Foreign Financial Dependence: The Case of Palestine and UNRWA

“States use foreign aid as a means of pursuing foreign policy objectives.” This argument is especially pertinent to the United States, where foreign aid has been integral to its foreign policy. A recent example attesting to this is the US funding nongovernmental organizations and individuals operating in Cuba, with the stated goal of implementing peace and democracy.

This is not a new tool used in politics, however. Foreign aid has always been present within the realm of international relations but surged after the end of World War II in 1945. Since then, it has been an increasingly vital and controversial subject in contemporary politics. The dynamic between aid recipients and donors indicates an asymmetrical balance in global power. Power here is defined as “the ability to affect outcomes.” Foreign aid has been crucial to Palestinians, who have been dependent on aid from the international community, which the US dominates as a global power that has utilized aid to pursue imperialism and promote colonialism. In the case of Palestine, the US intentionally uses aid in an attempt to circumvent any genuine political process and enable the continuation of Israel’s settler colonial status quo.

The US has been the largest financial aid donor to Palestinians, despite its close relationship to the Israeli settler-colonial project. Therefore, one discerns that US assistance to Palestinians is not based on an “altruistic humanitarianism or neutral peace-building, but… through the lens of the US’s close relationship to Israel.” This article will address the correlation of US funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) vis à vis Israel’s intensified political violence against the Palestinians. US funding to Palestinians helps keep the Israeli’s violation of human rights against the Palestinians intact.

UNRWA & the US

Since 1950, the United States has been UNRWA’s top funder. UNRWA was established December 8th, 1949, as an “operational, nonpolitical agency to take responsibility for the humanitarian aspects of the Palestinian refugee problem.” According to UNRWA’s definition, Palestinian refugees are “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine from June 1st, 1946, to May 15th, 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood due to the 1948 conflict.” The humanitarian services UNRWA provides include primary healthcare, education, “infrastructure and camp improvement, microfinance and emergency response, including in situations of armed conflict.” The West Bank hosts more than 871,000 refugees living in 19 different camps, while more than 1.4 million are in the Gaza Strip. Over the past seven decades, UNRWA has been a cornerstone of Palestinian refugee life.

A unique financial distribution from 2000 to 2005, 2009, 2014, and 2018 can be observed in the graph below. The US increased financial assistance to UNRWA between 2000 and 2005. In 2009, the graph shows an exponential finance increase of about $83 million. Additionally, US financial support to UNRWA increased by almost $100 million in 2014. US contributions suddenly dropped in 2018.

One must place this graph in the context of the major events that took place in the aforementioned years. The Second Palestinian Intifada (uprising), known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, occurred between 2000 and 2005, where approximately 4,412 Palestinians were killed, and 49,000 Palestinians injured. During this time, US funding to UNRWA increased in comparison to the years prior. Three years later, the 2008 Israeli assault on Gaza, known as Operation Cast Lead, lasted for 23 days from December 27, 2008, until January 18, 2009. The war left 1,400 Palestinians killed and 5,000 injured.

The graph above illustrates a sharp spike in aid between 2008 and 2010. In numbers, the United States allocated $184.7 million in 2008, $268 million in 2009, and $237.8 million in 2010. The sudden increase in the US’ aid in two years was during Operation Cast Lead. Like the previous event analysis, the graph above shows a sharp spike in assistance between 2012 and 2014. In numbers, the US allocated $233.3 million in 2012, $294 million in 2013, and $398.7 million in 2014. Similarly, the increase in aid during these years overlapped with another Israeli assault on Gaza, Operation Protective Edge, between July 8 and August 29, 2014.

There is a clear pattern wherein the US increases funding to UNRWA after devastating Israeli military assaults against the Palestinians, mainly Gaza in recent years. At the time (and still to this day), the Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated locations in the world, with more than half of its population unemployed and in poverty.

Maintaining the Status Quo

On August 31, 2018, the Trump Administration reported that the US would end funding to UNRWA, as a way to pressure the Palestinians to submit to a peace plan with the Israelis (later known as the “Deal of the Century”), and reduce the number of recognized Palestinian refugees. Though Israel continues its apartheid policies against Palestinians daily, the violence did not escalate to the visible intensity of prior assaults.

It comes as no surprise that funding to UNRWA is a tactic the US uses to facilitate the continuation of Israel’s status quo. The numbers demonstrate a direct correlation between US funding to Palestinians at times of intense Israeli violence. Donors pay for “Palestinian services, while simultaneously allowing Israel to exploit a Palestinian economy often kept solvent by aid.” Aid has ameliorated the burden on Israel from the costs of the occupation — land theft, building and expanding illegal settlements, and implementing violent and racist policies against the Palestinians. US aid policy towards UNRWA aims to stabilize Israel’s colonial regime by alleviating the most severe consequences of its practices towards the Palestinians. Economic inducements do not promote genuine political reconciliation. Palestinians’ freedom is not measured in dollars, but in dignity, self-determination, and attainment of human rights.

This article has been written by Noor Almaslamani, an intern at The Jerusalem Fund. The views in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Jerusalem Fund.

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Notes:

Fiscal Year	Amount in Million USD
1990	57
1991	75.6
1992	69
1993	73.8
1994	78.2
1995	74.8
1996	77
1997	79.2
1998	78.3
1999	80.5
2000	89
2001	123
2002	119.3
2003	134
2004	127.4
2005	108
2006	137
2007	154.2
2008	184.7
2009	268
2010	237.8
2011	249.4
2012	233.3
2013	294
2014	398.7
2015	390.5
2016	359.5
2017	359.3
2018	65
2019	0
2020	0
2021	1.5B
2022	1.6B