The Palestinian Authority has set up a plan to back the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) against the US.
Ahmad Abu Houli, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said that the committee has adopted a multi-level plan to back UNRWA and push for renewing its mandate for three more years (from 2020 to 2023).
The plan seeks to block the way against the US administration and the Israeli occupation government and ban them from terminating the work of UNRWA or aborting its mission, added Abu Houli.
The plan would include a political and a diplomatic movement, led by the PLO and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants, in addition to the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, he noted.
It aims to uncover the US and Israeli anti-UNRWA stances and their campaign to defame the NGO and its staff.
This Palestinian plan coincides with a time when the international agency is in hot water due to Washington's cutting of its funds and the emergence of corruption scandals inside it.
Last year, the US decided to cut its annual $300 million funding to the agency saying that “UNRWA is corrupt and doesn't help peace.”
A few months earlier, UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krineball said that political failure is the reason behind the continuous crisis of refugees and not UNRWA – in response to the US plan to shut down the agency to shaken the Palestinian refugees' position.
The Palestinian move precedes the 74th session of the General Assembly to be held in Sep. 2019. On the sideline, donors to UNRWA will also convene.
