The UN General Assembly voted Friday to renew the mandate of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) despite US and Israeli pressure to reduce the agency's role. The Palestinian presidency welcomed the vote, saying it was evidence of the world's standing with the Palestinian people and their historic rights.
The Fourth Committee of the General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution extending the mandate of UNRWA until the end of June 2023. 167 States voted in favor of the vote against Israel and the United States, with seven abstentions: Cameroon, Australia, Guatemala, Nauru and Papua New Guinea , Rwanda, and Vanuto.
Ahmed Abu Houli, a member of the PLO's executive committee and head of its refugee affairs department, said that the United States and Israel had failed to pass their proposals within the Fourth Committee, to redefine the Palestinian refugee, to drop the status of asylum for the children and grandchildren of refugees, and to reduce the renewal of the agency's mandate for one year instead of three.
“Frankly, under the current circumstances, there is no substitute for UNRWA to provide these services. We are determined to continue to provide the assistance required as long as the mandate of UNRWA continues, continues to be of the highest quality and most cost-effective.” 4/4 |
The Palestinian official added that the member states of the Fourth Committee stressed in their interventions and proposals that preceded the voting process the support of UNRWA's work and the continuation of its services to more than 6.2 million refugees until a just solution to the Palestinian refugee issue.
Abu Holly said the PLO would intensify its political and diplomatic action in the next two weeks "to ensure an overwhelming vote on the draft resolution in the general vote of 193 member states in the General Assembly" by December 1.
Saeb Erekat, secretary-general of the PLO's executive committee, said in a tweet that the vote was "a victory for international law, for the rights of Palestinian refugees and a defeat for enemies of international law who have chosen the wrong side of history."
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said in a tweet on his Twitter account that the UN committee's decision was "a clear and clear international position in favor of UNRWA continuing its duty towards the Palestinian refugees."
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Established by a UN resolution in 1949, UNRWA provides education, health, shelter and relief services to more than five million registered refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, as well as in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
UNRWA has been facing financial problems since last year after the United States, the agency's biggest donor, announced in August 2018 that it would suspend its $ 360 million a year aid to the agency. Washington says some of UNRWA's activities are anti-Israel.