Jordanian coalition calls on EU to continue support for UNRWA

AMMAN — Some 18 civil society organisations (CSOs) across Jordan have recently formed a national coalition to mobilise further international support for UNRWA in the midst of the UN agency’s financial crisis.

The formation was an initiative by some Jordanian civil society organisations to call on the international community, represented by the UN secretary general, to assume its responsibilities to protect UNRWA at the political and financial levels.

The Jordanian Jurists Association, the Phenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies, the Arab Women Organisation and the Amman Centre for Human Rights Studies are some of the Jordanian CSOs that have come together in the newly formed coalition. 

In late august this year, the US State Department announced its decision to completely halt all funding to UNRWA cutting $350 million in US aid to the humanitarian organisation and further deepening the tensions between the Palestinian leadership and the Trump’s administration.

UNRWA spokesperson Sami Mshasha voiced the agency’s deep regret and disappointment over the decision, which ended funding after decades of “strong political and financial support”.

“The US used to be the largest and most generous donor to the agency and made valuable contributions to the agency’s humanitarian and life-saving operations, including extending support to ensure girls’ access to education, providing food assistance and ensuring high quality health services to the most vulnerable segments,” Mshasha told The Jordan Times in September. 

On Monday, a delegation representing the 18 organisations called on Ambassador of the European Union to Jordan Andrea Fontana to transmit their call for support to president of the European Commission in Brussels, Jean-Claude Juncker, members of the coalition told The Jordan Times by e-mail. 

In their message to Fontana, the coalition’s representatives called on the EU to continue to provide aid to UNRWA, stressing “the EU’s position in support for the Palestinian people and their rights”.   

The call for support delivered to Fontana is the coalition’s second step in mobilising international support for the UN agency, following a letter submitted to UN Secretary General António Guterres through UNRWA’s office in Amman in mid September, according to members. 

In the letter, coalition representatives expressed that “the US decision to halt the funding to UNRWA threatens the right of Palestinians to their national soil — especially under Washington’s so called deal of the century”, stressing that the decision “will harm the lives of over 5 million Palestinian refugees, including 2 million in Jordan”.

Through the letter, the coalition asked all UN member states to take “quick and effective measures to fill the financial deficit and save the UN agency from attempts of liquidation”, calling on Guterres to “preserve UNRWA and maintain its regular services until a just and honourable solution that guarantees the historic rights of the Palestinian people is reached”.

Over the next weeks, several organisations within the coalition will prepare memos and letters on the same issue to be submitted to the embassies of China, Russia and France, coalition members told The Jordan Times, noting that the selected countries represent permanent members of the UN Security Council. 

The coalition will express to them the importance of continuing political and financial support for UNRWA and to assume their international legal responsibilities in this respect, considering that the UNRWA is an international witness to the crime of expelling Palestinians from their land and homes.