UNRWA (the International Relief Agency), the Al-Aqsa flood, the right of return, and the plan to end it

Palestinians receive bags of flour distributed by UNRWA in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip (Reuters)

Some believe that the Israeli allegations of the involvement of 12 UNRWA employees (out of 13,000 employees working for it in the Gaza Strip alone) in the events of October 7 came as a deliberate measure to divert attention, even partially, from the atrocities and systematic genocide against the people of Palestine in Gaza. This assumption lacks accuracy.

The historical and strategic vision of the entity state centered, in its most important aspects, on a frantic and deliberate effort to remove Jerusalem from the Arab, Palestinian, Christian and Islamic conscience, bury the right of return, and nullify UN texts and resolutions that point - implicitly or explicitly - (to Israeli guilt) represented by the displacement, intimidation and genocide that was practiced. In the year 1948, and preventing the return of refugees and the washing of hands from the attempt of some to demand that the entity compensate the refugees (and if such an approach is approved, then the so-called international community and the Arab countries will bear the responsibility of paying such compensation, with the need for the Jews who were (forcibly displaced!) to be compensated from their homes. And their properties in Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, Yemen, Tunisia, etc.)!

The timing of the alleged revelation of what was committed by 12 UNRWA employees and its coincidence with the rise in the level of strange/strange discussion about the status and existence of Gaza (after the war) is important.

Dozens of attempts have been made, since the 1950s, to employ UNRWA as a tool for resettlement, and when this effort failed, the attempts began to focus on demonizing UNRWA, trying to end it, drying up its financial resources, accusing its workers of violating the neutrality imposed on United Nations employees, and focusing insanely on the contents of “hatred” and “violence.” ) is covered, according to their claim, by the Palestinian curriculum adopted by UNRWA in its schools in Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank, from which more than 300,000 male and female students, out of half a million or more, study in UNRWA schools inside occupied Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Over the decades, these attempts succeeded in intimidating and restraining the Secretaries-General who took the helm of the United Nations, and the Commissioners-General who succeeded in leading UNRWA. Whoever confronted them and stood up to their attempts to intimidate and tame them, war would be waged against them, as happened with Peter Hansen at the end of the last century. For criticizing their systematic destruction of the Jenin camp in the West Bank and their measures against the residents of Gaza, and for his honorable humanitarian stances at the time, which ended with his exclusion and declaration of him as an undesirable person. persona non grata

As happened a few years ago with former Commissioner-General Pierre Krahnbuhl, who stood up with courage and steadfastness to his credit in the face of former US President Trump’s decision to move his country’s embassy to Jerusalem and stop all financial aid to UNRWA. In return, he launched a successful international campaign called: (Dignity is Priceless), and stopped He was resolute in the face of attempts to end UNRWA at the time, and attempts to end its presence in the city of Jerusalem in particular, and he ended up being forced to resign after (sexual) and (mismanagement) charges were fabricated against him, of which he was innocent.

The entity’s campaigns continued in an attempt to raise the awareness of UNRWA workers and more than five million refugees who benefit from its basic and emergency services. Funds were invested and institutions, bodies, associations, researchers and research centers were established under various names, the main goal of which was to undermine the UNRWA body and focus - within multiple efforts - on the thirty thousand employees who They work for UNRWA and are accused of violating the concept or principle of (neutrality), and that - what a horror - they express their Palestinianness and belonging to their people on social media platforms, and that they dare to point out the cities and villages from which they were displaced.

These institutions and bodies followed it up, with great focus and perseverance, by attacking the Palestinian curricula adopted by UNRWA in hundreds of its schools in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, and accusing the international institution of, through these curricula, inciting (violence and hatred). Western countries donating to UNRWA's operational fund enthusiastically joined this effort, also calling for “reforms.”

Several years ago, the agency was forced to introduce and teach the (Human Rights) course as an educational course, complementary (and in some aspects contradictory) to the approved Palestinian curriculum.

This was accompanied by the issuance of a “teacher’s guide” to direct UNRWA teachers (who number exceeds 18,000 male and female teachers) as their companions and assistants to use what were called materials related to human rights and excluded contents from the Palestinian curriculum that were considered contradictory to it! This was accompanied by holding hundreds of financially costly workshops and meetings. With the aim of raising the awareness of teachers, including half a million male and female students, how they exclude contents and texts contained in books on Islamic education, social studies, history, etc., which the entity and Western UNRWA supporters decided were not in line with the concepts of humanity or international law, all of which were concepts that were exposed and their defects and selectivity demonstrated during the war. Crazy about Gaza.

Within the same context, it is perhaps important to recall a deliberate Israeli and Western decision taken after the Nakba and on the eve of the announcement of the establishment of UNRWA, and their insistence at that time that it be a separate body and that the Palestinian refugees not be included under the umbrella of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for fear of - God forbid - equality between the Palestinian refugees. European refugees, including Jews; Due to the repercussions of World War II, and so that the legal, moral, political and humanitarian demands of the Palestinian refugees are not included within the international frameworks and bodies that emerged after the global war.

So why the current focused attack on UNRWA and its timing?

The charges against 12 staff members who worked/are working for UNRWA in Gaza are vague and contradictory. The entity began to retract its story, sometimes indicating the availability of confessions against them (?!), and sometimes indicating that their accusations were made after monitoring and tapping their phones. Over the years of my work with UNRWA - and I worked with it for 32 years as an official spokesman and director of media, communication and communication at its headquarters - I suffered. They treated it with continuous accusations, and the accompanying fabrication of charges and skepticism about the institution, and that it reinforces dependency among the ranks of refugees, and that it is bureaucratic and sells illusions to refugees about the possibility of their return, and that it represents (symbolic) a demand that has become obsolete and obsolete.

The timing here is related to the availability of a (historic opportunity) that is destined by Israel and may not be compensated for by eliminating UNRWA, and if not with a knockout blow, then by weakening it and eliminating it by accumulating the points scored on it, and through its most important gates, which is the Gaza Strip, where the presence is largest and has the most impact, and where there is an army of The workforce exceeds 13,000 employees, and the region has the largest number of Palestinian refugees, after the Jordan region, and the region that accounts for the lion’s share of the regular and emergency budget.

The entity aims either to fragment and dilute the role of UNRWA or to end its presence in Gaza after stopping the aggression, while raising the level of humanitarian aid and starting the reconstruction process, and creating a new political entity detailed according to the Israeli, American and European desire and orientation.

Two relevant points here:

• The vileness and obscenity of the American, European, and Canadian decision to either suspend or halt financial support for UNRWA in light of the accusations directed at some of its workers is a position that reflects a clear intention to impose what are called (administrative and financial reforms) for the agency’s work.

Here come the attempts to change the curriculum, and the attempt to end some services, and to dismantle other basic services and transfer some of them to international institutions such as UNICEF and UNICEF. that. DB, or to civil institutions or to host countries, are all indicators in this direction (see, for example, the Canadian decision to provide $40 million to Gaza, while confirming that not a single dollar will be directed to the main institution in Gaza and the institution capable of delivering aid, which is UNRWA. This is a dangerous indicator. Thoughtful and a test balloon!).

Western countries and America provide approximately 85% of UNRWA’s operational budget (and less for the emergency budgets for Syria and the occupied Palestinian territories). These budgets are meager and subsistence budgets for an agency that has been suffering from deep-rooted financial deficits for decades, and budgets that are used as a tool to strike UNRWA in the head, limit its role and services, and suppress Her voice when she talks about humanitarian and legal violations against refugees, and when she talks about the machine of brutality, killing, abuse, and violation of the camps and UNRWA facilities, or when the agency dares to talk about protecting refugees, as stipulated within the mandate of its establishment, or advocating for refugees and introducing their legitimate rights.

These countries, which expressed their “horror and horror” at what was done by a very small number of UNRWA workers, according to the entity’s claims that are not supported by conclusive evidence, are the same countries that did not move at all when 152 UNRWA employees (who are United Nations employees) and their families were slaughtered, which is The largest number killed since the establishment of this international institution.

This duality and this clear and intentional dichotomy, and that those of the Palestinians who fall in their thousands are in successive numbers, and as for those who fall among others, the consciences of humanity shake for them and the heavens cry over them (!), this duality reflects and exposes not only the intentions, but the organized effort by these countries to restrict UNRWA's mandate, weakening it and keeping it financially subsistence, ceasing its hand from any effort related to protecting and advocating for refugees, and working to raise the awareness of workers and beneficiaries of its services until it either ends or transfers its mandate to an institution that works to absorb Palestinian refugees wherever they are and encourage those with the qualifications among them to immigrate.

• The second point relates to the Security Council’s decision in late December 2023 to create a position of coordinator for humanitarian services and reconstruction for the Gaza Strip, headed by Sigrid Al-Qaq (who, by the way, is the wife of a former Palestinian diplomat). Despite the good intentions (or lack thereof) of such a decision, this new/foreign body will supervise the entry of aid, inspect it, and monitor its distribution mechanism, in addition to the difficult and thorny file related to rebuilding, most of which was supervised by UNRWA previously, after successive wars on Gaza and its people.

So, the balance suggests that this body will contribute to the marginalization of UNRWA and limit its role to Gaza in the future, and the various repercussions that this new situation will have on more than one level.

In conclusion, several goals intersect and intersect within “Habrujah,” the play (The Twelve Wicked Ones!), and the frantic push to suspend or end Western support for UNRWA. These goals are:

It provides a golden opportunity to either write off UNRWA in Gaza after the war (which is the Israeli desire), and if this effort fails, it will be neutralized and marginalized, drying up its financial resources and clipping its wings (which is the desire of the countries that financially support UNRWA, and some Arab countries are attached to it!).

Completing the process of weakening UNRWA, and the mouthpiece says: We will impose on you the adoption of an agency tailored to our size as supportive Western countries, and we will accomplish the task of emptying the Palestinian curriculum applied in UNRWA schools of its national content (an effort they are making and in which they have succeeded to a great extent when it comes to Palestinian schools in Jerusalem), and we will prevent you from speaking. About rights and protection, we impose neutrality on your employees as we want, and we deduct whatever services we deem necessary.

Later attention was paid to weakening the presence of UNRWA in the West Bank within the plan (restructuring and reforming the Palestinian Authority), and in the face of the weakness of the official and popular institutions, bodies, and frameworks that represent the refugees, the fear comes from Israeli breakthroughs in this field.

Completing the imposed cordon, raising the level of pressure imposed on UNRWA and its headquarters in Jerusalem, weakening and obstructing its services to the two Palestinian refugee camps located within the boundaries of the Greater Jerusalem Municipality: Shuafat Camp and Qalandiya Camp, and diluting the services provided to Palestinian refugees within the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and its suburbs. The intention here is to expel UNRWA from its headquarters in Jerusalem (there were attempts in the past that failed), and to end the concept and reality of the existence of a camp called Shuafat within the scope of (unified Jerusalem).

This is the most important point: intensifying efforts, or more precisely, completing the effort that has been ongoing for decades to eliminate the concept of the “right of return,” which is a right that, unfortunately, is no longer advocated by many of those who claim to represent the Palestinian people!

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.