"The US State Department's Population, Migration and Refugees Bureau ended 2021 with another payment to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), a move some experts have criticized as wrongheaded and in line with an eagerness to blindly reverse policies put forth by the Trump administration.
On Dec. 30, the bureau tweeted that it was proud to announce that it was providing $99 million for UNRWA, which it claimed will go towards the 'education, health care and emergency relief of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children and families.'
It also noted a focus on the agency's accountability, transparency, neutrality and stability – all issues that UNRWA has been criticized for...
Asaf Romirowsky, executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and author of Religion, Politics and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief, said the UN agency is the gatekeeper of the one single issue that sustains the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ensuring it will never end – the 'right of return' for Palestinians to the entire territory of what was once British Mandatory Palestine.
Unlike other refugees recognized by the United Nations, UNRWA is unique in conferring refugee status to its descendants, some of who are five generations removed from actual purported refugees.
'And so, you have every year, based on that, a so-called 'natural growth' of Arab-Palestinians based on a fictitious amount of individuals, where they demand more money to receive aid. And that's how the cycle plays out,' said Romirowsky..."