United Nations, Nov 6 (EFE). – The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) told the General Assembly on Wednesday that Palestinians would plunge “into chaos” if the agency ceased to provide its services, and stressed the urgent need for international intervention to protect it.
“Without intervention by member states, UNRWA will collapse, plunging millions of Palestinians into chaos,” Philippe Lazzarini warned during a special session requested by Palestine after the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, passed on Monday two laws to ban the agency’s activity and any Israeli official’s contacts with it within three months.
Founded in 1949 following the war surrounding the founding of Israel, UNRWA has over 30,000 employees, most of them Palestinian refugees themselves, in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
Lazzarini explained that the agency is “unique among UN agencies” in that it directly provides “public-like services, including education for more than half a million children, primary healthcare and social support” in what he described as “the absence of a capable public administration or state.”
“A year of the most intense bombardment of a civilian population since World War II, and the severe restriction of humanitarian aid, have transformed Gaza into a dystopian horror,” Lazzarini argued, adding that “UNRWA has been a lifeline for the people of Gaza. It is the only pillar of their lives left standing.”
For decades Israel has accused UNRWA of perpetuating anti-Israeli sentiments and of perpetuating the conflict by treating Palestinian refugees and their descendants differently from other refugees around the world.
“UNRWA may be defined by a single word – failure. A failure, both professional and moral. Since its founding, the UN spent tens of billions of dollars, yet I challenge any of you to find any meaningful lasting accomplishments. Instead, UNRWA has used its funding to prolong a cycle of terrorism,” Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the General Assembly.
“We have exposed many so-called teachers who were actually terrorists. Aid workers who were murderer-terrorists collecting un paychecks,” he said.
Earlier in the year, Israeli authorities accused 19 UNRWA employees of actively participating in the Oct. 7 attacks. The agency immediately fired the employees and began an internal investigation, in which it found that nine employees “may have been involved” in the attacks, but said it was unable to independently verify most of the information presented by Israel because Israeli officials did not give it full access.
“UNRWA is shielded by a misconception that it is the backbone of humanitarian efforts in Gaza,” Danon said, adding that “this idea that UNRWA could not be supplemented is absurd.”
Danon was followed by countries and groups of countries who, without exception, praised UNRWA’s vital role in Palestine and deplored the Knesset’s laws.
The United Kingdom Ambassador Barbara Woodward said UNRWA was “indispensable” and that “Israel is responsible for ensuring aid reaches civilians in Gaza, and we expect them to abide by their legal obligations and ensure UNRWA can continue its lifesaving work.”
The head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations, Stavros Lambrinidis, condemned “any attempt to abrogate the 1967 agreement between Israel and UNRWA or to otherwise attempt to obstruct UNRWA’s capacity to fulfill its mandate” saying it would “spell catastrophe for the humanitarian response in Gaza.”
“As long as there is no sustainable solution to the conflict, the mandate of UNRWA will remain vital and we will continue our support to it,” he added.
“Dismantling UNRWA will not terminate the refugee status of Palestinians – this status exists independently of the Agency – but it will severely harm their lives and future,” Lazzarini argued. EFE
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