Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are working together to end the United Nations special body for Palestinian refugees, French newspaper Le Monde reported this week.
Having earlier earlier this year signed a customization agreement that is widely seen as a game changer for the Middle East, both countries are now benefiting from the deal, including trade and tourism, as well as a greater impact on the international arena.
Members of a Palestinian family, some covered in masks due to COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, stand through the door of their home while receiving food aid provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency to Palestinian Refugees ( UNRWA) in Gaza
(Photo: AP)
Jerusalem has long viewed the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Southeast (UNRWA) as a barrier to a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
UNWRA, badly left in 2018 after US President Donald Trump’s administration decided to cut off all US funding to the group, is looking at the “worst financial crisis in history” among coronavirus pandemics, according to its Washington DC manager, Elizabeth Campbell.
Following the U.S. decision to withdraw funding, UNRWA has relied on oil-rich Gulf countries, including the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to plug the budget hole; yet, according to Le Monde, the UAE has not moved any money yet this year, despite the escalating crisis.
a child stands beside a sack of flour as people come to get food aid from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) distribution center in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip
(Photo: AFP)
According to the report, Emirati officials are considering allowing the group to “gradually disappear.”
Earlier this month, Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the UN, urged Trump to crack down on the number of Palestinian refugees registered in UNRWA.
“This is about reality, and about the whole world accepting that there are millions of people who are considered refugees according to UNRWA, but they will never talk about the facts,” she was said to have said.