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SvennoJ on 12 July 2024
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UNWRA can count on ‘EU’s unwavering support’: Borrell

“UNRWA is a lifeline for 5.9m Palestinian refugees & a cornerstone of regional stability,” said Josep Borrell, EU’s foreign policy chief, in a post on X. “Increasing funding is more crucial than [ever], to maintain vital services. As the top donor w/ €500m annually, count on the EU’s unwavering support,” he added.

Right now, a pledge conference, meant to raise funds and encourage donors, for the UN Relief Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) is taking place at UN headquarters in New York City in the US.


UNWRA staff living a ‘nightmare’, yet ‘still deliver for Palestinians’: Guterres

Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, spoke at the UNWRA pledging conference at the UN headquarters in New York. Here are the main points he made:

  • Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse in Gaza, somehow, appallingly, Palestinian civilians are being pushed into ever deeper circles of hell.
  • Palestinians in Gaza keep being forced to move like human pinballs. Nowhere is safe. Everywhere is a potential killing zone.
  • It is time for the parties to show the political courage and political will to finally reach a ceasefire deal. Nothing justifies the horrific attacks by Hamas on October 7. And nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
  • Palestinians are enduring the deadliest period since UNWRA’s creation.
  • And we are all painfully aware UNWRA colleagues have not been spared, where 195 staff members have been killed, the highest staff death toll in UN history. Staff have also been subjected to increasingly violent protests and disinformation campaigns.
  • Yet despite these and other obstacles, in impossible conditions, and in the middle of their own grief, the women and men of UNWRA have bravely continued their work in whatever way they can.
  • And can you imagine what it must be like to be in this situation? Can you imagine our colleagues wake up day after day in a living nightmare and still deliver for Palestinians in desperate need?
  • To those of you who have already pledged support, I thank you. And my appeal to everyone is this: protect UNWRA, protect UNWRA staff, and protect UNWRA’s mandates, including through funding.


UNRWA going above and beyond to operate transparently, former ethics chief says

Lex Takkenberg, former chief of UNRWA’s ethics office, tells Al Jazeera that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is the only international body with an elaborate neutrality framework that incudes staff training, financial checks and inspections of its installations.

“It can never be ruled out that there are abuses, as in any other organisation, but it is doing an amazing job in providing support to Palestinians in the direst circumstances,” he said, adding that the agency was going above and beyond to operate according to humanitarian principles.

Takkenberg said Israel did not present credible evidence to support its claims that UNRWA staff took part in the October 7 attacks. These claims instead served to normalise raids against UNRWA and its facilities, which have become “an integral part of the onslaught in Gaza”, he said.


Lazzarini thanks 118 countries for statement of shared commitment to UNRWA

UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini has thanked 118 countries that signed on to a shared commitment to support and bolster financial and political support for the UN Palestinian refugee agency. The UN’s headquarters in New York held a pledge conference today to secure support for the agency.

“An impressive show of solidarity and support,” Lazzarini said, that comes at “a critical time as UNRWA undergoes unprecedented attacks and systematic attempts to dismantle it.”

The initiative was spearheaded by Slovenia, Jordan and Kuwait and signed by all 15 members of UN Security Council.