MEMRI Special Dispatch | 7280 | January 15, 2018
Kuwaiti Columnist: Stop Funding For Racist UNRWA Until It Dwindles And Dies
https://www.memri.org/reports/kuwaiti-columnist%20-calls-to-stop-funding-unrwa

In his January 10, 2018 column in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan, 'Abdallah
Al-Hadlaq supported the criticism voiced by U.S. President Donald Trump
about the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees
(UNRWA) and Trump's decision to cut its funding. Calling UNRWA a "biased and
racist organization" that "perpetuates the problem of the 'Palestinian'
refugees," that succumbs to Hamas's dictates, and that strives to destroy
Israel, Al-Hadlaq called to stop all funding and aid to this organization
until it crumbles and disappears.

Al-Hadlaq is known for his uncommon positions on Israel and the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which are reflected in many of his articles.
For example, in past articles he wrote that Iran, rather than Israel, is the
Gulf countries' real enemy;[1] that Hamas is a terrorist organization whose
"reckless" rocket attacks on Israel kill innocent people,[2] and that Israel
has the right to defend itself from Palestinian knife terrorism.[3] In a
2017 interview on the Kuwaiti TV channel Al-Rai, he even stated that
Israelis are not occupiers but rather "a people that has returned to its
homeland."[4]

The following are excerpts from his column:

"Everybody agrees with the harsh [but] reasonable criticism leveled by U.S.
President Donald Trump at UNRWA, for it is a biased and racist organization
that perpetuates the problem of the 'Palestinian'[5] refugees and the
narrative of the so-called right of return, an organization whose role is
apparently to work towards the destruction of the state of Israel. Hence,
the U.N. should stop funding this organization until it crumbles and
disappears.

"On January 5, 2018, a few days after President Trump threatened to stop
future aid to the 'Palestinians', the U.S. froze $125 million in funding for
UNRWA... and announced that the funding would not be renewed until the
Palestinians stopped being stubborn and resumed negotiations with Israel...
[It should be noted that] the U.S. grants $300 million annually to the U.N.
Refugee Agency.

"The terrorist Hamas movement, which supports the Persian Iranian regime,
rejected [UNRWA's] curricula on human rights.[6] This caused a grave crisis
between the Hamas government and UNRWA, following which the latter suspended
these curricula in its Gaza schools... Hamas's complaint was that these
curricula address everyone's human rights, including those of the Jewish and
Israeli people, and contravene the culture and rights of the 'Palestinian'
people. There are no signs on the horizon of any solution for this broad
crisis that developed between the terrorist Hamas government... and UNRWA...

"Therefore, all forms of financial aid and international funding for UNRWA
must stop, as long as it [continues] subjecting its decisions to the
methodology of terror, exclusion, racism and lack of consideration for the
rights of other peoples, namely to the methodology of the Persian Hamas
movement that controls Gaza, which [Hamas] imposes upon the UNRWA curricula
and schools."

[1] See Special Dispatch No. 6132, Kuwaiti Columnist: The Gulf States' Real
Enemy Is Iran; Israel Is A Friendly Country, August 12, 2015.

[2] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 5061, Arab Columnists Criticize Firing Of
Rockets From Gaza As Reckless Escapade Serving Iran, Not Palestinians,
November 2, 2012.

[3] See MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 6192, Kuwaiti Columnist: Israel Has The
Right To Defend Itself Against Palestinian Knife Terrorism, October 20,
2015.

[4] See MEMRI TV Clip No. 6283, Kuwaiti Writer Abdullah Al-Hadlaq: Israel Is
a Legitimate State, Not an Occupier; There Was No Palestine; I Support
Israel-Gulf-U.S. Alliance to Annihilate Hizbullah, November 19, 2017.

[5] The word Palestinian appears in quote marks throughout Al-Hadlaq's
article.

[6] In February 2014, Hamas stopped UNRWA from introducing a human rights
curriculum in it schools, on the grounds that this was intended to brainwash
the students and cause them to abhor resistance. See e.g., Al-Quds Al-Arabi
(London), February 14, 2014.

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