$ 150 million will be directed to the organization's activities • Additional funding will be allocated to a hospital network in East Jerusalem • Ambassador Arden: "The agency perpetuates the conflict"
UNRWA facility in the Gaza Strip
Photo:
IP
The United States announced tonight (Wednesday) that it is working with Congress to renew economic aid to the Palestinians, which includes $ 75 million in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, $ 10 million for UN programs, and $ 150 million for UNRWA.
A State Department statement said the Biden administration intends to renew vital security assistance programs as well.
According to the announcement, all assistance will be in accordance with US law.
Economic assistance will include support for the rehabilitation of small and medium-sized business entities affected by the corona plague.
The assistance will also include support for needy households, so that they have access to basic needs such as food and clean water.
Another part of the funding will support the hospital network in East Jerusalem.
An additional $ 15 million will be allocated to address the corona crisis and cases of food insecurity.
The United States will also renew its support for UNRWA services, which include education frameworks for half a million Palestinian children in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip.
Israel's Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations, Gilad Ardan, responded that "Israel strongly opposes the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activities taking place at UNRWA facilities.
"We believe that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has no right to exist in its current form, and that its inciting activity and the fictitious way in which it defines who a Palestinian 'refugee' is only perpetuates the conflict and encourages hatred among the Palestinian public."
"In conversations I have had with the U.S. State Department," Arden added, "I have expressed my regret and opposition to the decision to resume aid to the agency without at least implementing the necessary reforms to stop its inciting activity and the antisemitic content taught in its schools.
"The financial support for UNRWA must be conditional on at least the implementation of all the necessary reforms. UNRWA is currently a body that engages in political activity and allows incitement to violence and therefore has no right to exist in its current form."
