"The United States has been giving UNRWA about $150 million a year (for its regular budget), and the next tranche of $125 million has been cut back by $60 million. Needless to say, this decision has been greeted by a good deal of hand-wringing, teeth-gnashing, and plain opposition. But it was the right decision.
Why? With one exception all refugees in the world are assisted by the UN agency that is supposed to attend to them: UNHCR, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. This admirable organization works in 130 countries with a staff of about 11,000. In 2016 it resettled 190,000 people. One of its core missions is 'ending statelessness.'
The sole exception is Palestinians. UNRWA handles them, and its mission appears to be 'never ending statelessness.' A phrase such as 'ending statelessness' would be anathema and is found nowhere on its web site. Since 1950, UNHCR has tried to place refugees in permanent new situations, while since 1950 UNRWA has with its staff of 30,000 'helped' over 5 million Palestinian 'refugees' to remain 'refugees.'
These and other UNRWA numbers tell several stories. First, UNRWA has three times as large a staff as UNHCR-but helps far fewer people than the 17 million refugees UNHCR tries to assist.
Second, one does have to wonder why the United States is giving UNRWA two or three times as much as all Arab donors combined. Just to take an example, the immensely rich Qatar gave a grand total of one million dollars to UNRWA in 2016.
Third, the refugee numbers ought to raise some questions...why is it that the number of Palestinian 'refugees' keeps growing, not declining?... More money for UNRWA won't solve anything."