Palestinians Face Massive Cuts in Economic Aid: Who Suffers?

By Jesse Wheeler

News

The United States government recently announced dramatic cuts in economic aid for Palestinians. In January, the administration announced a $65 million cut in funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), eventually withholding $305 million in aid. This past month, however, the administration confirmed a decision to slash all remaining US financial support for UNWRA, one week after cutting over $200 million in direct humanitarian aid. Likewise, $25 million was cut from Jerusalem hospitals focused on providing healthcare services otherwise unavailable to Palestinians, while most recently it was announced that the US will cut all funding for community-based peacebuilding initiatives.

Established in 1949, UNRWA is responsible for education, healthcare, food and emergency assistance, and refugee camp infrastructure for Palestinian refugees. In addition to East Jerusalem, The West Bank, and Gaza, the agency operates throughout Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. In response to the cuts, UNWRA has already begun laying off employees and suspending programs.

Analysis

There exist multiple lenses through which one can examine such a policy. Officially, the cuts serve as an incentive to draw Palestinians back to the negotiating table with Israel. US Presidential Advisor Jared Kushner is on record as saying, “that ending the assistance outright could strengthen his negotiating hand,” while Palestinian diplomat Hanan Ashrawi describes US leadership as “demonstrating the use of cheap blackmail as a political tool.”

Cuts are being viewed by others, however, as the execution of long-standing Israeli aggression against the Palestinians by means of its US allies. Netanyahu, for example, has long advocated for the elimination of UNRWA. In this analysis, the cuts represent an attempt to sideline the refugee crisis, and with it the “right of return.” These, however, are core Palestinian grievances central to the conflict’s long-term intractability. In this view, what the Israelis and their American benefactors desire is not peace but acquiescence.

Meanwhile, others view the cuts as representing an intentional attempt by the US Administration to destabilize and dismantle the post-World War international system, using the Palestine-Israel conflict as a “testbed for Trump’s plan to tear up the rules-based international order.” A more critical perspective argues that the current administration is simply “blowing the lid off” an already a farcical pretense of a peace process. By making explicit that which was up till now implicit, the US reveals too much of its hand and therefore ability to exert leverage. And the fallout, it is argued, could actually be of significant advantage to the Palestinian national movement.

For our part, IMES approaches the situation by taking seriously the plight of those most vulnerable, regardless which side might ultimately benefit. Essentially, how do these policies affect those on the ground? Who suffers?

Theological and Missiological Reflections

The simple reality is that Palestinian refugees comprise one of the most vulnerable populations on earth. It is they who suffer as they lose access to education, health care and humanitarian aid. Our moral and ethical obligation as followers of Christ, however, is to ask how “ordinary” persons are affected by macro-scale policies, regardless the political justification. We must think of the young girl whose teacher stops receiving a paycheck, the cancer patient losing his only access to health care, and to the family of five no longer able to collect food rations.

Ultimately, it must be asked what responsibility local churches might have in supporting those in distress. Surely the right of someone to live with dignity does not negate his or her right to return home, nor absolve those ultimately responsible. Likewise, in thinking about what responsibility the global Church might have toward Palestinian refugees, I can’t help but recall here the words of Jesus:

⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me’ (Matthew 25: 40-45, NIV).