Hopes to destroy UN Relief and Works Agency Believing that the destruction of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) would both punish the Palestinians for rejecting President Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and lay the groundwork for the US peace effort, Jared Kushner is trying to see Palestinians stripped of their refugee status.
Jared Kushner and Israeli PM Netanyahu Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump, has been pushing the matter with Jordanian officials, trying to get the Jordan government to strip all refugee status recognition from the over two million Palestinians living there.
The UNRWA has jurisdiction over in excess of five million Palestinian refugees across the region, with Jordan having the largest number. Refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank hold another two million,and the rest are in Syria and Lebanon.
Kushner says the UNRWA is corrupt and inefficient. He does not indicate what the US strategy would be beyond Jordan, though the ultimate goal appears to be eliminating all refugees’ status, under the assumption that this would mean the fate of refugees would no longer need to be addressed in peace talks.
This was the same strategy attempted with the Jerusalem declaration, with Trump saying that his announcement eliminated it from the list of things that needed to be negotiated.