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U.S. Decision to Defund UNRWA Removes a Major Obstacle to Peace
(The Hill) Amb. Ron Prosor - Since 1948, the number of Palestinian refugees under UNRWA auspices ballooned from 700,000 to almost 5.5 million. Over 50% of the so-called refugees have found homes across the globe many years ago, and would not be considered refugees by any standard other than UNRWA's. While the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been working overtime over the past decade dealing with 30 million refugees, UNRWA operates with a budget that's four times larger. UNRWA also employs 30,000, a number three times as large as UNHCR. Will the de-funding of UNRWA create short-term challenges? Of course. But those are quite realistically alleviated by transferring UNRWA budgets to either UNHCR or the Palestinian Authority, which as the governing body in the West Bank should also be in charge of education and social services. One can only commend the current U.S. administration for attempting to remove one of the major obstacles to peace in our region. The writer, chairman of the Abba Eban Institute of International Diplomacy at the IDC Herzliya, is a former Israeli ambassador to the UN and the UK.