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UNRWA, an essential role in the Middle East: overview
Unrwa in turmoil. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, at the heart of humanitarian aid in Gaza, announced on Friday that it had parted ways with several employees accused of being involved in the Hamas attack on October 7. Since then, many countries have suspended funding, directly jeopardizing a vital organization in the region.
Displaced Palestinians receive food aid at the Unrwa center in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, this Sunday, January 28, 2024. AFP - -
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Behind the separation wall between Jerusalem and Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, at the entrance to the Qalandya refugee camp: the blue and white UNRWA schools, and the UN flags.
Since Friday,
the announcement about Unrwa
has been in everyone's conversation. It had the effect of a cold shower, explains Mohammad, a 25-year-old Palestinian refugee, interviewed by our correspondent in the Palestinian Territories,
Alice Froussard
.
We have already been under Israeli occupation since 1948, as we were displaced from our homes. So our ancestors came to these camps, but little by little, without evolution, this camp finally became our home.
Here, Unrwa takes care of education, the health system, emergency aid, and sometimes infrastructure, Mohammad explains to us. The agency has flaws, but it is a pillar. On site, she is also in charge of social services, and even micro-finance for Palestinian refugees.
The creation of UNRWA and its main missions
UNRWA was created at the end of December 1949 by the UN General Assembly after the first Arab-Israeli conflict which broke out following the creation of Israel in May 1948. Its mandate is to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees registered in the agency's area of operations,
"pending a just and lasting solution to their situation".
More than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their lands between April and August 1948 at the time of Israel's creation, according to the UN. These people, as well as their descendants, have the status of refugees. UNRWA becomes the sole guarantor by default of their international status and intervenes in the Palestinian territories, but also in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
Some 5.9 million Palestinians are registered with the agency and can benefit from services that include education, health care, social services, camps, as well as emergency assistance, including during of armed conflict. More than 540,000 children study in UNRWA schools. There are a total of around sixty refugee camps managed by the UN agency, including nineteen in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
In the Gaza Strip, where Hamas took power in 2007, the humanitarian situation was already critical before the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement. According to UN data dating from August 2023, 63% of residents then suffered from food insecurity and depended on international aid and more than 80% lived below the poverty line. Of the 30,000 people employed by the agency, 13,000 work in the Gaza Strip, spread across more than 300 facilities across an area of 365 square kilometers, according to the organization's website.
The UN agency is financed largely by voluntary contributions from States. In 2022, for example, funds from the UN regular budget and contributions from other UN entities amounted to $44.6 million. The top five donors are the United States, Germany, the European Union, Sweden and Norway.
A symbol of hope of return
For Khaled, in his fifties, the cessation of UNRWA funding is nothing other than collective punishment. Western countries are complicit, he believes, in Israeli violations against the Palestinians.
Americans are overdoing it with support for Israel. Western countries too. The United Kingdom, Germany... They are all against us. But why ? Are we less than human? This is my country. We will live here. And our children will live here too.
Because Unrwa is already struggling to meet its usual operating budget. Humanitarian crises like the one currently taking place in Gaza could
directly threaten its existence
.
If this United Nations Agency in charge of refugees disappears, there would no longer be a structure to guarantee the right of return for Palestinians and, concludes Khaled, who shows his refugee card, a status transmitted from generation to generation. generations, “
Benyamin Netanyahu knows this very well
”.
But what comes up most among the residents of Qalandya are their thoughts about Gazans: how will they get by without Unrwa? they ask. In this strip of land under blockade, ravaged by war, the United Nations agency is in fact the main humanitarian actor.
To rereadThe UN agency Unrwa caught in the conflict around Gaza
The main humanitarian actor in Gaza
Following Israeli allegations against twelve UNRWA employees, and the dismissal of seven of them – one person died and two remain to be identified – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres confirmed in person that an investigation had been opened.
Mr. Guterres assured that the UN agency took these accusations very seriously and that “
any employee involved in terrorist actions will have to answer for their actions, including before the courts
”. He says he is ready to cooperate with any competent authority wishing to initiate proceedings.
He is not the only one to react
.
But until then, at least eight countries have announced that they are suspending their contributions, at least temporarily. At their head are the United States and Germany, which are the agency's main contributors. There is also the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands and, most recently, Japan which is temporarily suspending its payments. Some 90% of funds come from States and the European Union; 95% of UNRWA's financial resources come from donor countries.
France, like Switzerland outside the EU, has indicated that it will decide when the time comes whether or not to continue its financing.
A decision which risks putting in difficulty the agency on which civilians in Gaza depend. It is UNRWA which is responsible in particular for distributing the aid which comes in trickles. A crucial mission given the situation on site. In this strip of land under blockade, ravaged by war, the United Nations agency is the main humanitarian actor.
Antonio Guterres at least calls on donor countries to guarantee the continuation of the UN body's operations in Gaza. Otherwise, he said, the agency won't even be able to meet all the needs in February.
Read alsoUnrwa: “This campaign must also be understood as a form of collective punishment of the agency”
In Jordan, repercussions too
Already subjected for around fifteen years to budgetary purges by the main donor countries, the announcement of the suspension of UNRWA funding will have consequences for the 2.3 million Palestinians who are registered with the Office, and not just in the Territories.
Jalal el-Husseini, researcher at the French Institute of the Middle East, explains to our correspondent in Amman,
Mohamed Errami
, that "
suspending funds means reducing services, but then raw services
, and it will particularly affect the refugees who need it the most, that is to say of course those in the Gaza Strip, but also the refugees in Syria.
»
“
And it will reduce the general services which serve the local population here
” in Jordan, he adds, while the country has thirteen Palestinian refugee camps.
Some 30,000 local Palestinian civil servants currently work at Unrwa, explains our colleague. Some of them may defend political ideas or be sympathizers of Hamas.
The UN agency, which operates mainly thanks to local employees, has always taken care to maintain political neutrality in its operation, assures Jalal el-Huisseini at his microphone: “
The thing that UNRWA imposes is is that the political activities of its local employees must absolutely not hinder the neutrality of the agency.
»
Food aid provided by Unrwa to Rafah, in central Gaza, this January 28, 2024. AFP - -
In Lebanon, 27 medical centers
Our correspondent in Beirut,
Paul Khalifeh
, recalls that a large majority of Palestinian refugees settled in Lebanon for 75 years depend on the office. Nearly 490,000 Palestinian refugees are registered on its registers in Lebanon – the real number would nevertheless be lower, because deaths and final departures abroad are not reported.
The UN agency estimates the number of refugees still resident in Lebanon at 250,000, a figure higher than the country's authorities' estimates of 175,000 individuals. This population, half of whom live in twelve camps spread across the entire territory, relies mainly on the United Nations to ensure their vital needs.
Here again, the UN agency is equally concerned with education, health, the fight against extreme poverty and infrastructure maintenance in the camps. Unwra operates 27 medical centers in Lebanon, which provide nearly a million consultations per year, in addition to tens of thousands of other healthcare services. Forty thousand students from the fourth generation of refugees are educated in 64 establishments administered by UNRWA.
The agency also provides financial assistance of tens of millions of dollars to thousands of families, which makes it possible to reduce the rate of refugees living below the poverty line from 93% to 80%.
Without these services and aid, Palestinian refugees would therefore be abandoned to their own devices in a country which is collapsing under a serious economic crisis with a failing state, incapable of providing for the basic needs of its own population, notes our colleague.
Listen againDeadly shots against an UNRWA building in Gaza: “This is the third direct strike”
More than 500,000 children in school
Protection of Palestinian refugees and humanitarian assistance on the territory, these were the two missions given to UNRWA when it was created in 1949. A crucial role entrusted by the UN General Assembly, one year after the creation of the State from Israel, while several hundred thousand Palestinians were expelled or on the run.
The agency has since managed around sixty refugee camps in total, in the Occupied Territories, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. It works with just under six million Palestinians.
But its missions, as we have seen, do not stop there. More than 500,000 children study in UNRWA schools.
Since the start of the Israeli offensive, the agency has helped more than two million civilians in the Gaza Strip. It distributes water and food and welcomes 1.7 million refugees.
This is not the first crisis that the UN office has gone through. Already in 2018, Donald Trump's United States ended its annual contribution of $300 million. The Biden administration then resumed payments in 2021.
Also read Live] Gaza intensely bombed, aid to UNRWA suspended by several countries
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