View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.

JNS.org – The European Union’s 2022-24 UNRWA aid budget will be 40 percent lower than during the previous three-year period, the EU announced last week.

The new budget will provide $82 million annually, compared to the previous average annual figure of $135 million, according to the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), a Jerusalem-based non-profit that monitors educational materials around the world for extremist content.

An additional $15 million was granted through the EU’s Food and Resilience Facility for 2022 to help ensure food security following the impact of the Ukraine crisis, according to the report.

In April of last year, the EU Parliament condemned UNRWA  for teaching and producing UN-branded hate material uncovered by IMPACT-se, and conditioned EU funds on changes to the curriculum.

The EU commissioner, who announced the reduced funding package, said last year, after the Parliament’s condemnation, that the European Union would fight antisemitism and should consider conditioning aid to UNRWA on full adherence to UNESCO standards of peace and tolerance in textbooks.