UN Palestinian Agency Will Trim 267 Jobs, Citing US Funding Cut

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees will cut more than 260 jobs and curtail mental health services and mobile health clinics, it announced Wednesday, the first reduction since the United States suspended tens of millions of dollars in funding this year.

“These cuts are unprecedented in their scope and depth and their consequences are likely to be dramatic, widespread and unpredictable,” Christopher Gunness, the agency’s spokesman, said in an email.

The cuts are the first outcome of a significant U.S. reduction in contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA. The Trump administration has provided about $60 million this year. That reflects a drop of more than 80 percent from the $360 million the United States contributed in 2017.

Historically, the United States has been one of the biggest donors to UNRWA, which provides food, education, health services and employment to many Palestinians classified as refugees in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

The agency said its food assistance program would remain in place until the end of the year, but Gunness said he feared that agency-run schools would not open on time, in August, because of funding shortages.

“We may have over half a million kids on the streets of the Middle East — more than half of them in Gaza — rather than in U.N. schools,” he said. “Whose interests does that serve?”

The job cuts are spread out between the West Bank and Gaza. The agency said it would not renew the contracts of 154 workers in the West Bank and 113 in Gaza. In addition, 584 other workers will shift to part-time jobs.

Trump administration officials have said any restoration of aid will be partly dependent on what they consider improvements in the agency’s efficiency and accountability. They also said other countries should share more of the financial burden.

Critics of the funding cut have asserted that the United States was retaliating against Palestinians for their angry responses to its decisions favoring Israel in the protracted Israeli-Palestinian dispute, notably the recognition in December of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Pierre Krähenbühl, the commissioner general of UNRWA, said in a June interview with The New York Times that the funding cut had put the agency in its worst financial situation since its creation in 1949, a year after Israel was founded, and could disrupt vital services.

In response to the cuts, the agency initiated a fundraising campaign that collected $238 million between March and June.