Senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi asserts that “the US has no jurisdiction to disband UNRWA (the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency) or to deprive Palestinian refugees of their rights.
Ashrawi’s statement comes after a Friday report in the US-based Foreign Policy magazine claiming that Jared Kushner, Mideast adviser to US President Donald Trump, called in an email this year for a “sincere effort to disrupt” UNRWA and has been pushing to remove the refugee status of millions of Palestinians as part of an apparent effort to shutter the agency.
The PLO official also blasts Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn, who introduced legislation last month aimed at altering the US definition of a Palestinian refugee and limiting US aid to UNRWA.
“Such a campaign targets more than 5.3 million people, many of whom continue to endure grave hardships and deprivation and have suffered repeated displacement, and threatens to defund UNRWA; in addition to being illegal and irresponsible, it is also extremely cruel and inhumane,” says Ashrawi.
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Monday, August 6, 2018
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