On the banning of UNRWA

Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency

Source: Friends of Sabeel North America

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) was created shortly after the Nakba in 1948 to provide immediate relief to Palestinian refugees displaced by that war until such time as they could return to their homes, as stipulated by UN Resolution 194. Its mandate was strictly defined. UNRWA was not a development or resettlement agency, but a temporary relief agency whose budget had to be raised from member countries, and others, separately from the United Nations itself or the UN High Commissioner of Refugees which oversees other refugee issues worldwide. Historically, the US has been the largest donor and about 72 different countries currently contribute yearly to its budget.

UNRWA has over 30,000 workers and three main departments:

Health, managing 144 clinics;
Education, running 670 schools; and
Relief and Social Services.

It provides services to the most needy of Palestinian refugees in about 60 refugee camps in 5 major geographic areas: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. For about 12 years, a close relative of mine served as Director of the Relief and Social Services Department headquartered in Amman, Jordan. She reports that the staff are thoroughly professional and provide vital services that often cannot be provided by the host countries, and they are under constant international scrutiny. Since 1967, Israel has been acting as the "host country" for refugees in the West Bank and Gaza. While refusing to allow the "right of return" for the refugees, Israel has tolerated UNRWA because it provides services Israel is unwilling to provide itself, services which under international law it should be obligated to provide as the "belligerent occupier."

From the beginning, Israel has had an ambiguous relationship with UNRWA. On the one hand, it resented the mandate of UNRWA as a constant reminder of the plight of the Palestinian refugees, a problem Israel has wanted to disappear in the hope that refugees would be absorbed by the surrounding Arab countries. It has claimed that the Arab countries were deliberately keeping the refugees in camps to maintain a delusional "right of return." On the other hand, Israel recognized that UNRWA served a major humanitarian function by providing minimal relief to the most needy Palestinians who would otherwise desperately turn to violent resistance, or become a burden to itself and other host countries.

In Gaza, UNRWA today is the largest employer. It provides food assistance to 1.2 million inhabitants. It provides schooling and health services and emergency assistance, particularly since about 90% of the population has been forced to leave their homes repeatedly, and many are crowding into UNRWA buildings-85% of which have been hit, damaged or destroyed.

Israel's friends in the US, particularly in Congress, have repeatedly attacked UNRWA, claiming it is corrupt and inefficient or that its curricula teaches Palestinian children terrorism and antisemitism. Such claims have led to many investigations, constant scrutiny, and detailed reports debunking such claims, particularly since the curriculum in UNRWA schools is set by the host country. And, in the case of the West Bank and Gaza, it was set by the Israeli Officer in Charge of Education until the creation of the Palestinian National Authority. Israeli supporters frequently demand UNRWA's defunding, often with AIPAC and the Israeli government itself quietly behind the scenes urging the continuation of such funding, as it would relieve Israel from providing these services itself.

After October 7, 2023, Israel began attacking UNRWA again, claiming it was riddled with Hamas supporters and that its facilities were being used to hide Hamas weapons and tunnels. The evidence offered by Israel consisted of a number of cases when UNRWA discovered weapons being stacked in a number of its schools and of tunnels dug near them, things which UNRWA itself promptly reported and protested. Israel also claimed that 12 employees (out of 30,000) were in fact Hamas members. UNRWA promptly dropped those employees, pending an investigation, while reminding the world that the details and ID numbers of all its employees in Gaza and the West Bank are reported to Israel and that UNRWA must seek their approval before they are hired. Its facilities, clinics, schools and vehicles are clearly marked and their locations reported to the Israeli army. This has not prevented them from being attacked. Over 230 of their employees have been killed and 85% of their facilities, which had been turned into evacuation centers for Palestinians forcibly evacuated from their homes, have been repeatedly bombed and systematically damaged or destroyed.

The real reason for the Israeli right wing's hostility to UNRWA, which is readily acknowledged in the Hebrew press (though not in the United States), is that UNRWA is a constant reminder of the unresolved Palestinian refugee crisis and the refugees' aspiration to fulfill their right of return to their homes and properties in Palestine. Israel's right wing believes that if UNRWA is dissolved, somehow there would no longer be a refugee problem and the Palestinian Right of Return would be extinguished. October 7 gave them the excuse to make that argument again and to demand UNRWA be defunded as an organization "riddled with Hamas supporters." 18 countries immediately suspended UNRWA funding, though 17 of them eventually resumed funding after finding Israeli allegations to be spurious. Only the US remains as a country still withholding funding.

The recent declaration by Israel that UNRWA is a terrorist organization and the prohibition of UNRWA operations in territories under its control, including the West Bank and Gaza, is an outrageous decision. It is a decision that can only be made in the context of Israel's total disregard for the international community, hostility towards the UN and its agencies, and its arrogant reliance on unchecked US support. This is particularly true in Gaza where UNRWA today is the largest employer, and it is the only organization with the experience, infrastructure, network, and employees capable of providing and delivering life-saving assistance to that devastated population. No provision is made or stated as to who will be providing those services if UNRWA is barred from operating in Gaza and the West Bank. That behaviour and the determined hostility towards the United Nations and international law and international organizations must be laid at the door of the US administration and its support for the most extreme right wing positions of the current Israeli government.

Save UNRWA!

Use the link below to demand that Congress condemns Israel's ban on UNRWA and supports the UNRWA Funding Emergency Restoration Act of 2024!

https://fosna.good.do/gazahospital/saveUNRWA/