Highlights: Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs is calling for the resignation of the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Jalal al-Husseini is associate researcher at the French Institute of the Middle East in Amman, Jordan. He says UNRWA represents for Israel the symbol of the permanence of this problem which it would like to see disappear. But in the absence of a solution, he says, the agency is an essential element of stability in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza.

The Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs is calling for the resignation of the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, caught in the storm since Friday. Following information provided…

Interview

If UNRWA disappears, the Palestinians lose “one of the main symbols of their recognition”

The Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs is calling for the resignation of the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, caught in the storm since Friday. Following information provided by Israel, UNRWA fired nine employees. In total, according to Israel, twelve of them participated in October 7. Unrwa opened an investigation, but donor countries decided to suspend their funding, essential for the survival of the agency. The Palestinians denounce attacks with political aims, because their status as Palestinian refugees depends on UNRWA. Interview with Jalal al-Husseini, associate researcher at the French Institute of the Middle East in Amman, Jordan.

Palestinians pass in front of the closed headquarters of the offices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (illustrative image) AFP - MOHAMMED ABED

By: Marine Lebègue

RFI: Why does Palestinian refugee status still exist today

Jalal al-Husseini

: This refugee status has been transmitted from generation to generation, from father to son, through the patriarchal voice. It is a right that persists, because the right to return or compensation provided for by resolution 194 of December 1948, which decides that there is reason to "

allow refugees who so wish to return to their homes as soon as possible." as soon as possible or receive compensation in exchange

”, is still valid. As long as this UN resolution is not implemented or there is no alternative solution, the refugee issue remains unresolved.

The Palestinian example shows that there are always visible symbols of the permanence or perpetuation of the refugee question, also transcribed by the persistence of the mandate of UNRWA, since 1950. This is a question which remains unanswered , here we are. As long as the refugee issue is not resolved, whether through repatriation – in one way or another, if that is still possible – or through compensation, we will remain in a stuck situation. This is why refugees pass this status on from generation to generation, waiting for a permanent solution to their problem.

Is this return of refugees a particularly sensitive point in the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians?

This is obviously an extremely sensitive issue. The Palestinian position has evolved, notably that of the Palestinian leaders who, since the end of the 1980s, have clarified several times that this question of the return of the Palestinians should not lead to the failure of all Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, Israeli-Palestinian talks, which also focus on the state. From the end of the 1980s, the main demand of the Palestinian leaders concerned the state in the West Bank and Gaza. What Palestinian leaders have been demanding since that time is that at least Israel recognizes in principle the existence of this right; then, its implementation would depend on material factors, and also on the willingness of refugees to return or not. We are in the fourth generation, some might prefer compensation, others a return or at least, recognition in principle of this right.

Is it in this context that we must understand Israel's criticisms of UNRWA

Israel's position in relation to UNRWA is quite complex. On the one hand, UNRWA represents for Israel the symbol of the permanence of this problem which it would like to see disappear. On the other hand, in the absence of a solution, Israel knows very well that the existence of UNRWA is an essential element of stability in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel, as occupying power between 1967 and 1994, managed these operations on a daily basis with UNRWA. There was an operational agreement between UNRWA and Israel which established the rules of cooperation between these two parties.

For more than 30 years, UNRWA has collaborated with Israel, as with any other host country, such as Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Israel knows very well how UNRWA works. The main part of his accusations concerns the fact that certain local UNRWA employees were Hamas militants. But this is a very old question. Since the 1960s, there has been a rule of neutrality within UNRWA: all employees, regardless of their political affiliations, are required to ensure that this affiliation does not encroach on the neutrality of the agency, i.e. It's something that's on their contract.

Read alsoUNRWA, an essential role in the Middle East: overview

But in some cases, in case of political crisis or war, some of the employees cross this limit. There were investigations, then sanctions, taken against those who contravened the rules of neutrality of UNRWA. Today, we tend to make people believe that it is very new, but it is very old, and Israel knows it very well. UNRWA does its best to prevent this from happening, but there have been a few accidents and there have been sanctions. In addition, UNRWA has since created a neutrality unit, which brings together international civil servants from the agency touring UNRWA installations in order to enforce these educational, medical, etc. missions, to verify that it There are no overt signs of militancy in these installations, such as anti-Israeli slogans. Because Unrwa knows perfectly well that this could harm its operations.

If UNRWA

were to disappear, would the Palestinians lose their refugee status

?

This is one of the problems: Palestinian refugees, because they are taken care of by UNRWA, are not part of the general framework of refugees, they are not taken care of by the UNHCR, they are not not covered in the 1951 Convention. The only tangible element of international recognition of Palestinian refugees is this resolution 194, but it is also the UNRWA registration card. If the agency were to disappear, it would be very serious for the Palestinians, in the sense that they would lose one of the main symbols of their recognition.

That said, host countries are very careful to ensure that they do not lose this status. Except for Jordan, the host Arab countries and the Arab League have decided not to grant citizenship in recognition of the Palestinian nationality of refugees. Granting citizenship, according to them, would be equivalent to completely assimilating them, making them forget their right of return. They are therefore stateless, except in Jordan, because the latter needed Palestinian labor, and it decided to grant them citizenship while keeping camps, while continuing to maintain the Palestinian mandate. 'Unrwa on its territory.

What would it mean for Palestinians to lose their refugee status which allows them to claim their right of return

Sixty, 70 years have passed. Few refugees think that they will one day have the right to return to their village, to what was their village, their town in Palestine. But it is a demand that was made by this resolution 194 of the United Nations General Assembly. It is not a resolution which was carried at the time by the Arab countries, but by the United States, France, Turkey, therefore a resolution which was carried by the Western countries, a resolution which is the -flag of Palestinian demands for return or compensation.

They cannot actually lose their status. They have been driven out of their country and the host countries consider them refugees. If UNRWA were to disappear, the host countries would give them refugee cards, because they are. But Arab countries insist that they are refugees, that they have the right to return and compensation.

Also read: Unrwa: “This campaign must also be understood as a form of collective punishment of the agency”

If UNRWA disappears, the Palestinians lose “one of the main symbols of their recognition”

If UNRWA disappears, the Palestinians lose “one of the main symbols of their recognition”

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