UAE’s staunch effort to support the Palestinian cause
Since its foundation, the United Arab Emirates has spared no effort in providing support to the Palestinian people.
The United Arab Emirates has been keen to support its sister Palestine by all means and in all political, economic, health, educational and development trends.
Sheik Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder of the UAE, promised when he announced the founding of the UAE in 1971: “Our support for the Palestinian people will continue until this people achieves its ambition to establish its independent state”, making the UAE’s approach and its consistent policy a firm commitment to support the Palestinian cause to this day.
Abu Dhabi provided financial support estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars to alleviate the tragic situation of the Palestinian brothers, including support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
The United Arab Emirates provided assistance to Palestinian brothers from 2013 to 2020, estimated at $840 million; to finance the various sectors in the occupied territories.
The UAE is the largest donor to UNRWA, the relief agency for the last five years alone, with over US$ 187 million of the above figure.
Abu Dhabi also contributed approximately US$ 105 million to support UNRWA education programs; it also enabled the Agency to provide a suitable educational environment for Palestinian children.
In July 2019, the UAE donated US$50 million to the aid agency to provide health services, education programs and other services to more than 5 million Palestinians.
The UAE’s contribution to UNRWA in 2018 was estimated at over US$ 50 million.
The UAE became the Agency’s sixth largest donor at the end of 2018, contributing more than $50 million, much of it to continue educational programs for hundreds of schools affiliated with the relief agency.
Abu Dhabi supported the Agency’s health and food programs worth $2 million to finance fuel for power stations to support hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
During 2017 and 2018, UAE institutions provided approximately $364 million in humanitarian, development and food assistance to the Palestinian people.
Since its establishment on December 2, 1971, the UAE has played a pivotal and prominent role in supporting our Palestinian brothers on all fronts.
Trucks loaded with tens of tons of medical supplies and screening equipment plunged into Gaza in cooperation with the Gaza Strip Solidarity Committee during the coronavirus pandemic.
The UAE affirmed its political support for the Palestinian cause and that it was and will remain the first central issue of the UAE’s foreign policy.
The UAE ranked fourth among the top 10 financial supporters of the State of Palestine since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, according to official Palestinian statements.
According to figures from the quasi-governmental Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction, the UAE has provided $2.104 billion in aid to the Palestinian people since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1993.
The aid includes support for the Palestinian Authority’s budget and infrastructure projects, not including the hundreds of millions of dollars the UAE has provided to the Palestinians through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
