Palestinians slam US plan to dismantle UNRWA

The Palestinian authorities have slammed a reported plan by the US President’s special adviser Jared Kushner to dismantle the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, saying it’s a plot to take a key issue off any future negotiations.  

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has described the newly-surfaced plan, allegedly outlined by Kushner in internal correspondence in January, as a “continuation of the subversive plots to eliminate the Palestinian problem.” By insisting on unraveling the decades-old United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Washington seeks to strike the issue of the Palestinians displaced during the Arab-Israeli war off the agenda of any future negotiations, which is unacceptable, Abbas said 
on Saturday.  

Advocating for the dissolution of the organization that helps provide healthcare and education to tens of thousands of Palestinians, Kushner wrote that the US cannot let the situation remain stable and has to “strategically risk breaking things” to achieve 
its wide-reaching goals.  

In line with his goal to render UNRWA obsolete, Kushner allegedly sought to put pressure on Jordan so it will no longer recognize some 2 million Palestinian refugees as such during a leg of his Middle Eastern tour in June. Kushner reportedly tried to persuade the Jordanian government to resettle the Palestinians within its borders without UNRWA being involved, according to a Palestinian official cited by FP.  

Head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Executive Committee Saeb Erekat reported on Kushner’s attempt to buy the Arab countries’ support in his quest to eliminate the UN agency back in June. 
Palestine, (rt.com), 5 Aug, 2018