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SvennoJ 1 day ago
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Trump administration drops US endorsement of UNRWA

The Trump administration has reversed the Biden administration’s endorsement of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), saying that it supports Israel’s decision to close UNRWA’s office in occupied East Jerusalem.

US deputy ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea, told an emergency meeting of the UN’s Security Council on Tuesday that there are other humanitarian organisations that can do UNRWA’s job – an assertion that has previously been rejected throughout the UN system.

“What is needed is a nuanced discussion about how we can ensure that there is no interruption in the delivery of humanitarian aid and essential services,” Shea said.

While the US Congress had already cut funding for UNRWA until March – due to an unfounded accusation made against the UN organisation by Israel – the US’s former UN ambassador had called UNRWA’s work “indispensable”.

UNRWA’s chief Phillipe Lazzarini leader has warned that Israel’s ban on the agency, due to start on Thursday, risks “harming the lives and future” of millions of Palestinians and will undermine the Gaza ceasefire agreement.


UNWRA employs over 30,000 people
https://www.unrwa.org/careers/working-unrwa

  • The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was created by the UN General Assembly on December 8, 1949.
  • The agency provides essential services to some six million Palestinian refugees who live within and outside Palestine.
  • As UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini has said, UNRWA services can only be taken over by a Palestinian state, since, unlike other aid agencies, UNRWA operates like a quasi-state, including by operating schools.
  • UNRWA runs 58 refugee camps for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
  • In 2023, about 540,148 children were enrolled in 711 UNRWA schools, including 298,363 children in Gaza.
  • As of 2023, UNRWA also operated 141 primary healthcare clinics and provided other services, including small business loans.


Israel’s UNRWA ban will ‘sabotage Gaza’s recovery and political transition’: Lazzarini

As the headquarters of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) faces imminent forced closure by Israel in occupied East Jerusalem, the agency’s chief Philippe Lazzarini addressed the UN’s Security Council (UNSC) to make his case for the crucial continuation of UNRWA’s work and the council’s support to ensure that.

Here are key extracts from Lazzarini’s address to the UNSC:

  • Across the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are turning to UNRWA – the agency they have known all their lives – for support.
  • In Gaza, undermining UNRWA’s operations will compromise the international humanitarian response.
  • It will sabotage Gaza’s recovery and political transition.
  • Curtailing our operations now – outside a political process, and when trust in the international community is so low – will undermine the ceasefire.
  •  UNRWA constitutes half the emergency response [in Gaza], with all other entities delivering the other half.
  • Since October 2023, we have delivered two-thirds of all food assistance, provided shelter to over a million displaced persons, and vaccinated a quarter of a million children against polio.
  • In occupied East Jerusalem, the government of Israel has ordered UNRWA to vacate its premises and cease operations by Thursday.
  • The political attacks on the agency are motivated by the desire to strip Palestinians of their refugee status.
  • The objective is to deny Palestine refugees the right to self-determination and erase their history and identity.
  • I am seeking your decisive intervention in support of peace and stability in the occupied Palestinian territory and the broader region.


Israel does not get to ‘pick and choose’ who represents the UN: Palestinian ambassador

Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, addressed the body’s powerful Security Council and said that “there is no alternative to UNRWA”.

Mansour told the council that Israel had destroyed Gaza and aims to get “rid of the Palestinian people”, but it does not get to “pick and choose” who represents the UN or who represents the Palestinian people.

“The entire international community has to come to the defence of UNRWA, both at the General Assembly and the Security Council,” he said.

The headquarters of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) faces imminent forced closure on Thursday by Israel in occupied East Jerusalem, which threatens the agency’s crucial humanitarian work in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.


UNRWA’s aid boxes to be repackaged due to Israeli ban

The local staff of UNRWA can still continue operating in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem [despite the Israeli ban coming into force tomorrow] but passing through Israeli checkpoints will be very difficult.

According to the analysts, the most devastating consequences will be in Gaza. They already have more than a million tonnes of aid waiting outside Gaza to be sent in to the Gaza Strip.

The packages with an UNRWA logo will not be allowed in, so they have to repackage a lot of it under the UN agencies.