genocide. In the sector.

He added that this policy relies on starvation as a weapon of war, and that this is a flagrant violation of the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide, and it is also a violation of the orders issued by the International Court of Justice, holding the Israeli occupation and the countries supporting it responsible for the deterioration of the situation.

While William Lawrence, a former American diplomat, believes that the countries that decided to resume funding did the right thing, while the United States insists on politicizing the matter by continuing to stop funding, considering this as a victory for Netanyahu in his disputes with Biden.

He explained that the "foolishness" of continuing this freeze came after the meeting of the Occupation Prime Minister with Republican representatives in the Senate, which took this decision, expecting it to be changed by the Democrats after it reaches the House of Representatives, if they win the next elections.

Source: Al Jazeera