Thread by @LTCPeterLerner

1. Wow. @danawt reporting that the US Government is expected to announce at the beginning of September that the Administration will cease funding the West Bank operations of @UNRWA, will propose a new definition of refugees to coincide with @Refugees.

https://twitter.com/danawt/status/1033406125855653888

2. Here’s @UNRWA beneficiaries in the West Bank
809,738 registered Palestine refugees
19 camps
96 schools, with 48,956​ pupils
2 vocational and technical training centres
43 primary health centres
15 community rehabilitation centres
19 women’s programme centres

3. Also @danawt reported that the administration will ask Israel to change @UNRWA mandate in order to prevent Arab financial support too. Obviously the organization doesn’t get its mandate from Israel. This is a very strange statement.

4. This report follows the announcement last night that US government will halt 200 million dollars of development funds. This will be additional burden on @UNRWA and the Palestinian Authority.

5. As the old Chinese curse has it: “May you live in interesting times” keeps delivering in our region.

6. To clarify: @UNRWA mandate in the West Bank is a result of a bilateral agreement laid down in an exchange of letters from 1967. To redefine the operations in order to prevent Arab funding would be a huge challenge and IMHO improbable.