January 21, 2005

Assault on UNRWA

From a letter to today's Independent:

One way that Secretary Rice could facilitate a settlement of the Arab-Israel conflict would be to stop US payments to UNWRA, the peculiar UN agency that perpetuates the conflict.


A few months ago I mentioned that Israel may seek UNRWA's withdrawal from Gaza. I got the notion partly from Uri Avnery and partly from Israel's false accusation that an UNRWA ambulance was used for terrorist purposes. Well now a Hebrew University professor, Jack Cohen,(quoted above) has called for the American withdrawal of funding from UNRWA. Given that UNRWA is a major source of housing, healthcare, education and jobs, where would this leave Gaza? And how conducive would its withdrawal be to peace? Perhaps "one way that Secretary Rice could facilitate a settlement of the Arab-Israel conflict would be to stop US payments" to Israel.

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