Jeremy Corbyn blasts Donald Trump over 'shameful' move to axe support for UN's Palestinian aid agency
2 min read
Jeremy Corbyn has hit out at Donald Trump after the United States pulled funding for a UN agency providing aid to Palestinian refugees.
The US State Department announced on Saturday that it was ending all funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), branding it "irredeemably flawed".
The move triggered a furious response from the Labour leader, who called it a "shameful" blow against "a vital UN refugee agency".
He said: "The UK must help to fill the gap by boosting its contributions.
"Support for Palestinian refugees is a vital commitment until there is a just and viable settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict."
Middle East minister Alistair Burt also threw his weight behind the organisation, saying the UK remained "firmly committed" to the relief body.
"UNRWA is a necessary humanitarian and stabilising force in the region, providing vital services to millions of Palestinian refugees every day," he said in a statement.
"The UK remains a firmly committed supporter of UNRWA, and Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, and we will do everything we can to maintain continuity of essential services at this time."
UNRWA was originally set up to help Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli, and the US is its largest single donor.
But American officials have claimed the US makes a "very disproportionate" contribution to the agency and accused Palestinians of continuing "to bash America" in spite of the funding.
A spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said: "Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office meanwhile backed the move by the United States on Saturday night, and said the UNRWA's definition of what constitutes a Palestinian refugee remained “one of the main problems perpetuating the conflict" in the Middle East.
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