[ad_1]
Tel Aviv – A few months after his arrival as President, Donald Trump promised Israelis and Palestinians, he could use his negotiating skills and business acumen to facilitate the "deal of the century" to bring peace to the Middle East.
But at the end of last month, the Trump administration appeared to play a decisive role in mediating a peace deal, cutting US aid worth US $ 350 million to UNRWA, the UN agency that provides social services and education to Palestinians. .
This decision, just days after Washington cut aid to the Palestinian Authority, outraged the Palestinians and ignored the years of Israeli security policy that fostered continued support, despite the anti-Israeli messages propagated by the operations. UNRWA.
Proponents of the operation hailed the reduction in aid to replace UNRWA's aid mission with a different and less burdensome political institution. The greatest benefit, they say, is of a political nature: replacing UNRWA with a different institution will weaken the legitimacy of Palestinian demands for a "right of return" for Palestinian refugees displaced during the Israeli war. -about 1948. By removing an important Palestinian negotiating map, it will be easier to reach a peace agreement.
Receive the Jewish Week Newsletter by email and never miss our best stories
Free registration
"UNRWA is the main reason for the Palestinian demand for the right of return, refusal and refusal to negotiate – all this is the result of UNRWA campaigns," said Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at UNRWA. Bar Ilan University. Founder of the NGO Monitor.
"This is one of the main obstacles to a compromise on peace," he said. "The basic belief is that the results of the 1948 war will be reversed and these five million people who claim refugee status will return to Israel. UNRWA has kept this myth alive for 70 years.
Born in the aftermath of Israel's war of independence, the Office was created to take care of displaced Palestinians. In the following decades, the organization ran refugee camps, established schools, dispensaries and food distribution operations in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian territories.
UNRWA has more than 5.3 million registered Palestinian refugees worldwide, including the children of the first refugees. In the West Bank and Gaza, it manages around 370 schools and 65 dispensaries. It has distributed approximately $ 325 million in microfinance loans.
Dore Gold, a former foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the UNRWA schools program is radicalizing Palestinian children and noted that Hamas was using one of the school buildings to stockpile children. missiles in 2014.
However, critics of the Trump movement argue that ending funding in such a brutal and immediate way is actually hurting the peace process. For starters, this weakens the position of the United States as a mediator that can be trusted by midwives.
"There was already little chance that the Trump administration would persuade the Palestinians to enter into talks with the United States," writes Nathan Thrall, an analyst with the International Crisis Group and author of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"But the decision to alienate the refugees, who are the largest group of Palestinians in the world and the central cause of the Palestinian national movement since its inception, ensures that the Palestinians will see the Trump administration not as a partial mediator but as a hostile entity. . "
Indeed, Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization, described the policy decision as "cruel", saying that the United States was making Israeli offers and destroying the foundations of peace and security. stability. back for the refugees.
Critics of the movement argue that disabling US funding for UNRWA is a recipe for the destabilization of Palestinian territories, harming the economy and creating a social void that will allow people to "get away from it." other potentially more radical groups to fill the void.
Ironically, the Israeli security establishment has long opposed efforts to reduce UNRWA funding. However, in recent months, Netanyahu would have vetoed the long-standing policy and gave the go-ahead to Trump's cut. This decision was criticized in an article published in Haaretz by Peter Lerner, the former IDF spokesperson for the foreign press.
While the reform of UNRWA and its merger with other UN refugee agencies is a "noble" goal, the sudden reduction in aid is not advisable, Shlomo said. Brom, a researcher at the Institute of National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. strategic planning for the army.
"It was an arbitrary step, taken unilaterally, without preparation, and it is implemented immediately without any capacity for adaptation," he said. "This will cause an economic and humanitarian crisis in addition to the current crisis and in the West Bank. this will make the situation of the Palestinian Authority worse than it already was.
Brom hypothesized that an aid given to UNRWA would not push the world or the international community to change the compensation and "return" requirements of Palestinian refugees. He also believed that the international community would find a way to maintain UNRWA.
Observers say that Gaza, which is already facing a humanitarian crisis, is at greater risk than the West Bank, where the economy is relatively stronger and where stability is better.
"The role of Americans in Gaza is much bigger and theIt is more likely that Islamists will perform their duties. I predict that without the backfilling of donors (which could materialize), the negative impacts seem the most likely and the most likely to be felt quickly in Gaza, "wrote Scott Lasensky, US ambassador to Israel under President Obama. "In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority can fill some of the void and security cooperation backed by the United States [between Israel and the PA] continues despite the pressures. "
In the last 15 years or so, Gaza's economy has been shattered by repeated wars and Israel's security blockade. About 80,000 Gazans received food aid from UNRWA in 2000; today, the figure is close to 1 million.
"If the United States were seen as honest intermediaries, they are now turning their backs and reducing their legitimacy in the eyes of the Palestinians," said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli non-profit organization. She said that humanitarian aid drives Palestinians to despair and lack of hope. "It is urgent to feed your family and make ends meet," she said. "But the longer-term question is:" We have no future here. "
[ad_2]Source link
