The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees suggested that the United States slashed its budget early this year to punish the Palestinians for their criticism of the American recognition of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as the Israeli capital, but he warned that the Palestinian refugee issue will not go away.

The comments by Pierre Kraehenbuehl came amid signs that the US, with Israeli support, is aiming to abolish the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in an apparent attempt to remove one of the most contentious issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the negotiating agenda.

“One cannot simply wish 5 million people away,” Kraehenbuehl, commissioner of the UN Relief and Works Agency, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

In January, the US, the largest donor to the agency, slashed some $300 million from its annual contribution to UNRWA, prompting an unprecedented financial crisis, according to Kraehenbuehl.

Although the agency has made up some of the deficit by raising money from other countries, it still lacks over $200 million. It recently laid off over 100 people in the Gaza Strip and cut back the hours of 500 other employees. The upcoming school year for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children across the Middle East has been threatened.

Kraehenbuehl said he was caught off guard by the American decision, which came just weeks after he had held what he described as a successful meeting with Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and chief Mideast advisor.

He said he still has not received a straight answer from the Americans about why they made their decision.

But he said he believes it is connected to the uproar over the US recognition of Al-Quds in December.

Source: Israeli media