President Donald Trump claimed to have resolved the issue of Jerusalem’s future when he “took it off the table,” according to his disquieting declaration in January, by announcing US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December. With this matter supposedly behind him, Trump is now turning to the issue of the 1948 Palestinian refugees.
His envoy Jared Kushner is reportedly pushing to annul the refugee status of millions of Palestinians and shutter the UN agency tasked with their welfare. Just as US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, even if justified historically, only served to move the issue to center stage and sever Palestinian ties with the US administration, the attempt to unilaterally shut down the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) will only serve to deepen the enmity between the Palestine Liberation Organization, the United States and Israel.
