U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-12th District) and Rashida Tlaib (D-13th District) led a group of 54 Members of Congress reaching out to Secretary of State Pompeo requesting that the Trump administration restore assistance for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as well as humanitarian aid provided through USAID, and resume Palestinian involvement in the Conflict Management and Mitigation program.
“Without immediate assistance, UNRWA faces the prospect, in short order, of having to terminate completely its essential humanitarian services to Palestinian refugees. The need for U.S. assistance to UNRWA is now greater than ever,” the lawmakers wrote. “Additionally, restarting international disaster and development assistance through USAID is critical to addressing the long-term humanitarian challenges facing the Palestinian people. This funding which has already been appropriated by Congress through the Economic Support Fund supports additional public health and infrastructure projects that both address immediate health care needs while helping to build a sustainable economy that empowers the Palestinian people.”
“Finally, ensuring that Palestinians are able to participate in the Conflict Management and Mitigation program (CMM) is vital to building bridges and supporting people-to-people relationships that are a necessary precondition to a lasting peace in the region,” the lawmakers continued. “Restarting Israeli-Palestinian CMM programming will help lay the groundwork for future diplomatic engagement between the two sides.”
This letter follows an announcement last month from UNRWA that it has run out of money to pay its Middle East staff following two years of funding cuts from the United States, as well as a renewed outbreak of COVID-19 in the Palestinian territories that has led to a record-setting number of cases in recent days.
In addition to Dingell and Tlaib, the letter was signed by Representatives James P. McGovern, Peter Welch, Raul M. Grijalva, Ilhan Omar, Barbara Lee, Bobby L. Rush, Brenda L. Lawrence, Gerald E. Connolly, Ayanna Pressley, Betty McCollum, David E. Price, Donald S. Beyer Jr., Daniel T. Kildee, Jackie Speier, Scott H. Peters, Diana DeGette, Andre Carson, Pramila Jayapal, John Yarmuth, Alan S. Lowenthal, Donald Payne, Jr., Mark Pocan, Judy Chu, Jan Schakowsky, Jamie Raskin, Jesús “Chuy” García, Earl Blumenauer, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Mark DeSaulnier, Veronica Escobar, Jared Huffman, Watson Coleman, David N. Cicilline, Danny K. Davis, Paul Tonko, Suzanne Bonamici, Peter DeFazio, Ron Kind, Julia Brownley, Mike Doyle, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Andy Levin, Ro Khanna, Jason Crow, Nydia M. Velázquez, Jennifer Wexton, Zoe Lofgren, Stephen F. Lynch, Jahana Hayes, Salud Carbajal, Lisa Blunt Rochester and Ted W. Lieu.
The video below is of a pro-Palestinian rally on the streets of Brooklyn in 2020.
The letter is printed below.
Dear Secretary Pompeo:
We are writing to request a resumption of humanitarian assistance and peacebuilding programs to address the continuing humanitarian crises facing Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the region, restarting these efforts are key to regional stability and security in the coming months. This includes funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), disbursing additional humanitarian assistance already appropriated by Congress, and restarting Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Management and Mitigation programming.
Swift restoration of humanitarian support to the Palestinian people through UNRWA is urgent. UNRWA’s Commissioner-General recently announced the Agency is unable to meet its full payroll, leaving it able to pay only a portion of the salaries to 28,000 UNRWA staff for November, including health care workers and teachers. Having already cut its staff and ceased needed repairs and investments in its infrastructure, classroom sizes have been increased to 50 students per teacher, and physicians now see some 70 patients a day during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without immediate assistance, UNRWA faces the prospect, in short order, of having to terminate completely its essential humanitarian services to Palestinian refugees. The need for U.S. assistance to UNRWA is now greater than ever.
Additionally, restarting international disaster and development assistance through USAID is critical to addressing the long-term humanitarian challenges facing the Palestinian people. This funding which has already been appropriated by Congress through the Economic Support Fund supports additional public health and infrastructure projects that both address immediate health care needs while helping to build a sustainable economy that empowers the Palestinian people.
Finally, ensuring that Palestinians are able to participate in the Conflict Management and Mitigation program (CMM) is vital to building bridges and supporting people-to-people relationships that are a necessary precondition to a lasting peace in the region. Past Israel-Palestinian CMM programs include programs that bring together Israeli and Palestinian youth, promote cooperation on economic development, and foster improved civic engagement. Restarting Israeli-Palestinian CMM programming will help lay the groundwork for future diplomatic engagement between the two sides.
Resumption of humanitarian assistance and programming is imperative as we work to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza. Moreover, it is consistent with longstanding stated U.S. goals of promoting regional peace and stability. Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Source: Dingell and Tlaib’s offices
© Copyright © 2020 News-Herald.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
The Dingellberrying, Tlaib, Congressional cherry picking squad of “Make Palestinians great again”, are the prime examples of the Democrat circle of life of our dying American taxpayer money which circles first to the American hating Palestinian Muslims in the form of government bribes not to attack us, just like many surrendered to the ANTIFA violence, then gets filtered back to political slouches like Dingell and Tlaib in campaign contributions to promote more social redistribution of our wealth and our values WITH OUR OWN government captured money. Let the Europeans pay for the Middle East mess, because thanks to Trump we no longer need or want their money nor their social dependency costs, inflated oil costs, nor cost of their terrorist ideology of violence, but need to keep our own money at home to fix the mess they have created here. It is time to let the Palestinians sink or swim upon their own bad life cultural choices. We have enough building of bridges and people to people problems here at home to deal with and we have flushed enough American money down that toilet of Palestinian human failure already. Let Allah figure it out for them. If they have not figured out he is not the answer by now then failure , starvation and death is indeed their self-chosen comfort zone.
How in the HELL< did this nation, ever elect such traitors, i won't ever know.
Yep Debbie and Rashida, let’s give money to terrorists, so they can destroy Israel and the United States. The logic of the left, no matter how many times one tells the left, that 2 plus 2 equals 4, the left will tell you that 2 plus 2 equals communism, corruption and socialism and that it is good for you.
This group claims to want to empower the Palestinian people. Really? Those people are ruled by Abbas, who is on the 15th year of his original four year term. The people cannot be empowered by a terrorist kleptocracy. The terrorism is not just directed against Israel and the US (for example, the attempt to kill Secretary of Defense Colin Powell), but the Palestinian people. This group supports the oppression of the Palestinians, who could have long enjoyed peace, prosperity, and freedom without their corrupt rulers.
Plus what ever happened to laws, WHERE THOSE WHO GIVE MONEY knowingly to a terrorist org, ARE COMPLICIT in what that org does??
The REAL TRUTH of the matter is, that the Palestinians enjoy more freedom, and prosperity, under Israeli rule, then they would have EVER had, under Hamas, or any other one of their Terrorist leaders ! They are a people filled with HATE from the time they are born, that is all they are taught, and people like the 54 in that group help to promote that HATE. The Palestinians are disliked by every other Arab Nation, and THAT is a fact !
We are stuck in a living nightmare with such America and Israel haters like the squad in our country much less in our government. The squad are the same as cockroaches and need to be exterminated by whatever means necessary to remove them!!
we should have never let these slimes into this nation period.dot end of story.
NOR their places of conquest (worship).