Barbara Lee: “Stripping Palestinians of food, housing, healthcare, education, and opportunities to strengthen their livelihoods only…”

“Stripping Palestinians of food, housing, healthcare, education, and opportunities to strengthen their livelihoods only threatens to ignite further unrest, instability, and distress. Such a cutoff would not only affect the West Bank in Gaza, but Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, as well. Now, along with our Ranking Member DeLauro, I have visited UNRWA schools, and I can tell you that these young people are grateful to America for our support. Yes, our absence, of course, invites other countries. I want these young people to remember who supports them and who is looking out for them. This bill already puts oversight and accountability requirements on UNRWA before funding can be made available. A total suspension of aid would make it much harder for UNRWA to make sure that these controls are in place and to do proper monitoring, while at the same time cutting off essential services to the Palestinian people that currently are only provided by UNRWA. This is morally wrong. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.”