Why Gulf countries are reluctant to fund UNRWA

On Jan. 24 2023, Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), urged the Gulf States to contribute more to help house, educate and provide healthcare for Palestinian refugees, as the agency had ended its fourth consecutive year with a deficit of roughly $70 million.

This appeal is even more pressing a year later. Since UNRWA parted ways on Jan. 26 with 12 employees that Israel accused of being involved in the Oct. 7 attack, some 15 countries suspended their contributions to the agency. They include the US, Germany and Japan, which are among the largest donors.

According to the UN organization, $500 million dollars have been frozen for the time being, raising the threat of a collapse in its activities as early as February. The announcement comes at a time when Gazans need the UNRWA services more than ever, a humanitarian pillar in the enclave where the living conditions have become increasingly unbearable since the start of the Oct. 7 war. The inhabitants now eat grass and drink polluted water, while hepatitis is spreading.

The risk of UNRWA collapse should be a wake-up call for the Gulf States, which expressed their desire to play a role in the post-war in Gaza, in order to regain ownership of the Palestinian cause in the eyes of their public, at a time when Iran and its “Axis of Resistance” have become its main advocates since Oct. 7.

Although the petro-monarchies have been quick to declare their support for the Palestinians since the start of the war, their reaction to the funding pause has been lukewarm.

Qatar warned of “catastrophic repercussions of stopping support for UNRWA,” while Saudi Arabia urged all UNRWA supporters to “carry out their role in supporting the humanitarian tasks toward Palestinian refugees in the besieged Gaza Strip,” while stressing “the need to carry out an investigation into” accusations that some employees took part in Hamas’s attack.

The UAE, via its Foreign Affairs Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also “called upon the donor countries that have suspended their funding to UNRWA to urgently reconsider this decision and continue to provide support to the agency to enable it to carry out its humanitarian tasks.”

However, none of the wealthy Gulf monarchies has offered to fill the budgetary deficit that these withdrawals would cause.

Chris Gunness, former UNRWA spokesperson, told Al Jazeera on Jan. 28, “My message to the Arab world, particularly to the Gulf, is where are you? Because they’re making billions each day on oil revenues. A tiny fraction of those oil revenues would see UNRWA’s financial problems disappear overnight.” “This unconscionable gap inflicted by these Western countries would be filled very quickly,” added Gunness.

Free fall

Gulf funds for UNRWA, which always fluctuated, have plummeted since 2018, the year during which Donald Trump ended US funding for UNRWA, which was reinstated by Joe Biden three years later.

“Saudi Arabia is going through major economic reforms, which are already short of funds. Qatar is more flexible but is a very small country and has its own priorities,” said Joost Hiltermann, MENA program director at Crisis Group.

In 2018, Saudi Arabia funded the organization to the tune of nearly $160 million, compared with 27 million in 2022, according to UN figures. On those dates, Qatar’s donation fell from almost $51.5 million to $10.5 million.

Lazzarini warned against this trend last year. “The Arab contribution in 2018 represented about 25 percent of the overall contribution to the agency. In 2021, it was less than three percent, and last year [in 2022], it was four percent,” he said, referring in particular to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. Existing data on the emirates show an overall contribution of $172.8 million from 2012 until 2020.

“According to many countries in the South, particularly Arab countries, UNRWA is the compensation for Europe’s responsibility for the Holocaust, and of Europe and the US for the creation of Israel, which led to the Nakba. There’s this idea that it’s up to the West to pay for its historical mistakes,” said a humanitarian manager in Gaza.

However, the Gulf States have a different presence in the Palestinian Territories and in Gaza, enabling them to exert greater soft power, including vis-à-vis their largely pro-Palestinian local populations.

In 2018, Saudi Arabia said that it had contributed $6 billion in aid to the West Bank and Gaza since 2000.

“For the past three years, most of the Kingdom’s international humanitarian aid programs and initiatives in Palestine and elsewhere have been carried out by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre [KSrelief],” wrote the organization on its website.

Riyadh also remains a long-standing supporter of the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

“Arab countries prefer to have a direct impact on Palestinian policy,” added the humanitarian director.

Qatar, for example, used to finance the salaries of some of Hamas’s employees, who have been in charge in Gaza since 2007. Qatar also financed the electricity, to the tune of $30 million a year, with the agreement of the US and Israel, giving it a certain amount of influence in the enclave.

“In a way, by funding UNRWA instead, the contributors would lose a large part of this soft power,” said the above-mentioned source.

Direct aid has naturally intensified since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. In addition to sending supplies for the shelters via KSrelief, Saudi Arabia collected 56 million riyals ($15 million) via an appeal for donations.

King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman added 30 million and 20 million riyals ($13 million in total) respectively to the campaign, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

The UAE set up a 150-bed field hospital and sent 64 aircraft carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza, the UAE said in November.

Qatar, for its part, delivered nearly 1,900 tons of aid to Gaza via 61 flights.

Possible disappearance

However, if UNRWA were to collapse due to a lack of funds, the entire Gaza Strip, which is almost entirely dependent on its assistance, would easily follow suit. The UN agency has 30,000 employees in the Middle East, including 13,000 in the enclave, and remains the only organization that covers all the basic needs — food, health, education and housing — at the same time and throughout the territory.

“There is no agency or government that has the capacity, much less the will, to replace UNRWA. Keep in mind that UNRWA's collapse, if it happens, won't affect its operations only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank/East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria,” said Hiltermann.

However, some donors, including the European Union (EU), have remained cautious, wishing to wait for the results of the UN investigation into the allegations on the involvement of its 12 employees in Gaza in the Oct. 7 attack before suspending their funding.

This suggests that the agency should continue to operate, albeit on a minimal scale, with the EU remaining the third largest contributor.

But in case UNRWA disappeared, the Arab countries could finance a “revitalized PA” — which the US wants it to govern Gaza, thus avoiding going through the UN — which would give them greater control over the enclave.

In any case, negotiations on the post-war period are likely to be delicate, as neither the West nor the Arabs are able to agree on the terms of this renewal.

This article was originally posted in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translated by Joelle El Khoury.