US UN Envoy Calls on Arab Countries to Give More to UNRWA
Haley listed how much those countries, along with Algeria, Tunisia, Turkey, and others had given - or not given - to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which helps Palestinian refugees. Washington, long the biggest donor, cut its aid to $60 million from a promised $365 million this year.
“No group of countries is more generous with their words than the Palestinians’ Arab neighbors, and other OIC member states,” Haley told a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East, citing the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Reuters reported.
“But all of the words spoken here in New York do not feed, clothe, or educate a single Palestinian child. All they do is get the international community riled up,” she claimed.
Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour said Haley had insulted US allies “in an arrogant way.”
Haley also called out China and Russia for talking “a big game about the Palestinian cause” but providing only $350,000 and $2 million respectively to UNRWA in 2017. China’s UN Ambassador Ma Zhaoxu told the council: “We have no intention of competing with any other countries.”
Haley said it was time for the “regional states in particular to step up.”
According to IRIN, a nonprofit that reports on humanitarian issues, the UAE and Kuwait were ranked in the top five most generous aid donors compared with national income globally in 2017, while the United States came in at 16.
“Sometimes the numbers and facts talk for themselves,” said Kuwait’s UN Ambassador Mansour al-Otaibi.
UAE UN Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh agreed with Haley that real action was needed to assist the Palestinian people.
“With our total donation of more than $125 million just last year, we believe that we are doing our part to address the immediate needs of the Palestinians,” she said.
