Actors Hugh Grant and Viggo Mortensen are among more than 25 celebrities and public figures expressing “horror” over US President Donald Trump’s decision to cut funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, according to an advocacy group.
“The real target of this lethal attack is the Palestinian people themselves,” the group said in a joint statement. “It has been launched with the clear aim of dismantling their rights, by dismantling the institution that is charged with protecting them.”
Actresses Gillian Anderson, Olivia Wilde, Emma Thompson and Tilda Swinton are also among the signatories.
The letter was released by the Hoping Foundation, a London-based group that assists Palestinian children.
Expressing frustration with a freeze in Mideast peace efforts, Trump this month blamed the Palestinians for the deadlock and threatened to cut US funding. Washington subsequently suspended a $65 million payment to UNRWA, the UN agency that provides education, health care and other social services to over 5 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants scattered across the Middle East.
— AP
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