WEST BANK (MEMO) –
Director of Authority 302 for Defense of Refugee Rights, Ali Huwaidi, says that Zionist lobby groups 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 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 mobilize to tackle the issue, he said, in order to preserve the issue of the refugees and the right of return.
Meanwhile, the spokesman for UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Adnan Abu-Hasna, denied on Sunday shortages of food aid for refugees in Gaza.
“The reports about the food aid shortages were not precise,” he said, stressing that the food aid currently in UNRWA’s warehouses “is enough until the end of this year.”
He also denied speaking to the media about this issue, highlighting that the food aid program is ongoing.
Abu-Hasna’s remarks came following a statement by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), saying that he had announced that UNRWA would not be able to complete its food aid program at the end of this month.