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Biden's Middle East Policy Trades Humanitarian Aid for Endless Warfare
The withdrawal of funding from UNRWA does not merely impact the agency's ability to deliver vital services but also contributes to the perpetuation of poverty and marginalization that feed into the cycle of violence.
Mar 04, 2024
On February 13, the U.S. Senate passed a $95.3 billion supplemental funding package that will fund weapons, war, and militarism in Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel. The bill would also further entrench the Biden Administration’s cruel and unnecessary decision to cut all funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) by prohibiting humanitarian funds from going to the agency. UNRWA serves almost six million Palestinian refugees and is the main provider of aid in Gaza. Further restrictions on funding could result in a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response and many more preventable deaths.
It is important to place Biden’s actions in a historical context. Weakening and dismantling UNRWA has been a long-standing strategy by successive Israeli administrations. In 2018, the Trump administration cut all funding to UNRWA, brandishing it as “irredeemably flawed,” just a year after Netenyahu had told Nikki Haley, then U.S. Ambassador to the U.N, that UNRWA should be dismantled.
Attempts to obstruct UNRWA or fold it into the UN’s main refugee organization, the United National High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), are rooted in delegitimizing Palestinian refugees. Palestinians are the only refugee population in the world who were forcibly displaced as a result of a UN decision (the UN Partition Plan for Palestine), rather than actions by member states that are contrary to the principles of the United Nations. If UNRWA is dismantled, Palestinian refugees could lose this status and their rights, including their right of return.
UNRWA has touched the lives of Palestinians across many generations. My grandparents, who were forcibly displaced in 1948 from their home in West Jerusalem’s Katamon, relied crucially on the support of UNRWA. The agency not only supplied them with aid but also healthcare, educational opportunities for my uncles and aunt, and employment for my grandfather.
UNRWA was founded by the United Nations in 1949. But UNRWA was not the first relief effort in Gaza. In 1948, at the request of the United Nations, a Quaker organization called the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) began a program supporting Palestinian refugees who were violently displaced from their homes during the Nakba. During this period, AFSC's Gaza staff oversaw 10 refugee camps: Al Faluja, Bureij, Deir al-Baleh, Gaza, Jabalia, Maghazi, Nuseirat, Kahn Yunis, and Rafah. Recognizing that safeguarding human dignity goes beyond meeting immediate needs for food, shelter, and sanitation,
AFSC also built on the enduring legacy of Quaker education in Palestine which has been at work since the early 1800s. This legacy endures today – I am myself a proud graduate of the Ramallah Friends School and a lifelong Quaker.
In many respects, AFSC was a logical choice for this work. In 1947, AFSC and the British Friends Service Council received the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Quakers worldwide for peacebuilding and humanitarian relief provided during and after the horrors of WWII. Such humanitarian efforts are deeply anchored in the Quaker ethos that reveres the inherent worth and dignity of every single human. In the same light, this ethos also compels us to oppose violence in all its manifestations, especially war.
The structures set up by AFSC in Gaza formed the basis of what became the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Today, UNRWA continues to support millions of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, and crucially in Gaza, where its services are now needed more than ever.
This January, the United States and several other countries cut funding to the agency after Israel alleged that 12 of UNRWA's 13,000 employees in Gaza were involved in the Oct. 7 attack. This cruel and unnecessary action at a time when people in Gaza are already facing famine and a collapse of the healthcare system shows that the Biden administration cares little for its commitment to humanitarian values, international law, and upholding of human rights.
The cutting of UNRWA funding is superimposed on the International Court of Justice's alarming ruling of credible evidence suggesting acts tantamount to genocide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza—a finding that received further validation from a federal court in California. Yet the Biden administration persists in its support to Israel, despite the potential implications of the U.S. in war crimes; the moral entanglements; and in blatant defiance of the U.S. public's overwhelming support for a ceasefire.
The Biden administration’s stance not only undermines the credibility of the United States, but also suggests a policy framework that is inconsistent and selectively applied. The scrutiny applied to UNRWA stands in stark contrast to the administration's apparent disregard for the litany of war crime allegations against Israel’s military. This move is particularly perplexing when considering the broader context of Biden’s presidential campaign, which was marked by promises to end "forever wars" in the Middle East and to uphold human rights and international law.
The significance of UNRWA’s work extends beyond immediate humanitarian relief; it plays a critical role in addressing the socioeconomic roots of violence in the region. The withdrawal of funding from UNRWA does not merely impact the agency's ability to deliver vital services but also contributes to the perpetuation of poverty and marginalization that feed into the cycle of violence.
Today, AFSC and Quakers across the U.S. are mobilizing to restore funding to UNRWA. The supplemental funding bill must be blocked. The United States should scale up humanitarian assistance for civilians in Gaza while demanding an immediate ceasefire, not take funds away from people in dire need.Keep ReadingShow Less
As Pandemic Drags On, 'Free Them All' National Days of Action Demand Mass Decarceration
Covid-19 turns "every cell and cage into a potential death chamber," organizers say.
Sep 08, 2020
The American Friends Service Committee and several other groups have planned several consecutive days of actions beginning Tuesday, during which opponents of mass incarceration will mobilize in communities across the U.S. to demand people be released from prisons, jails, and immigration and juvenile detention centers.
As "a Quaker organization with more than a century of experience working to end militarism and violence," the AFSC is opposed to "punitive approaches" to public safety, which it considers "dehumanizing and harmful," and at odds with its goal of moving "toward a more peaceful world."
In a statement, the AFSC explained its preference for pursuing policies that "actually work to interrupt and prevent cycles of violence, end harm, and provide access to tools to ensure everyone's well-being," noting the organization's desire to see resources shifted away from "incarceration in all forms" and toward "institutions our communities most need... to thrive"
\u201c#FreeThemAll days of action events by state! You can find out what's happening, both online and in person (socially distanced and COVID-19 safe), near you. Check out the details here: https://t.co/ZQ07GT1F4g\u201d— AFSC (@AFSC) 1599584418
According to the AFSC, the U.S. carceral system is an unjust institution that violates the dignity and rights of 2.3 million people, disproportionately poor people and people of color, who are imprisoned with inadequate access to healthcare and other resources. Furthermore, despite having the highest incarceration rate in the world, the U.S. continues to experience "incredibly high rates of gun violence and sexual assault," meaning that "warehousing" millions of people is an ineffective crime deterrent that does "little to stop harm or help survivors of violence and communities heal."
"If incarceration stopped violence, the U.S. would be the safest country in the world," said Lewis Webb, coordinator of the AFSC's Healing Justice program. "Instead, we have 2.3 million people in cages while our communities lack access to quality healthcare, education, employment, addiction, and mental health services, and an approach to justice that actually addresses the root causes of violence. We believe another approach isn't only possible, but absolutely necessary for the well-being of our communities."
Kristin Kumpf, AFSC's director of human migration and mobility, explained that "thousands of people are in immigration detention--including people who recently came to the U.S. seeking asylum and those who have lived here with their families for years before getting caught up in the Trump administration's cruel immigration policies." She added, "We are calling on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to immediately release everyone in their custody."
While the AFSC seeks to shrink the carceral system and transform public safety in general, it made the case that the coronavirus pandemic renders imprisonment particularly deadly and strengthens the impetus for change. To date, there have been more than 176,000 positive cases among incarcerated people as well as staff--and at least 1,000 people have died, according to a statement shared by the organization.
The group explained that "both infection rates and death rates are much higher" inside carceral facilities, where "the nature of confinement makes it almost impossible for people to practice social distancing, and inadequate healthcare and limited sanitation supplies help Covid-19 spread"--conditions that Common Dreams reported on last week.
In a video urging viewers to join the call to #FreeThemAll, the AFSC described how the pandemic multiplies the dangers of incarceration, "making every sentence a potential death sentence" and "turning every cell and cage into a potential death chamber."
For all of these reasons, the AFSC and over a dozen partner organizations are asking people to safely participate in the national days of action that kick off Tuesday evening to demand local, state, and federal leaders:
- Release people from prison. Expand and expedite compassionate release, parole, commutation, and early release mechanisms so that elderly people, people who are medically vulnerable, and others who might be eligible for release can return to their homes as quickly as possible. Ensure that everyone has the opportunity for freedom.
- Release everyone held on bail or bond in pretrial detention.
- Release everyone held in ICE and CBP custody.
- Release everyone held in juvenile detention and youth held in adult facilities. Remove all police from schools.
- Ensure that both incarcerated people and staff have access to free Covid-19 testing and other essential medical services. Waive copays for medical visits, care, and prescriptions. Ensure all incarcerated people and staff have access to accurate and up-to-date health information. Provide free access to cleaning supplies including soap, CDC-recommended hand sanitizer, and protective equipment to all people in custody.
- Take all measures to ensure that people have access to legal representation, legal information, and the courts, even in cases where movement is restricted.
- Provide access to essential services--healthcare, mental health treatment, housing, and food--for people released from incarceration so they have the tools they need to stay healthy and safe on the outside.
- End immigration enforcement actions, including deportations, and defund ICE and CBP.
- Defund the police.
- Invest in community-based, community-controlled resources that truly keep us safe--education, housing, healthcare, addiction and mental health treatment, jobs, and job training, environmental protections, food access, meaningful reentry support, and restorative and transformative forms of justice that address the root causes of harm and violence.
The AFSC noted that those unable to attend an event in-person can still take action online if they choose by telling their governor, ICE, and the Bureau of Prisons to protect people in prisons, jails, and detention centers from Covid-19 by releasing as many incarcerated people as possible.
The events coincide with the 49th anniversary of the Attica uprising, when more than 2,000 people incarcerated in upstate New York occupied the prison yard to demand access to education, medical care, wages, and more.
A list of actions by state can be found here.
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