Haley Lambastes Arab, Islamic States Over Unfulfilled Palestinian Aid Pledges

U.S. envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Tuesday lambasted Arab and Islamic states for talking a lot about supporting the Palestinians but not giving more money to help, calling out countries like Egypt, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Haley listed how much those countries, along with Algeria, Tunisia, Pakistan, Oman and Turkey, had given – or not given – to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which helps Palestinian refugees. Washington, long the biggest donor, cut its aid to $60 million from a promised $365 million this year.

“No group of countries is more generous with their words than the Palestinians’ Arab neighbors, and other OIC member states,” Haley told a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East, citing the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. “But all of the words spoken here in New York do not feed, clothe, or educate a single Palestinian child. All they do is get the international community riled up.”

She also criticized China and Russia for talking “a big game about the Palestinian cause” but providing only $350,000 and $2 million respectively to UNRWA in 2017.

“It is time for the regional states in particular to step up and really help the Palestinian people, instead of just making speeches thousands of miles away,” said Haley.

Addressing the Palestinian boycott of the U.S. Mideast peacemaking mission, Haley said that if the Arab countries “really cared” they would tell Palestinian leaders “how foolish they look for condemning a peace proposal they haven’t even seen yet.”