A duty and a responsibility

The decision of US President Donald Trump’s administration to cut aid to UNRWA is not only regrettable, but also incorrect and irresponsible.

Millions of school children, teachers and other personnel will be directly hit and hurt as a result of such ill-timed, biased-toward-Israel move.

A lot of people have stopped, for some time now, taking US discourse about human rights, democracy and liberty in the world seriously, in light of so many US foreign policy edicts and acts that run counter to American claims about support of human rights and global peace.

Therefore, we will not appeal in this article to America's conscience and consciousness regarding human values.

What should be stated, loud and clear however, is that, by directly supporting and abetting Israel's occupation and colonisation of Palestine, since even before the creation of the "state" of Israel, successive US administrations have directly contributed to the uprooting and displacement of Palestinians.

It is American money, arms and political backing, which the US lavished and lavishes on Israel, that have both emboldened and enabled Israel to occupy and expand in so much of Palestine, thus causing the displacement of millions of Palestinians, who have become and are still vulnerable refugees.

America and Israel, and other European colonial powers of course, are, and should be, held liable for the successive disasters that have befell the Palestinians, and it is the duty and responsibility of these powers to actively seek to rectify the tragic mistakes they have committed against Palestinians and Palestine, and to do all in their power to restore their full rights.

These include, among many other things, the withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Palestinian lands, compensating the Palestinians for all the damage done, and enabling all Palestinians to exercise their right of return to wherever they came from in Palestine.

The solution to the refugee problem is not by wishing that refugees disperse in thin air, nor by denying their status and negatively affecting their livelihoods by cutting much-needed funds, as the administrations of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are intent upon doing, but by addressing the cause of Palestinian displacement and refugee issue: Ending Israeli occupation.

Until this happens, both Israel and the US, as well as all European colonial powers that contributed to the refugee crisis, should shoulder their responsibility and offer all aid needed to the refugees. 

Countries, like human beings, should be held accountable for their actions and the consequences of such actions.

Supporting UNRWA, therefore, is neither a charity nor an act of kindness, by those who contributed to the creation of the refugee problem, but a duty and a responsibility.