International community is failing Palestinian refugees
Earlier this month, on the eve of this year’s pledging conference for the UN Relief and Works Agency, the international body in charge of the welfare and human development of what is by now four generations of Palestinian refugees rather succinctly, although pointedly, warned that: “The agency has reached the limits of its ability to manage the chronic underfunding of the last 10 years through a combination of cost-control, austerity measures and debt accumulation.”
According to UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, this financial crisis will, by September, prevent it from securing the delivery of basic services and lifesaving humanitarian assistance, in education, health, social services, microfinance, infrastructure and camp improvement, and protection.
Common sense dictates that, when such a clear alarm is sounded by the person leading one of the most complex humanitarian and development organizations on Earth, the donor countries should rush to plug the hole in the budget. This is an agency that not only provides essential services to 5.7 million registered refugees, including emergency food assistance to 1.5 million Palestinian refugees in the Occupied Territories and Syria, but it is also a major source of regional stability.
Alas, eventually, the pledges fell short of those required, putting schools, clinics, small businesses and tens of thousands of jobs held by Palestinian refugees at risk. More than anything else, this was not a reflection of UNRWA, but a demonstration of the weakness of the international community and its inability to not only live up to its members’ commitment to the welfare and development of refugees, but also to understand that, without the dedication of this rather unique organization, there is a real threat to the fragile stability in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and especially in Gaza.
Those countries that do not help UNRWA meet its budgetary targets should ask themselves a series of questions
Yossi Mekelberg
No foreign aid is a mere act of charity, but also a tool of foreign policy. And as much as supporting generations of millions of Palestinians that have been the victims of wars and conflict is a worthy cause of the highest order, those countries that do not help UNRWA meet its budgetary targets should ask themselves a series of questions, such as what might be the implications for the Palestinians, for Israel, the wider region and, as a consequence, themselves, if the organization’s activities should cease or are drastically reduced? What if 1.2 million people in Gaza, who are living under Israel’s blockade-style occupation, suffer from starvation?
Are the causes of pragmatism, coexistence and peace going to win the day if UNRWA’s schools are closed, or will this mean driving youths into the willing arms of the most extremist forces, which advocate armed resistance and violence? How is it going to affect the stability of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank or the stability of Jordan, which could also be detrimental to the rest of the region? Lastly, is Europe going to welcome with open arms hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of Palestinians becoming (once again) refugees if it all implodes?
Please forgive me for not supplying detailed answers to these questions, mainly because they are rhetorical, given that the answers are way too obvious and hence alarming. In this case, the UNRWA budget of $1.4 billion is nothing short of a bargain basement price for the international community, considering the proven high-quality services this UN agency has been providing for nearly three-quarters of a century.
Those who malign UNRWA do so for various reasons, which are less than convincing and most of them are disingenuous. For some, the organization is merely a scapegoat for their own failures. For instance, their failure to end the longest conflict in the post-Second World War era and their utter failure to address the plight of the Palestinian refugees, either when it comes to humanitarian aid or ensuring they enjoy human rights and citizenship rights.
The UNRWA budget of $1.4 billion is nothing short of a bargain basement price for the international community
Yossi Mekelberg
Much of the Israeli government’s accusations against the organization do not stand the test of any factual examination. To argue that UNRWA is perpetuating the conflict is preposterous, both morally and practically. It exists because there is no peace agreement and because there is an Israeli occupation, and I have not heard anyone suggesting an alternative provider of its services, and most definitely not Israel, which played a crucial role in creating the refugee issue in the first place and has been prolonging it with no end in sight.
In Gaza and in the West Bank, it is actually the responsibility of the occupying power to ensure the well-being of those occupied, not the international community, although do not expect a thank you card from the Israeli government addressed to UNRWA anytime soon. Moreover, no one is more concerned about the possible collapse of UNRWA, which would leave behind it a trail of anger and chaos not of its doing, than the Israeli security forces.
Additionally, one of the most debauched arguments that questions the right of UNRWA to exist is that most of those registered with the agency are not the original refugees. If this argument becomes an international norm, it will be one that accepts that whatever wrongdoing is committed against other people, even deliberate atrocities, time will whitewash it and there are no obligations to the successor generations of the original victims. This would be a dangerous precedent that undermines everything the UN Charter stands for.
Other accusations that have been made regarding textbooks in Palestinian schools that promote hate speech against Israel and Jews have proven to be anecdotal. And, in any case, the books are not selected by UNRWA but by the host countries or the PA. Certainly, there have been a few occasions when a Palestinian employee has promoted antisemitic language or smuggled weapons on behalf of a militant group. Every such case — and they are very rare — is taken very seriously and addressed through the organization’s disciplinary process. If one follows the logic of disbanding an organization because of the transgressions of individuals, then the Israel Defense Forces, for instance, would also be disbanded on account of its soldiers occasionally stealing weapons and ammunition and selling them to criminal groups, Palestinian armed groups or Israeli institutions where individuals, not to mention the institutions themselves, use despicable hate speech against Arabs and ideological rivals.
Back to reality, and away from unwarranted incitements against UNRWA, the UN General Assembly that mandated it with the almost impossible task of delivering quality services, which in most cases it has carried out so successfully, should unreservedly support it politically against those who have used it as a lightning rod for their own shortcomings. It should grant it a longer-term mandate and guarantee an adequate budget for at least three to five years that would allow it some stability, continuity and certainty, until there is a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
September is around the corner and, if UNRWA cracks, the ensuing earthquake will cause enormous damage not only to the Palestinian refugees, but also to their host countries, the region and the credibility of the UN system.
