Palestinians outraged over proposal to delegate services of UN refugee agency
▶ UNRWA has faced chronic funding problems and Israeli criticism of the group’s schools programme
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has attracted criticism for a proposal to delegate some of its services to other UN bodies.
UNRWA was set up to help Palestinians forced from their homes during Israel’s creation in 1948.
The agency is the only major UN body dedicated to a single conflict and people.
Last month, agency chief Philippe Lazzarini said UNRWA could ask other UN bodies to help to deliver services.
But Muhammed Shehada from the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, told AFP the agency was “not just about the delivery of services”.
“As long as UNRWA is there, it’s a reminder that the international community has a responsibility to solve the issue of Palestinian refugees,” he said.
The agency has faced various accusations by Israel, including that it teaches anti-Zionist messages at its schools.
For years, it has experienced funding problems, regularly falling tens of millions of dollars short of its stated needs.
Having to rely primarily “on voluntary funding from donors would not be reasonable” going forward, Mr Lazzarini said.
“One option that is currently being explored is to maximise partnerships within the broader UN system.”
But Palestinians regard those remarks as a potentially devastating blow to UNRWA’s long-term mission.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said the plan would breach the UN resolutions that set up UNRWA, while the Palestine Liberation Organisation said refugees would be outraged.
Mohammad Al Madhoun, a senior official with militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, described the proposal as “an attempt to dismantle UNRWA as a prelude to ending its work”.
With more than 30,000 employees and a budget of about $1.6 billion this year, UNRWA is a frontline provider of health care, education and other services to 5.7 million Palestinian refugees spread across Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Former US president Donald Trump publicly sided with Israel in criticising UNRWA and in 2018 cut all of Washington’s funding to the programme.
The agency has firmly defended its school curriculum against pro-Israel critics, although Mr Lazzarini told EU representatives last year that problems in the programme were being addressed.
US President Joe Biden’s administration has since restored funding to the agency, but Mr Lazzarini said in November that UNRWA was facing an “existential threat” over budget gaps.
Agency spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai said that this year would include another $100 million shortfall that could worsen given “the increased cost of commodities and food that the ongoing Ukraine crisis has provoked”.
Samer Sinijlawi, head of the Jerusalem Development Fund, which specialises in Palestinian humanitarian affairs, said Mr Lazzarini’s proposal was in part an attempt to test “the Palestinian pulse” before next year’s UN General Assembly vote on renewing UNRWA’s mandate.
But it also gave “a green light” to countries that have been trying “to manipulate this mandate and gradually end the work of UNRWA”, Mr Sinijlawi said.
He also accused Mr Lazzarini of overstepping his authority, saying that his job was not to consider scaling back UNRWA’s operations but rather to carry out UN resolutions on Palestinian refugees, especially on their right of return.
Chris Gunness, a former spokesman for the agency, said that “even if UNRWA is dismantled or its services farmed out, Palestine refugees remain human beings with inalienable rights”.
He emphasised that although any blow to UNRWA’s future could be perceived as a win for Israel, it would not mean that “Palestinian refugees and their right of return will magically evaporate”.
But Mr Shehada said any “de-prioritisation” of the agency would be regarded as diminishing “the Palestinian cause in general”.
Donald Trump publicly sided with Israel in criticising UNRWA and in 2018 cut all of Washington’s funding