Lawmakers to US Ambassador to the UN: Restart Palestinian assistance - The Jerusalem Post

WASHINGTON - Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI) penned a letter signed by 59 members of Congress, calling on US ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft to reinstate money for humanitarian assistance for Palestinians, including those stemming from the UNRWA.Among the representatives who signed the letter: Andy Levin, Ro Khanna, Ilhan Omar, Jamie Raskin, Rashida Tlaib, Alan Lowenthal, and Ted Lieu.The UNRWA had faced budgetary difficulties since last year, when the US, its biggest donor, halted its normal yearly donation of $360 million to the humanitarian organization for 2020. The United States and Israel have both accused UNRWA of mismanagement and anti-Israeli incitement.“As COVID-19 pandemic numbers continue to rise, we write to seek your assistance in the effort to restart US humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, including UNRWA,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter. “As you know, the pandemic has now reached the Gaza Strip with cases beginning to inexorably rise in a place with few resources to combat the outbreak,” they added.The lawmakers went on to say that “it is important that we empower these public health officials, who are deliberately putting themselves in harm’s way for the common good, by providing them the resources they need to address the COVID-19 pandemic.”“The US government has funding available through its Migration and Refugee Assistance and Economic Support Fund programs for immediate obligation to address this deteriorating humanitarian situation. The administration need only obligate these funds - their use requires neither additional legislative language nor supplemental appropriations,” they added. “These funds could be put to instant use supporting the public health response, including the 3,300 health care workers staffing 144 UNRWA health clinics that are now on the front lines in combating this pandemic."US ambassador to Israel David Friedman announced on April 16 that the US would provide 5 million dollars to Palestinian hospitals to help to combat the coronavirus. "The USA, as the world's top humanitarian aid donor, is committed to assisting the Palestinian people, and others worldwide, in this crisis," he tweeted, and said that the money would go to meet immediate, life-saving needs in combating COVID-19. It was the first time that the US would provide aid to the Palestinian Authority since Trump's decision to cut all funding to the PA.Jared Kushner, senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law, has been a harsh critic of UNRWA. In April of last year, Kushner forwarded a letter on January 11, 2018 noting this criticism to various current and former government officials, including former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, former national security adviser H. R. McMaster, and Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s former special envoy to the Middle East.“It’s very important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNWRA,” wrote Kushner. The UNRWA “perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient, and doesn’t help peace. Our goal can’t be to keep things stable as they are, our goal had to be to make things significantly BETTER! Sometimes, you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there.”

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Lawmakers to US Ambassador to the UN: Restart Palestinian assistance - The Jerusalem Post
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