Ask the White House to Support Palestinian Refugees

The Trump Administration has announced that it will be cutting all U.S. funding to the United Nations agency charged with caring for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). The UNRWA provides over 5 million Palestinian refugees with a wide variety of social services, including education, food aid, housing, and medical care. As of 2017, the US was the largest contributor to the UNRWA by providing approximately $364 million, a third of the total budget.

The comprehensive cuts to funding are the result of, according to the Trump Administration, a need to curb “inadequate fiscal practices and the UNRWA’s endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries”, though they did express concern for the well-being of innocent Palestinian children, among others. Despite concerns over the UNRWA, the lack of a comprehensive peace plan and Israeli concerns over possible unrest in Gaza and the West Bank - as reports have surfaced that schools could close within weeks due to a lack of funding - will likely lead to a greater humanitarian crisis.

As Christians, we affirm the dignity of all human beings made in the image of God. We believe vulnerable people should be protected, not harmed.

Voicing our concern for the poor and vulnerable will let the Trump Administration that faith communities in the United States care deeply for the wellbeing of Palestinian refugees, and that the dismantling of the UNRWA would only further exacerbate a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Ask the Trump Administration to continue to fund the UNRWA & support Palestinian refugees!

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Subject:

Support Refugees

Dear President Trump,

As a Christian, I am called to protect the vulnerable and act justly, and therefore cannot tolerate the injustice inflicted on Palestinian refugees whose livelihood is at stake in the wake of the recent de-funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

The UNRWA provides over 5 million Palestinian refugees with a wide variety of social services, including education, food aid, housing, and medical care. As of 2017, the US was the largest contributor to the UNRWA by providing approximately $364 million, a third of the total budget, but the Trump Administration recently announced that all funding would cease thus leaving the agency and its services scrambling to continue to support vulnerable people.

Israeli concerns over possible unrest in Gaza and the West Bank - as reports have surfaced that schools could close within weeks due to a lack of funding - will likely lead to a greater humanitarian crisis, in addition to millions of refugees being without food aid, medical care, or social services.

I ask that you reconsider cutting funding to the UNRWA, examine the consequences of these cuts to the lives of Palestinians, and work towards peaceful solutions that do not make refugees collateral damage for political gain.

Regards, Your Name

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My name is [Name] and I am a consituant from [City, State].

As I Christian, I believe that welcoming the stranger into our midst is one way in which we love God and love our neighbor. I support refugees and their resettlement here in the United States not only because of God’s demands to welcome the weary and burdened, but because refugees have blessed my life and community.

The United States has historically been a world leader in resettlement and I am deeply troubled that an already diminished program could receive more cuts. Again, I ask that you speak up and boldly protect refugees by supporting resettlement in this country: we must welcome at least 75,000 refugees in 2019.