Netanyahu warns he will target UNRWA via Trump

Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to target the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) when US President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month, Yedioth Ahranoth reported on Monday. He made his threat in the wake of Friday’s UN Security Council Resolution 2334 which condemned Israeli settlement activities in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu plans to target UNRWA, the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian people and the anti-Israel [sic] UN employees,” the newspaper reported. UNRWA is the UN agency established specifically to cater for the social, medical and educational needs of Palestinian refugees.

Yedioth Ahranoth added that the Israeli leader will push the new US administration to cut its assistance to the UN. He could be successful, as Trump severely criticised Resolution 2334 and the UN itself, pledging that things would be different when he enters the White House.

Read: Netanyahu fears more international measures as he accuses world of ‘spitting at us’

“The big loss yesterday for Israel in the United Nations will make it much harder to negotiate peace,” tweeted Trump on Saturday. “Too bad, but we will get it done anyway!”

On Friday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution demanding Israel to halt settlement building and expansion in the Palestinian territories. The resolution, which was co-sponsored by Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal and Venezuela, was passed by a 14-0 vote after the United States abstained.

As a response to the resolution, Israel and it’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pledged to conduct ‘revenge demolitions‘ of Palestinian homes; approved building some 5,600 housing units in East Jerusalem for illegal settlements;  cut funding to five UN institutions worth $7.8 million; and recalled it’s ambassadors from Senegal and New Zealand.