The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is now suffering severe funding cuts due to dubious Israeli government charges that some of its employees were involved in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and that more than 10 percent of its workers are affiliated with Hamas. Israel hasn’t provided any real evidence for these claims. But that hasn’t stopped the United States and allies from slashing UNRWA’s funding, crippling the agency’s ability to provide desperately needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza.

Jacobin contributor Robin Jaspert visited the UNRWA field office in Amman, Jordan, and spoke with Olaf Becker, who has been director of UNRWA Affairs in Jordan since July 2023. Becker talked to Jacobin about UNRWA’s work in Gaza, Israel’s smear campaign against the agency, and the devastating impact of the funding cuts.