The international community has provided welfare for Palestinian refugees and their descendents since 1949 through the UN’s Reliefs and Works Agency (UNRWA).
- The U.S., the largest single donor, contributed $2.87 billion between 1950 and 2002.
- In UNRWA’s first 20 years, Israel contributed more than most Arab states to the program.
- Two percent of the UN’s total budget goes to UNRWA, while 3 percent of the total goes to all other refugees in the world.
The Palestinians have received “the highest per capita aid transfer in the history of foreign aid anywhere,” reported World Bank official Nigel Roberts in February 2004.1
Between 1993 (in the Oslo Accords) and 2004, the international community donated approximately $7 billion to the PA treasury. At least half of that money is unaccounted for.
The PLO was “the richest of all terrorist organizations” with $8 billion to $10 billion in assets and an annual income of $1.5 billion to $2 billion, according to a 1993 British National Criminal Intelligence Service report. In 1999, England’s Daily Telegraph reported the PLO had $50 billion in secret investments around the world.2
1Ross Dunn, “End sleaze or lose aid, Arafat told,” Scotsman, February 29, 2004. 2Rachel Ehrenfeld, “Intifada Gives Cover to Arafat Graft and Fraud,” Insight Magazine, June 22, 2001. |
