UNRWA’s Funding Crisis On 16 January 2018, the Trump administration signalled it would be transferring only $60 million of a planned $125 million payment to UNRWA, jeopardising the total $350 million donation UNRWA had projected from the US and budgeted for this year.14 Even before the US announced it would be contributing less than 20 percent of expected donations, UNRWA began 2018 with a deficit of $150 million following a $126 million aid gap in 2017. Amid this unprecedented financial crisis, the UNRWA Advisory Committee called a meeting on 18 June 2018 to discuss international support for the Agency. At this meeting, UNRWA Commissioner-General, Pierre Krähenbühl, stated that the Agency requires more than $250 million in further support if UNRWA’s budget for core and emergency assistance is to be preserved for the second half of this year.15 He emphasized, “at stake is access to schooling for a generation of Palestine refugee youth; access to essential health care in and around 58 refugee camps; and emergency assistance to millions of insecure refugees in an unstable region.”16 One week later, at the Pledging Conference for UNRWA held in New York on 25 June, Krähenbühl reiterated his concern that given the current shortfall “we do not have income to ensure the schools will open on time in August.”17 14 Annie Slemrod, “What you need to know now about cuts to the UN’s agency for Palestine refugees,” Irin News, 17 January 2018, available at: https://www.irinnews.org/news/2018/01/17/what-you-need-know-now-about-cuts-un-s-agencypalestine-refugees [accessed 8 May 2018]; “US cuts UNRWA funding by more than half,” Al Jazeera, 17 January 2018, available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/cuts-unrwa-funding-180116193513823.html [accessed 8 May 2018]. 15 UNRWA, “Advisory Commission meets to discuss global support for UNRWA and unprecedented financial crisis,” 19 June 2018, available at: https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/advisory-commission-meets-discuss-globalsupport-unrwa-amid-unprecedented [accessed 26 June 2018]. 16 Ibid. 17 UNRWA, “Strong support for UNRWA at its annual Pledging Conference,” 26 June 2018, available at: https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/press-releases/%E2%80%9Cstrong-support-unrwa-its-annualpledging-conference%E2%80%9D [accessed 26 June 2018]. 9