Our Interests and Values

“We should pay for U.N. programs and activities that advance our interests and values. If other countries want different things to be funded, they can pay for them.”

            Illeneana Ros-Lentinen

The new chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, congresswoman Illeneana Ros-Lentinen has called for sharp cuts in all UN programs including funding for the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) that works exclusively with Palestinian refugees. This agency was established shortly after the war of 1948 when Palestinians were uprooted and displaced in large numbers from their homes and land.

UNRWA was established to assist and support Palestinian refugees pending a just and lasting resolution. Besides providing invaluable support and services to over 4.8 million refugees living in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, the program also reminds us that refugees must be included in the peace process. Our Bethlehem team supports the work of the refugee camps in our area where a number of camps are located. We have witnessed first hand the effects of this internal displacement process and know how important this financial support is for a number of programs including rehabilitation centers and schools.

It is critical that you let your representatives know that cutting this funding would have adverse effects on Palestinian refugees as well as US standing in the region which has already been compromised by the veto on the UNSC resolution on Israeli settlements.  As Paul McCann says in his article US and UK Support For UNRWA Sends The Right Message To Those Struggling For Freedom In The Middle East, “As the new Middle Eastern order emerges, the West’s long-standing championship of the human development of Palestine refugees can serve as a counterweight to its better-known history of focusing on security and stability and will allow it to stake a claim to being a nation that supports development and the universal values being so hungrily claimed across the Arab world.

I urge you to contact your congressional representatives to make sure these funds are not cut or diminished. This is a program that advances our interest and values and we should continue our much needed financial support. Contact Churches for Middle East Peace  (info@cmep.org ) to sign onto their petition to tell congress to preserve this funding.