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Court dismisses lawsuit aimed at defunding Unrwa USA

Court dismisses lawsuit aimed at defunding Unrwa USA

Middle East Eye2 days ago
A US federal district on Friday dismissed a civil lawsuit that claimed a US charity supported terrorism by providing financial contributions to the United Nations relief and works agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East (Unrwa).
In response to the ruling dismissing the lawsuit, Mara Kronenfeld, executive director of Unrwa USA, said, 'Unrwa USA is gratified to see that the court judge recognized the multiple defects in the plaintiffs' argument and sees this meritless case for what it is.
"It is a politically motivated attempt to bog Unrwa USA down in frivolous lawfare and intimidate us out of doing our essential humanitarian work.
"That effort is all the more disturbing given that experts around the world, including Israeli human rights groups, are terming what is happening in Gaza a genocide.'
Throughout the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Unrwa USA - which is a nonprofit independent of the UN agency - has been an important vehicle for people in the US to help Palestinian refugees in need.
Mandated by the UN to provide a range of essential services to Palestinian refugees throughout the Middle East, Unrwa played an indispensable role amid the Israeli war on Gaza since October 2023, when the war began, until Israel replaced it with the scandal-plagued Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a militarised aid scheme conceived and backed by Israel and the US.
Unrwa used to manage the logistics for the UN's aid delivery system, operating 400 distribution sites across the Gaza Strip.
Since GHF's implementation, the Israeli military or mercenaries have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians at or near GHF sites while they were trying to get food.
The war on Gaza has killed more than 60,000 and displaced nearly the entire population of more than two million, half of whom are children.
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