Germany’s Ruling Party Moves to Freeze Palestinian Authority Funds, End Support for UNRWA

Jerusalem, 22 February, 2026 (TPS-IL) -- Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Union adopted a sweeping resolution at its party conference in Stuttgart on Saturday that would freeze payments to the Palestinian Authority unless strict conditions are met and would redirect humanitarian aid for Palestinian refugees away from the embattled United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and instead toward the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Germany is one of the world’s largest donors to Palestinian institutions, and the CDU is poised to anchor the country’s next government.

“Humanitarian aid and other assistance for the Palestinian territories and Palestinian refugees in the region will in future be provided through the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and other UN organizations and other government and private programs,” the party’s motion said.

“Germany and the European Union are discontinuing their support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Throughout the rest of the world, the UNHCR is responsible for refugees, and there is no apparent reason why this should be any different for Palestinian refugees. In contrast to the UNHCR’s globally applicable definition of refugees, refugee status is inherited at UNRWA. This regulation hinders the integration of Palestinian refugees into their respective host countries and a conciliatory settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict,” the resolution added.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar praised the resolution, calling it “an act of moral clarity” in a tweet on Saturday night.

Under the terms of the resolution, all payments currently earmarked for the Palestinian Authority would be immediately frozen until the Authority can demonstrate compliance with conditions already set by the European Union and Germany. Once payments resume, they would be automatically suspended again should the Authority lapse into non-compliance.

The resolution also singled out two particular concerns: the continuation of so-called “pay to slay” payments — stipends drawn from the Palestinian Authority’s budget and paid to the families of individuals convicted of terrorist attacks — and the financing of school textbooks that contain what the resolution describes as antisemitic or anti-Israeli content. The CDU noted that “the European Commission has confirmed that the Palestinian Authority continues to make payments to families of terrorists, which violates German and European budgetary rules stipulating that no funds may be paid for terrorist purposes.”

The resolution’s second major element calls for Germany and the European Union to discontinue support for UNRWA entirely, arguing that the agency’s mandate is structurally flawed and that its ties to terror groups disqualify it from receiving Western funding. The CDU pointed to what it described as “close links between UNRWA and terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah” uncovered in the wake of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.

The party also took aim at UNRWA’s definition of refugee status, which, unlike the UNHCR’s globally applied standard, is inherited across generations. The resolution argued this policy “hinders the integration of Palestinian refugees into their respective host countries and a conciliatory settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict.”

A third provision would require any organization receiving German or EU funds for work in the Palestinian territories to formally recognize Israel’s right to exist, adopt a zero-tolerance policy toward antisemitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), and adhere to UNESCO educational standards promoting peace and non-violence. IHRA is an intergovernmental organization based in Berlin that seeks to strengthen Holocaust education and developed a non-binding but widely-adopted definition of antisemitism.

Crucially, the resolution specifies that violations would trigger automatic payment freezes, not merely diplomatic warnings.

NGO Monitor Vice President Olga Deutsch said, “The CDU’s resolution is an important declaration from Germany’s largest and governing party that UNRWA’s terror ties, Hamas’ and other armed groups’ aid diversion, Palestinian textbooks’ incitement against Jews and Israel, and NGOs’ antisemitism and anti-Zionism are unacceptable. The resolution not only makes these positions clear, but — for the first time — introduces direct and predefined sanctions for violations, a clear acknowledgement that it is not statements but detailed frameworks for execution that truly bring about change.”

NGO-Monitor is a Jerusalem-based non-profit that monitors the activities of non-governmental organizations.

UNRWA has been under fire for years, with Israeli officials demanding the agency be stripped of its authority in Gaza and defunded amid revelations that members of the agency’s staff participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks. Despite Israeli, U.S., and some European opposition, the U.N. General Assembly in December voted to extend UNRWA’s mandate for three more years.

Palestinian refugees are the only refugee population with its own dedicated UN agency. The rest of the world’s refugees fall under the mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.