The Middle East Forum (MEF), an organization promoting American interests through activist, intellectual, and philanthropic efforts, has offered UNRWA $1 million - in exchange for the fulfillment of several conditions.
In a statement, MEF President Professor Daniel Pipes said, "Despite UNRWA's long record of misbehavior: incitement against Israel, supporting violent attacks on Jews, and corruption, we are prepared to help UNRWA, conditional on it making some reforms."
"We are delighted to contribute in solidarity if UNRWA takes steps to end the Palestine refugee problem.
"The Forum's contribution requires UNRWA to end the automatic registering in perpetuity of (1) the descendants of refugees, (2) those who hold a nationality, and (3) those who live in their purported homeland, the West Bank and Gaza.
"Making these technical changes puts it in line with all other refugee agencies and reduces the number of Palestine refugees from 5.3 million to around 20,000. Our one-million-dollar donation will go a long way to meet the humanitarian considerations of this small and diminishing number."
The Middle East Forum has long pressed for a tightening of requirements for the "Palestine refugee" status, seeing this as both improving the lives of Palestinian Authority Arabs and diminishing the threat to Israel.
"The current UNRWA definition breeds a victimhood mentality that perpetuates Palestinian-Israeli conflict," noted MEF Director Gregg Roman. "We hope our funding can inspire improvements in the lives of those in need while bringing the conflict closer to resolution."
In 1950, UNRWA defined a refugee as "a needy person, who, as a result of the war in Palestine, has lost his home, and his means of livelihood." However, in 1965 and 1982, UNRWA unilaterally decided to extend refugee status to all descendants of those original persons, which meant the number of "Palestine refugees" is constantly growing. This perpetuates the status of Palestinian "refugees" for generations, instead of working towards their absorption in host countries. Audits have shown that the number of "refugees" in UNRWA lists is highly inflated.
"The Middle East Forum is ready to help UNRWA out of this predicament," the statement said. "The offer is valid until June 30, 2017. MEF's management alone will decide when the conditions for payment have been fulfilled."
UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, has actively taken part in inciting anti-Semitic violence. In addition, the organization has allowed Hamas to use its educational institutions, and has allowed Palestinian Arab terrorist organizations in Gaza to use its facilities.
UNRWA was also documented storing Hamas rockets and weapons "designed to kill Israeli citizens" in its schools, a fact which the UNRWA chief admitted himself.
Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump cut $65 million of UNRWA's $125 million grant. The US is the largest single donor to UNRWA, providing approximately a fourth of the organization's budget.
The decision followed Trump's tweets earlier this week in which he expressed doubt over the usefulness of American aid to the Palestinians, given their refusal to resume peace talks with Israel.
In response, Belgium decided to allocate $23 million to UNRWA over a period of three years.
All the other millions of refugees in the world are helped by a single agency, UNHCR. Prime Minister Netanyahu suggested adding the real number of Palestinian Arab refugees to that organization's purview, ending the existence of UNRWA.