Zionist lobbies succeeded in pushing states to stop funding UNRWA, rights group says

Director of Authority 302 for Defense of Refugee Rights, Ali Huwaidi, said yesterday that Zionist lobbying had succeeded in pushing many countries to stop contributing to the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

Speaking to Quds Press, Huwaidi said: “UNRWA’s crisis has never been financial, but completely political,” stressing that the Zionist lobby and the American administrations “have been targeting the issue of Palestine refugees and the right to return.”

Huweidi added: “The state of the Zionist occupation has been conducting intensive contacts with the donor countries which contribute to the budget of the UNRWA. The Zionist lobbies succeeded to push many donor countries to stop its contributions.”

“Britain has recently halved its contribution for 2022. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait reduced their contributions and the UAE completely stopped its contribution in February 2021.”

In light of this critical situation, Huwaidi reiterated that “there is no alternative to UNRWA, which was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 to deal with Palestine refugees.”

He noted that there are currently six million Palestine refugees, mainly in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

To solve the UNRWA crisis, the Palestinian Authority should mobilise to tackle the issue, he said, in order to preserve the issue of the refugees and the right of return.

Huwaidi concluded: “More than $1 billion was mobilised during the first days of the Russian war in Ukraine. This proves that the financial support for the UNRWA is not the issue, but the right of return and the refugee issue themselves are.”

The UN has a role in maintaining the permanent status of Palestinian refugees