Following a threat from Donald Trump, UN agency helping Palestinian refuges is denied US funding

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US ends funding to UN Palestinian refugee aid agency, following up on Trump threat

Updated earlier today at 6:57am

PHOTO: The UNRWA helps those who fled since the 1948 war that led to creation of the state of Israel. (Reuters: Mohammed Salem)

RELATED STORY: US withholds $82 million in Palestinian aid after Trump threat

RELATED STORY: Australia ends direct aid to Palestinian Authority

RELATED STORY: Israel passes controversial 'Jewish nation-state law'

The United States has halted all funding to a UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees, in a move likely to further heighten tensions between the Palestinians and the Trump administration.

Key points:

• UNRWA says it helps around 5 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East
• The US had withheld $82m of funding in January, pending a review
• The UN has called for other countries to fill funding gap, with Germany already offering to help

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the business model and fiscal practices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were an "irredeemably flawed operation."

"The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA," she said in a statement.

Ms Nauert said the agency's, "endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years."

UNRWA rejected the criticisms, with spokesman Chris Gunness describing it as "a force for regional stability".

Speaking in Jordan, where more than 2 million registered Palestinian refugees live, including 370,000 in 10 refugee camps, Mr Gunness said: "It is a deeply regrettable decision … some of the most disadvantaged, marginalised and vulnerable people on this planet are likely to suffer."

PHOTO: The UNRWA supports thousands of Palestinian refugees including those who have fled to war torn Syria. (AP: UNRWA)

Read more here

Ireland and the Palestinians

Jerusalem, Middle East conflict, and Donald Trump

New post on Ecumenics and Quakers

Jordan FM, EU’s Mogherini discuss Jerusalem by Maurizio 11.01.2018 - Jerusalem, Israel - Middle East Monitor This post is also available in Italian Jordan’s foreign minister and the European Union’s foreign policy chief discussed Jerusalem over the phone Monday and agreed on the need to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of a two-state solution, Anadolu reports. In a written statement, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said Ayman Safadi and Federica Mogherini addressed the results of a meeting of the Arab League ministerial working group hosted by Jordan on Saturday. Safadi told Mogherini the Arab countries that opposed the US’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital had reached a consensus on working together with the international community to recognize the Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. The ministerial working group, which comprised the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Palestine and Morocco, also proposed finding an alternative mediator in the Middle East peace process following the US decision on Jerusalem. In addition, they agreed on the need to intensify efforts for a political solution to end the Palestinian-Israeli dispute by discussing ways to counter the US move. Last week, Jerusalem’s Knesset, or parliament, passed a bill making it necessary to obtain the approval of 80 out of 120 assembly members — rather than a simple majority — to change Jerusalem’s official status or municipal boundaries. The move followed US President Donald Trump’s decision last month to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, drawing international condemnation, including in a UN resolution spearheaded by Turkey. Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Middle East conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem — occupied by Israel since 1967 — might eventually serve as the capital of an independent Palestinian state. The original article can be found on our partner's website here Maurizio | January 11, 2018 at 11:53 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/pqqtS-N9 Comment    See all comments    Like

EVENT: Jerusalem 50 years of de-Arabisation of the Holy City

Jerusalem

50 years of de-Arabisation of the Holy City

Australians for Palestine

Wednesday 28 June 2017

6.30pm to 8.30pm

Multicultural Hub - Blue Room

506 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne

Bookings on Eventbrite

Ramadan in Palestine

#Ramadan in Alquds is different. #Palestine pic.twitter.com/zci764LX2i

— Abbas Sarsour (@iFalasteen) June 26, 2015

Muslims sheltered by Christians of the Greek Orthodox tradition

Muslim Gaza Refugees Find Shelter 

In Greek Orthodox Church

For more please go to the Religion section of Huffington Post

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) - and a controversial decision

From Huffing Post - read more here

The largest U.S. Presbyterian church narrowly voted Friday to divest from three multinational corporations that it said supply Israel with products that promote violence in occupied Palestinian territories.

The divestment, vehemently opposed by many of the nation's prominent Jewish organizations, and hailed by many pro-Palestinian activists, passed by seven votes after hours of tense and complex debate. It means the Presbyterian Church (USA) will sell its shares of Motorola Solutions, Caterpillar and Hewlett Packard, worth about $21 million.

The vote at the church's biennial General Assembly, meeting this week in Detroit, was 310 to 303. It makes the 1.76-million member church the largest religious group to vote for divestment, an issue that has been fiercely debated in recent years among mainline Protestants. The Episcopal Church and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America both have rejected divestment. Presbyterians have discussed divestment for a decade, and a similar vote was narrowly defeated two years ago at the last church assembly.

There was an audible gasp on the floor in at the COBO Center in downtown Detroit after the motion passed. "In no way is this a reflection of our lack of love for our Jewish brothers and sisters," Heath Rada, the church assembly's moderator, told the assembly afterwards.

But opponents described it as exactly that.

For more on the topic of BDS (Boycotts, Sanctions and Divestments) please go to the links below:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott,_Divestment_and_Sanctions

http://www.bdsmovement.net

News from disputed land - disappearing farm land as settlers occupy Palestinian territory

From the occupied Palestinian territories to the European Union

Raba Fanoun from Nahhalin village near Bethlehem shows his olive trees destroyed by Israeli settlers.
© Merita Saajos 
       

09 October 2013

Jenny Derbyshire, a volunteer for the World Council of Churches programme for Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), previously based in Bethlehem, was part of a team that travelled to Brussels recently to bring to light stories of Palestinians living under siege. Derbyshire, from Ireland, used her eye witness accounts from the occupied territory to urge the European Union to support the two-state solution for peace and stability in the region. 
 
By Jenny Derbyshire
In March this year, Raba Fanoun, from the village of Nahhalin near Bethlehem, discovered that settlers had come to his land during the night with hatchets and destroyed 80 mature olive trees, which his father had planted thirty years ago. This was nearly half the total number of his mature olive trees. The livelihood for his extended family depended on them. Later that day, volunteers from the EAPPI Bethlehem team visited Fanoun, to report on this destruction.

“When you plant a small flower in your house,” Fanoun said, “imagine how you feel when it dies; and think about the trees we have cared for, for 30 years.”

“This is a big attack on your livelihood,” I said.

“It’s not just our livelihood, it’s our life,” was the reply.

During my three months in Bethlehem I was often in this village, which is under constant threat from settlements on the surrounding hilltops, including the huge nearby settlement of Beitar Illit. In April we were called out to witness and report on the military orders left under stones on village farmland, confiscating another area of land for the extension of the security zone around Beitar Illit.

“When you go home, tell people in your countries,” the mayor urged us, “tell them what is happening here. This is the last of the farmland of our village. They want us to leave. They are trying to drive us away.”

As part of a meeting of EAPPI representatives with EU officials in September this year, I was able to tell the stories from Nahhalin to members of the European Parliament (MEPs), permanent representatives, officials from the External Action Service and the cabinet of the commissioner for research. We showed them a photo of the building activity that we saw taking place in Beitar Illit, right above Palestinian farmland. Such establishments lead to the extension of the security zone, and run-off from the settlement sewage system polluting the Palestinian farmland and water supply.

I was also able to show a photo of Fanoun with his destroyed olive trees and describe the impact settlement has on local people. We told the MEPs what Fanoun and the mayor shared with us.
We also brought to them words of another farmer from Nahhalin: “What they call Area C is actually the future of Palestine.” What most people in the occupied territories shared with us was that “the situation is urgent, if the two-state solution is to have any chance of success”.

For the visit to Brussels I worked as a team with two other former Ecumenical Accompaniers: Jonathan Adams from the United Kingdom and Dominika Blachnika from Poland were EAPPI volunteers in East Jerusalem in 2012; I was in Bethlehem this year and in East Jerusalem in 2012. So we also described the impact of the developments in the E1 area outside Jerusalem on the lives of the Bedouin people we had met there.

This is now a well-known issue politically, but the stories from people living there and the impact of the loss of land, water and access to Jerusalem shows the level of displacement and deprivation. We linked this with the stories from the Bethlehem villages, where Palestinian people are also threatened by forced displacement. Their farmlands are disappearing into settlement construction, is claimed by the route of the separation barrier, and comes under repeated attacks from settlers.

We shared what we had seen and passed on the words of the Palestinians we got to know during our stay; we shared maps and photos; we shared statistics. We reminded politicians that under international humanitarian law, which the EU upholds, Palestinians have a protected status and settlements are illegal. EU officials have recently taken steps through issuing EU guidelines on grants and loans to settlements. We hope that our testimonies will encourage them to continue in this direction and take the necessary actions for the resolution of the Israel Palestine conflict.

Read also:
EU asked to honour its position on Israeli settlements (WCC news release of 1 October 2013)
More information on Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel

    

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, by the end of 2012 the WCC had 345 member churches representing more than 500 million Christians from Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other traditions in over 110 countries. The WCC works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway.

 

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