UNRWA is Problematic

In fact, I literally quoted Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi 15 years ago to show that the Arab world, with the exception of Jordan, have made no effort at all to integrate Palestinians displaced in 1948, and noted that UNRWA is part and parcel to all of this.

As I have mentioned before the official policies of the host governments is to not keep Palestinians in camps and to keep them as stateless refugees in order to make sure that they, "Stay in the fight," which is why many of the Gulf states deny basic human rights to Palestinians, and (for example) Lebanon stripped Palestinians of the right to own land in 2001.

Unlike the other UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, which is chartered to work toward seeing the refugees settled in where they have fled, repatriated, or settled in a 3rd country, UNRWA is charged with maintaining the camps for the Palestinian refugees, and their descendants, until the sun has burned down to a cinder.

UNRWA is paid to support people in refugee camps as refugees, and the UNHCR is paid to get people  out of refugee status and to become normal citizens.

This, along with its focus on only one group of displaced people does not produce best outcomes for the people that they ostensibly support.

Under these circumstances, it is inevitable that supports for conflict and militants would become part of the de facto mission of the UNRWA.  Direct support of militants has been documented on multiple occasions, and this is a feature, not a bug.

Therefore the revelation that some employees of UNRWA were participants in the October 7 massacres is not a surprise.

What is a surprise is that when Israel provided evidence of this, some of the largest donor nations to UNRWA suspended payments.

It is well past the time for UNRWA to be folded into the UNHCR.  It would be better for peace in the region, and far better for the Palestinians left in limbo for nearly 80 years:

The decision by the US, UK and other western nations to freeze ­funding for the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees will significantly worsen the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, Palestinians have warned.

Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland joined the United States, Australia and Canada in pausing funding after UNRWA, the UN’s Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, revealed an investigation had been launched into 12 members of staff who allegedly took part in the 7 October attack led by Hamas that killed 1,140 people.

Switzerland?  Given historical Swiss neutrality, whatever evidence that has been presented must be VERY convincing.

Also, Japan has also suspended funding to UNRWA.

………

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, pleaded on Saturday for donor states to “guarantee the continuity” of the body.

“While I understand their concerns – I was myself horrified by these accusations – I strongly appeal to the governments that have suspended their contributions to, at least, guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s operations,” Guterres said in a statement.

I actually think that the continuity of UNRWA operations are the problem, at least in the longer term.

Placing the provision of aid to refugees under the auspices of the UNHCR, WITHOUT transferring senior staff to the other agency, is probably the best alternative for all of the stakeholders in this process.

The refugees should have some sort of normalcy in their lives, and UNRWA is an impediment to this process.