ha they told unrwa what they do want? >> yoantd what they do want.constantly reforming what we do. we have reformed our education program. we have reformed our health program. ae've moved from food to cash in the west bnk. this is just indicative of the very srious obligation we feel we have to be the west that we can be. >> yang: in january the president said that -- he said we pay the palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars a year and get no appreciation or respect. is there in i sense or suspicion that there's some st of -- this is punitive, that this is somehow a payback from thepr ident of the administration? >> i mean, i can't speak to what the motivations were. all i can say is that if we get more funding from the u.s. this year it would be a reduction of 83% of what they ga us in 2017, and i would like to add we're very grateful to the u.s. pey have been a strong partner frsident trump all the way back to president truman, as we primarily in the west ban which is where i am. >> yang: israel has had a contentious relationship with unrwa.

relief and works agency known as unrwa. this is unrwa commissioner-general pierre karhenbuhl, speaking to arab league leaders. >> what is at stake excellencies is the dignity of palestine refugees and regional stability. if 525,000 students no longer have access to education, if 3 million patients cannot access 1.5 million if people can no longer receive emergency assistance, we will undoubtedly witness and see a catastrophic rise in insecurity. in cuba, the eldest son of fidel castro commited suicide on thursday after a long struggle with depression. fidel castro diaz-balart, who was known affectionately as "fidelito" or "little fidel" for his resemblance to his father, was 68 years old. castro diaz-balart was a nuclear physicist who studied in the former soviet union. he was also a relative of some of the most strident anti-castro cuban exiles living in the united states, and cousin of congressman mario diaz-balart and former congressman lincoln diaz-balart, both republicans from florida. kenya's government is defying an

on all parties to scale up their support to unrwa. refugees hosting the palestinian refugees will act to steadily improve conditions of the palestinian refugees. thank you mister president i think china and give the floor to the representative from court eva. >> thank you mister president. mister president, my country welcomes the holding of this meeting in the situation in the middle east, including the palestinian question. wewould like to thank the secretary-general and the special coordinator for the middle east process , mister nikolai mladenov for the quality of the comments and the presentation on the topic. we also welcome the presence in this chamber for the debate this morning of the chairman of the palestinian authority, his excellency mister mahmoudabbas . as the prime representative of the state of israel to the united nations. mister president, 25 years after the oslo accords , the hope of a peaceful settlement to the israeli-palestinian conflict has dwindled and the compromise solution of a two state living side-by-side

of course, human rights reports and unrwa statements account for only a limited scope of allegations documented by international organizations, credible n.g.o.'s. the real scope of the human shield policy is certainly far greater. israeli authorities reported 3,600 palestinian rockets launched in the first month and a half of protected edge, 1,600 of those rockets, nearly 45% were fired from civilian areas. h.r. 3542 rightfully calls on the administration to use their voice and vote in the united nations security council to impose multilateral sanctions on hamas for this disgraceful pattern of exploiting innocent civilians, including women and children, so they can rain rockets on innocent israelis with greater impunity. it would sbose visa bans and asset freezes on individuals and entities that direct or facilitate hamas' use of human shields. by supporting this measure, mr. speaker, this house can advance the cause of civilian protection for israelis and palestinians alike. again, i want to thank mr. wilson for this excellent bill and i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: