UNRWA
The United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) was established in 1949 by the UN General Assembly to provide relief to all refugees resulting from the 1948 conflict between Israel and the invading Arab states.
This initially included Jewish and Arab Palestine refugees inside the State of Israel until the Israeli government took over this responsibility for the Jewish population in 1952.
UNRWA currently employs over 30,000 people, most of them Palestinians, and a small number of international staff. Originally intended to provide employment and direct relief, its mandate has broadened to include providing education, health care, and social services to its target population.
UNRWA operates in five areas: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
UNRWA is the only UN agency exclusively dedicated to helping refugees from a specific region or conflict, and herein lies the problem.
In 1948 the United Nations created two states in the region -- one Jewish and the other Arab.
The Jewish leaders accepted this arrangement, but the Arab leaders of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq did not. They invaded the Jewish state and lost the war.
Rather than welcome the refugees produced by this conflict into their territories and offer them a future the way that many countries have offered refugees who have landed on their shores, Arab states decided to coldly abandon refugees to their fate.
Egypt annexed Gaza, and Jordan the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Between 1948 and 1967, no Arab state worked to create an independent Palestinian state in the territories that Egypt and Jordan had occupied, nor did they accept to resettle the refugees.
Refugees in UNRWA camps live in conditions that can be classified as deplorable. UNRWA has contributed to the indoctrination of generations of children in their schools to hate Israel and Jews, and maintained an illusion that Israel would somehow disappear, and that Palestinians would be able to return to their ancestral homes.
Under its watch, HAMAS and HEZBOLLAH have created military infrastructures and used UNRWA facilities to store weapons and consistently launch attacks on Israeli civilian targets.
UNRWA is the only UN agency to cater exclusively to a refugee population and has done do for seventy-five years.
And Cindy McCane, Executive Director of the World Food Program, claims that UNRWA is indispensable in providing lifesaving aid and social services in Gaza. If the Knesset decision to disallow UNRWA from operating in Israeli held territory is implemented, she says, this decision will have devastating consequences on food security and much more for the most vulnerable people.
And yet, UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini has admitted that UNRWA is not really needed to ferry aid to Palestinian communities. (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/united-nations-watch_unrwa-chief-philippe-lazzarini-admits-for-ugcPost-7263902012877000704-Whbm/?utm_medium=ios_app&utm_source=social_share_video_v2&utm_campaign=mail)
So, why does UNRWA need to exist after seventy-five years of failure?
Other refugee populations have been treated differently.
After the creation of the State of Israel, over a million Jewish refugees were stripped of their posessions in Arab countries and forced to flee – most of them to Israel.
This Diaspora was never compensated for its losses, nor have the countries that expelled them ever been subject to sanctions.
The murderous regime of Bashir al Assad in Syria has created over six million refugees, all of whom have been resettled in Europe or North America with no hope of ever returning to their homes. Others remain homeless in Syria proper with no recourse other than the normal refugee agencies trying to provide aid in a gruesome situation of violence and oppression.
No exclusive UN agency for them, and the Syrian dictatorship remains a member in good standing of the UN.
In 1975, the fall of Saigon created an exodus of millions of refugees known as “boat people”. They have all settled into their new homes and have prospered.
No special UN agency for them, and Vietnam remains a respected member of the UN.
More recently, the Maduro regime in Venezuela has created over six million refugees, most of whom have resettled in Latin America and the United States.
Unlike the Palestinians’ neighbors, Latin American states have opened their doors and allowed them to settle.
The list goes on and on, and no special UN agency to manage their affairs of any of these refugee groups or hold them in camps for five generations exists.
World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain has claimed that UNRWA is “essential” for Palestinians.
I disagree.
All other Diaspora have been managed through regular refugee agancies, national governments, and non-governmental organizations.
None of them has been “essential”.
Rather, they have pooled their resources and know-how to resettle refugees and help them sertle in to their new lands.
All of these refugees have integrated into their new societies and, as stated above, all of the governments that have caused these tragedies remain members in good standing of the international community.
This leads me to ask why UNRWA exists after five generations, and why Palaetinian refugees have not been allowed to resettle in neighboring states under humane and dignified conditions.
The same applies to all refugee situations worldwide.
If international assistance is required, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and others step in until refugees are resettled.
No government that has created refugee situations has been sanctioned, and none has paid compensation either in cash or in territory.
UNRWA is the only agancy than has specialized in keeping refugees isolated in camps and dependent on international largesse for survival.
This has led to the ironic situation that international donors contribute directly to terrorism, and have allowed HAMAS and HEZBOLLAH leaders to ammass huge personal fortunes.
Recent intelligence has uncovered that UNRWA members have taken part in HAMAS and HEZBOLLAH terrorist activities, and that UNRWA Comissioner General Philippe Lazzarini and UN Secretay-General Antonio Guterres have either turned a blind eye to these activities or were ignorant of them.
Either way, the relationship between UNRWA and terrorist groups has convinced me that UNRWA must be terminated and replaced by a system of agencies that can help resettle Palestinian refugees without creating the kinds of symbiotic relationships between the U.N. and terrorist organizations that currently exist.
The international community doesn’t need a UN specialized agency that not only has close ties with major terrorist organizations but whose employees actually participate in terrorist activities.
Arab states that ignored Palestinians when they occupied Gaza and the West Bank as well as their allies must create the conditions that welcome these refugees into their societies and provide them with the wherewithall to live decent lives.
UNRWA is irreversibly tainted and cannot hope to survive in its current state.
Palestinians cannot live in their current conditions forever.
Palestinians must decide if they are willing to live in camps for generations more, or if they are willing to change their mindset and create an environment in which they and moderate Israelis can find common ground.
To date, this does not appear to be a possibility.
There are no credible Palestinian leaders who advocate a peaceful resolution for the conflict.
The Abraham Accords have demonstrated that Arab countries are indeed tiring of the Palestinian issue and appear prepared to create an alliance against Iran with Israel without the Palestinians and enjoy access to the Israeli market and technology.
No Arab state has invited Palestinains become permanent residents: indeed, Egypt has built a huge wall precisely to prevent Palestinians for crossing into Egypt from Gaza.
This is the sad truth for Palestinians, and no amount of handwringing or wishful thinking is going to change this reaity.
What is required is not an agency that keeps the more radical elements of Palestinian society in positions of power.
What is required is an organization whose employees do not commit terrorist actions as did some of UNRWA’s staff members on October 7th.
What both sides need is a United Nations that works to eliminate suspicion and violence on both sides and creates a sustainable basis for dialogue and progress.
This is currently lacking.
UNRWA’s perceived pro-Hamas bias is a major cause for the lack of any Israeli confidence in the organization as an honest broker.
Absent confidence on both sides, there is no basis for dialogue.
The international community might be better off focusing on a different approach rather than continuing to flog a dead horse.
I know that I may be accused of sounding like a shill for Israel.
I am not.
I am simply advocating for a United Nations that doesn’t support terrorism in any way as UNRWA has been proven not only to support Hamas but to actually participate in its terrorist activities.
If anyone can disprove this with facts rather than rhetoric, I am all ears and willing to listen.
Hello Eduardo, Your article UNRWA? is well crafted. It raises, with reason, the question, what is the role of the United Nations ?. You have clearly described how seventy years of existence have not produced positive results for the Palestinian refugees, one could even argue that they have delayed if not destroyed the possibility of reaching a two states solution. It is time for policy makers to wake up and close organizations like UNRWA. Thank you for challenging bureaucracies that are inefficient.
With a budget of approx usd 1 billion a year how can one explain the horrendous conditions in Gaza even before Oct 7. And how after 20 years of Palestinian self rule in Gaza do you still have refugee camps in Gaza.