On the occasion of  the UNRWA donors' meeting held in Amman on 9 September 1997, Palestinian refugees engaged in strikes and protest activities against UNRWA budget-cuts everywhere, in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip, in Jordan and in Lebanon. Students and teachers of UNRWA-run educational institutions went on strike in all refugee camps in the region. Popular refugee initiatives in the West Bank accused UNRWA of increasing the impact of Israel's closure policy  by reducing health, education and social services to the refugees and demanded an immediate financial solution. This was, in fact, the first time that Palestinian refugees, dispersed in Palestine and in three Arab host countries, succeeded in sending a united message to the foreign governments whose donor policy is held  responsible for the current crisis of the regular UNRWA budget. 
 The refugee protests remained not without results: A 20 million US$ emergency grant to UNRWA allowed for the Agency's functioning until the end of 1997 and made it possible to reverse some of the most sensitive austerity measures (e.g. school-fees for refugee children, fees for medical treatment in UNRWA hospitals). A more crucial meeting, however, took place in New York on 2 December 1995, when donors were asked to announce their pledges to UNRWA for the fiscal period of 1998-9. UNRWA's 1998 budget is US $343 million, and UNRWA High Commissioner Peter Hansen had made clear that the Agency will be able to continue operating without cutting its services only if this budget is fully funded. In New York, donor countries pledged US $126 million (mainly: USA 70, Sweden 19, Norway 14.2, Netherlands 5.5, Switzerland 5.5, Germany 5). Several other donors, among them Japan, announced that they were not yet able to make their pledge for the coming year. 
(al-Ayyam, 4-12-1997, UNRWA Public Relations Department)