| Name | United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East |
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| Size | 250px |
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| Caption | UNRWA Logo |
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| Abbreviation | UNRWA |
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| Formation | 8 December 1949. |
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| Purpose | humanitarian |
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| Region served | Near East |
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| Leader title | Commissioner-General |
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| Leader name | Filippo Grandi |
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| Parent organization | United Nations |
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United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a relief and human development agency, providing education, health care, social services and emergency aid to over 4.7 million Palestine refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It is the only agency dedicated to helping refugees from a specific region or conflict. It is separate from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, which is the only other UN agency aiding refugees, dedicated to aiding all refugees in the world.
It was established following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War by the United Nations General Assembly under resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949. This resolution also reaffirmed paragraph 11, concerning refugees, of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and was passed unopposed, supported by Israel and the Arab states, with only the Soviet bloc and South Africa abstaining.
UNRWA has had to develop a working definition of "refugee" to allow it to provide humanitarian assistance. This maintained that beneficiaries had to have lived in the British Mandate of Palestine for at least two years before fleeing and must have lost both their home and livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, or be the descendant of someone who had. Most of UNRWA's funding comes from European countries and the United States.
The UNRWA definition is meant solely to determine eligibility for UNRWA assistance, although some argue it serves to perpetuate the conflict. Under General Assembly Resolution 194 (III), of 11 December 1948, other persons may be eligible for repatriation and/or compensation but are not necessarily eligible for relief under the UNRWA's working definition. Thus a person who is not or who has ceased to be regarded as a refugee by the UN Commissioner for Human Rights definition may still qualify as a refugee by the UNRWA definition.
All Palestine refugees (as defined) who are registered with UNRWA and are in need of assistance are eligible for help from UNRWA. In 2004, there were 4 million qualified Palestine refugees registered with the UNRWA. UNRWA provides facilities in 59 recognized refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It also provided relief to displaced persons inside the state of Israel following the 1948 conflict until the Israeli government took over responsibility for them in 1952.
For a camp to be recognized by UNRWA, there must be an agreement between the host government and UNRWA governing use of the camp. UNRWA does not itself run any camps, has no police powers or administrative role, but simply provides services to the camp. Refugee camps, which developed from tent cities to rows of concrete blockhouses to urban ghettos indistinguishable from their surroundings, house around one third of all registered Palestine refugees. UNRWA also provides facilities in other areas where large numbers of registered Palestine refugees live outside of recognized camps.
Organisation and administration
UNRWA is a subsidiary organ of the United Nations General Assembly and its mandate is renewed every three years. It is the largest agency of the United Nations, employing over 25,000 staff, 99% of which are locally-recruited Palestinians. The Agency's headquarters are divided between the Gaza Strip and
Amman, Jordan. Its operations are organised into five fields - Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, West Bank and Gaza. UNRWA's Commissioner-General is
Filippo Grandi, an Italian citizen, who succeeded
Karen Koning AbuZayd, a US citizen, in 2010. Grandi is responsible for managing UNRWA's overall activities. His subordinate in charge of distributing humanitarian aid and overseeing general UNRWA operations in Gaza is
John Ging.
Annual funding for UNRWA is on the order of several hundred million US dollars, nearly all of which comes from donor countries and the European Commission. A small amount also comes directly from the United Nations. In 2008, the biggest donors in absolute contributions where the European Commission and United States with $190 million and $185 million respectively, together with Sweden ($51,6 million), United Kingdom ($37,5 million) and Norway ($35,1 million)..
Operations
Services provided by UNRWA include health care, education, relief and social services and micro-credit loan programmes.
Education programme
UNRWA operates one of the largest school systems in the
Middle East, with 663 schools employing more than 17,000 teaching and support staff. It has been the main provider of basic education to
Palestinian refugee children since 1950. The education programme is UNRWA's largest area of activity, accounting for half of its regular budget and 70 per cent of its staff. Basic education is available to all registered refugee children free of charge up to around the age of 15. By 2004 there were close to 500,000 students enrolled in 663 schools. UNRWA schools follow the curriculum of their host countries. This allows UNRWA pupils to progress to further education or employment holding locally-recognised qualifications and fits with the sovereignty requirements of countries hosting refugees.
In the 1960s UNRWA schools became the first in the region to achieve full gender equality. Overcrowded classrooms containing 40 or even 50 pupils are common. Almost all of UNRWA's schools operate on a double shift - where two separate groups of pupils and teachers share the same buildings. Not all refugee children attend UNRWA schools. In Jordan and Syria children have full access to government schools and many attend those because they are close to where they live. UNRWA also operates eight vocational and technical training centres and three teacher training colleges that have places for around 6,200 students.
Relief and social services programme
In Palestinian refugee society, families without a male bread winner are often very vulnerable. Those headed by a widow, a divorcee or a disabled father often live in dire poverty. UNRWA provides food aid, cash assistance and help with shelter repairs to these families. Fewer than six percent of refugees qualify as hardship cases, with the largest number being in Lebanon where restrictions on Palestinians entering the Lebanese job market cause severe hardship. Children from special hardship case families are given preferential access to the Agency's vocational training centres, while women in such families are encouraged to join UNRWA's women's programme centres. In these centres, training, advice and childcare are available to encourage female refugees’ social development.
Rations are distributed to families in UNRWA's special hardship category every quarter. The yearly value of the food is just over US$ 100 per person and most of it is received by the agency in the form of in-kind donations of basic foodstuff, such as flour, rice and dried milk. Finances permitting, the Agency also provides small cash grants to very poor refugee families to help with the purchase of items such as school uniforms and school books or as crisis grants, for example if they lose all their possessions in a house fire.
Most of the concrete-block shelters in the refugee camps were built by UNRWA in the 1950s to replace the tents in which refugees had lived since the 1948 war. Others were built after the 1967 conflict. Although most refugees have been able to make improvements and additions to their shelters over the years, the very poorest refugees often live in shelters that are now in extremely bad condition. Wet, crumbling walls, leaking zinc roofs and rodent infestation cause additional social and health problems. UNRWA has been able to repair hundreds of shelters in recent years, often simply by supplying materials while the families provide their own labour. UNRWA is unable to keep up with the growing numbers of special hardship case families who each year join its waiting list for shelter rehabilitation.
UNRWA created community-based organizations (CBOs) to target women, refugees with disabilities and to look after the needs of children. The CBOs now have their own management committees staffed by volunteers from the community. UNRWA provides them with technical and small amounts of targeted financial assistance, but many have made links of their own with local and international NGOs.
Health programme
Since 1950, UNRWA has been the main healthcare provider for the Palestinian refugee population. Basic health needs are met through a network of primary care clinics, providing access to secondary treatment in hospitals, food aid to vulnerable groups and environmental health in refugee camps.
The health of Palestine refugees resembles that of many populations in transition from developing world to developed world status. Immunisation programmes have vaccine-preventable diseases under control, but there remains a high prevalence of diseases caused by cramped housing and open sewers in the camps and high poverty levels. At the same time, non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes are on the increase. Birth rates are among the highest in the world, with short intervals between pregnancies. Diarrhea and intestinal parasites are particularly common among children because of poor environmental health for the one third of refugees who live in camps. However, infant mortality rates are lower among refugees than the World Health Organisation's benchmark for the developing world. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Al-Aqsa Intifada has led to curfews and closures which have caused a growth in malnutrition, especially among children and nursing mothers. The economic hardships in the territory have driven many refugees away from private health care, increasing the number of patient visits to UNRWA doctors in the Gaza Strip by 61 per cent during the first two years of the conflict.
UNRWA's network of 122 clinics provides free primary healthcare to all registered refugees who ask for it. The clinics are based inside refugee camps or near concentrations of refugees. In 2003 the clinics handled 10 million patient visits - averaging more than 110 visits per doctor per day. Medical services include outpatient care, dental treatment and rehabilitation for the physically disabled. Maternal and child healthcare (MCH) is a priority for UNRWA's health programme. School health teams and camp medical officers visit UNRWA schools to examine new pupils to aid early detection of childhood diseases. All UNRWA clinics offer family planning services with counselling that emphasises the importance of birth spacing as a factor in maternal and child health. Agency clinics also supervise the provision of food aid to nursing and pregnant mothers who need it and six clinics in the Gaza Strip have their own maternity units.
UNRWA provides refugees with assistance in meeting the costs of hospitalisation either by partially reimbursing them, or by negotiating contracts with government, NGO and private hospitals.
The 1.3 million refugees who still live in refugee camps - one third of the total – receive environmental health services from UNRWA. These include such essentials as sewage disposal, the provision of safe drinking water and disposal of refuse. Large scale projects have been carried out in camps since 1989, but many still have inadequate infrastructure, including open sewers. A great many refugee shelters suffer flooding by waste water in winter.
UNRWA Microfinance Department
UNRWA's
Microfinance Department (MD) aims to alleviate poverty and support economic development in the refugee community by providing capital investment and
working capital loans at commercial rates. The programme seeks to be as close to self-supporting as possible. It has a strong record of creating employment, generating income and empowering refugees.
The Microfinance Department is an autonomous financial unit within UNRWA, established in 1991 to provide microfinance services to Palestine refugees, as well as poor or marginal groups living and working in close proximity to them. With operations in three countries, the MD currently has the broadest regional coverage of any microfinance institution in the Middle East. Having begun its operations in the oPt, it remains the largest non-bank financial intermediary in the West Bank and Gaza. As of March 2010, it has extended over 202,100 loans across its areas of operation, valued at USD 224.29 million.
Mission:
The MD works by extending micro-credit and complimentary services to small entrepreneurs, households and businesses. This lending is guided in part by economic objectives: to sustain and create jobs, reduce poverty and boost economic security. However, its aim is also to support human development more broadly, by sustaining household consumption and family investments in education and health. Fundamentally, all lending seeks to empower the MD’s clients, and in this respect particularly targets women and youth, as well as other economically and socially vulnerable groups, who face particular challenges in obtaining affordable credit.
The MD conceives of its mission in the context of the United Nation’s broader vision of building inclusive financial services for the poor. Many of its clients manage small, often informal businesses on the margins of the economy. The vast majority are unable to secure affordable credit from commercial banks. Yet if provided with such loans they do have the ability to repay them, while generating sustainable incomes for themselves, as well as their families and employees, many of whom are drawn from the poorest segments of society. The MD’s work is to help close this circle of opportunity.
Outreach:
As of March 2009, the MD has invested USD 174.36 million in the Palestinian economy through 146,600 loans. In order to assist Palestine refugees across the wider Middle East region, the department has since 2003 also maintained operations in Jordan and Syria ─ currently home to 2.46 million Palestine refugees. In the intervening six years it has grown into the second largest microfinance provider in Syria, where it is also the first institution to reach operational self-sufficiency, and the fifth largest in Jordan. In total it has disbursed over 55,400 loans in these markets, for a cumulative investment of USD 54.51 million.
The department focuses its outreach on poor urban areas, which are both centres of commercial and industrial activity and host a high concentration of Palestine refugees. As of March 2010 it maintains 17 branches around the region, employing 310 staff. Seven branches are in the West Bank, three in Gaza, four in Jordan, and three in Syria. Operations in each country, as well as the West Bank and Gaza, are overseen by a field office, each of which is in turn supervised and provided with support services by the MD’s headquarters in Jerusalem.
Products and Services:
Through its branch offices the MD provides a range of credit products. Existing products available in the MD’s markets include the following:
:Microenterprise Credit (MEC): targets the overwhelming majority of regional businesses which employ fewer than five workers, most of whom enjoy no access to formal credit and are vulnerable to shocks. The loans range from USD 300 to USD 8,500, and are designed to help such businesses build-up and maintain reserves of short-term working capital.
:Microenterprise Credit Plus (MEC+): allows mature microenterprises who seek to expand capital and grow employment to expand MEC borrowing with more extended repayment horizons. Eligible clients include formal enterprises and borrowers who have demonstrated repayment ability over several loan cycles.
:Solidarity Group Lending (SGL): designed for groups of women entrepreneurs who are collectively and individually responsible for repayment. Starting at USD 400, with a maximum ceiling of USD 5,000, the SGL sustains microenterprise, as well household expenditures on education, health, and basic needs.
:Women’s Household Credit (WHC): an adaptation of the SGL loan, first piloted in Syria to accommodate home-based enterprise by women, allowing them to build up household assets used for business. Unlike the SLG product, it does not work on a group-lending model. Average disbursements are in the range USD 150 to USD 800.
:Consumer Loan Product (CLP): supports low-income and working-class family consumption, regular investments in education and health, as well as emergency outlays.
:Housing Loan Product (HLP): helps poor families with no access to mortgage facilities improve, expand or acquire housing.
:Small-Scale Enterprise Lending (SSE): finances the long-term capital needs of a range of small-to large-scale formal enterprises
:Small and Medium Enterprise Business Training (SMET): an enterprise training program in Gaza that trains participants in subjects such as book-keeping, taxation, tendering, computing and e-commerce.
Emergency operations
Since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, UNRWA has been working to alleviate the impact of resulting curfews and closures on the refugee population in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The effect of closures on the
Palestinian economy has caused thousands to lose their livelihoods. It is estimated that more than 50 per cent of the population is out of work -putting over 60 per cent of the population under the poverty line with an income of below US$2 a day. The
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that close to two million Palestinians, 62 per cent of the population, are considered "vulnerable" because they have inadequate access to food, shelter or health services. The
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) reported a sharp growth in
malnutrition and
anemia among
Palestinian children - marked by stunted growth or low body weights.
As part of its emergency relief activities, UNRWA provides temporary jobs for unemployed breadwinners - a programme that has allowed the Agency to indirectly support 160,000 women and children in Gaza alone. UNRWA has also increased its provision of food aid. Before the conflict UNRWA distributed food to around 20,000 refugee families, it now targets 230,000 families across the West Bank and Gaza. UNRWA food parcels typically contain 50 kilograms of flour, five kilograms of rice, five kilograms of sugar, two liters of cooking oil, one kilogram of powdered milk and five kilograms of lentils.
The Agency assists the almost 30,000 refugees whose homes have been destroyed during military operations. UNRWA has provided tents, blankets, kitchen kits, medicines and drinking water, as well as cash assistance to help with renting a new home to those families made homeless. The Agency is also rebuilding and repairing shelters. The focus of the Agency's rebuilding work has been Rafah and Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip and in Jenin camp in the West Bank. In Jenin a donation of US$27 million from the United Arab Emirates Red Crescent Society allowed UNRWA to rebuild the homes, infrastructure and communal facilities of the camp that were destroyed by the fighting in April 2002.
UNRWA's health programme faces increased demands in the territories because of the injuries, stress and psychological trauma caused by the conflict. The economic impact of closures is also increasing the demands made on the Agency as refugees seek care from the Agency rather than from private providers. UNRWA ambulances and mobile medical teams bring healthcare to communities isolated by closures for long periods.
The crisis has had a particularly marked effect on the refugee children served by UNRWA's schools. Teachers and pupils are often unable to reach their schools and thousands of teaching days have been lost. Schools have come under fire on many occasions and have been used as military outposts and detention centres. The violent events witnessed by the children have caused emotional and psychological trauma and many have suffered the loss of classmates or family members. Examination pass rates have collapsed because of the conflict and UNRWA is running remedial classes in each school to try to compensate for the time lost to education. The Agency has also hired teams of trauma counsellors to work with those children who have been emotionally scarred by their experiences.
To fund its emergency activities in the West Bank and Gaza UNRWA has launched a series of appeals for funds. The first of these was a flash appeal in October 2000 for US$4.83 million.
In November 2004 UNRWA launched an appeal for US$186 million to cover emergency operations during 2005.
UNRWA and the Palestinian curriculum
In 1998, two years before the Al-Aqsa intifada, US Congressman
Peter Deutsch (D-FL) and other Congressmembers pressured the State Department to ask UNRWA to investigate evidence that Palestinian Authority school books used in UNRWA-run schools contained
anti-Semitic statements. The allegations surfaced in reports compiled by the
Centre for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, an
Israeli-American NGO.
For historical reasons UNRWA schools followed the Jordanian curriculum in the West Bank and the Egyptian curriculum in the Gaza Strip and this practice continued under the Israeli control of those areas between 1967 and 1994. Since 1994 the Palestinian Authority has progressively been replacing the old Jordanian and Egyptian textbooks as new PA-produced textbooks become available. The last of the older books was phased out of UNRWA schools in the autumn of 2004.
In 1999 and 2000, Nathan Brown, Professor of Political Science at George Washington University, published a study on this subject. Regarding the Palestinian Authority's new textbooks, he states: "The new books have removed the anti-Semitism present in the older books while they tell history from a Palestinian point of view, they do not seek to erase Israel, delegitimize it or replace it with the "State of Palestine"; each book contains a foreword describing the West Bank and Gaza as "the two parts of the homeland"; the maps show some awkwardness but do sometimes indicate the 1967 line and take some other measures to avoid indicating borders; in this respect they are actually more forthcoming than Israeli maps; the books avoid treating Israel at length but do indeed mention it by name; the new books must be seen as a tremendous improvement from a Jewish, Israeli, and humanitarian view; they do not compare unfavorably to the material my son was given as a fourth grade student in a school in Tel Aviv". Brown also described the research into Palestinian textbooks conducted by the Centre for Monitoring the Impact of Peace as "tendentious and highly misleading". However, in an exchange with CMIP Brown notes "my criticism that CMIP's work is 'tendentious and highly misleading' was made before CMIP issued its 2001 report and could hardly have referred specifically to it."
In 2002, the United States Congress requested the United States Department of State to commission a reputable NGO to conduct a review of the new Palestinian curriculum. The Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI) was thereby commissioned by the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the US Consul General in Jerusalem to review the Palestinian Authority's textbooks. Its report was completed in March 2003 and delivered to the State Department for submission to Congress. Its executive summary states: "The overall orientation of the curriculum is peaceful despite the harsh and violent realities on the ground. It does not openly incite against Israel and the Jews. It does not openly incite hatred and violence. Religious and political tolerance is emphasized in a good number of textbooks and in multiple contexts." Its June 2004 follow-up report notes that "except for calls for resisting occupation and oppression, no signs were detected of outright promotion of hatred towards Israel, Judaism, or Zionism" and that "tolerance, as a concept, runs across the new textbooks". The report also stated that "textbooks revealed numerous instances that introduce and promote the universal and religious values and concepts of respect of other cultures, religions, and ethnic groups, peace, human rights, freedom of speech, justice, compassion, diversity, plurality, tolerance, respect of law, and environmental awareness". However, the IPCRI noted a number of deficiencies in the curriculum, stating "The practice of 'appropriating' sites, areas, localities, geographic regions, etc. inside the territory of the State of Israel as Palestine/Palestinian observed in our previous review, remains a feature of the newly published textbooks (4th and 9th Grade) laying substantive grounds to the contention that the Palestinian Authority did not in fact recognize Israel as the State of the Jewish people. [...] A good number [of maps ...] show Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as one geographic entity (without demarcation lines or differentiated colorings). Historically Palestinian cities (e.g., Akka, Yafa, Haifa, Safad, al-Lid, Ar-Ramla, Beer As-sabe’) are included in some maps that lump together the areas controlled by the PA with those inside the State of Israel. No map of the region bears the name of 'Israel' in its pre-1967 borders. In addition, Israeli towns with a predominantly Jewish population are not represented on these maps." The Summary also states that the curriculum asserts a historical Arab presence in the region, while ignoring any Jewish connection: "The Jewish connection to the region, in general, and the Holy Land, in particular, is virtually missing. This lack of reference is perceived as tantamount to a denial of such a connection, although no direct evidence is found for such a denial." It also notes that "terms and passages used to describe some historical events are sometimes offensive in nature and could be construed as reflecting hatred of and discrimination against Jews and Judaism."
Criticism
From Israel and pro-Israel groups there has been extensive criticism of the statistics, data collection techniques, and definitions concerning Palestinian refugees by the UNRWA. It has been accused of hiring known militants, perpetuating Palestinian dependency, demonizing Israel, and funneling money from Western governments to line the pockets of the Palestinian Authority and purchasing arms for terrorists.
In 2003, Israel released to newspapers what the New York Times called a "damning intelligence report". Citing interrogations of suspected militants, the document claims that UNRWA operations being used as cover for Palestinian terrorists, including smuggling arms in UN ambulances and hosting meetings of Tanzim in UN buildings..
In 2006, the UNRWA drew criticism from the US Congressmen Mark Kirk and Steven Rothman. Their letter, sent to the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, stated in part: "After an exhaustive review of the UN's own audit, it is clear UNRWA is wrought by mismanagement, ineffective policies, and failure to secure its finances. We must upgrade UNRWA's financial controls, management and enforcement of US law that bars any taxpayer dollars from supporting terrorists."
UNRWA responded by showing the results of its school students in Syria and Jordan, who outperform their peers in host-government schools. UNRWA also mentioned the difficult conditions in which it operates: its refugee load increased much faster than its budget, while the tightening of the closure regime since the Second Intifada deeply affected the humanitarian situation in the former Israeli-occupied territories.
It has been claimed by some that UNRWA is an example of a United Nations anti-Israel bias, and that the Palestine refugees should be treated equally to all others with refugee status around the world. Defenders of the UNRWA put forward the specific legal status of the Palestinians in 1948 who, because they were living under the British Mandate of Palestine, were stateless and therefore not eligible as refugees under the common definition.
In 2000, UNRWA spent more than $72 per Palestinian refugee (on average) while UNHCR spent roughly $53 per refugee on the refugees from the rest of the world indicating that Palestinian refugees are treated better by the United Nations than other refugees.
Critics of UNRWA say that the present definition give Palestine refugees a favored status when compared with other refugee groups, which the UNHCR defines in terms of nationality as opposed to a relatively short number of years of residency.
Critics of Israel say it should allow the refugees to return, which some say is stipulated in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 302 which Israel supported, which would make UNRWA redundant.
Defenders of UNRWA respond that it is precisely the stateless status of the Palestinians under British mandate in 1948 that made it necessary to create a definition of refugee based on criteria other than nationality. Historians, such as Martha Gellhorn and Dr. Walter Pinner, have also blamed UNRWA for distortion of statistics and even of sheer fraud. Pinner wrote in 1959 that the actual number of refugees then was only 367,000.
James G. Lindsay
James G. Lindsay, a former UNRWA general-counsel and fellow researcher for
Washington Institute for Near East Policy has published a report for WINEP in which he criticized UNRWA practices. Lindsay claimed that UNRWA is not ousting terrorists from its ranks:
UNRWA has taken very few steps to detect and eliminate terrorists from the ranks of its staff or its beneficiaries, and no steps at all to prevent members of organizations such as Hamas from joining its staff. UNRWA has no preemployment security checks and does not monitor off-time behavior to ensure compliance with the organization's anti-terrorist rules. No justification exists for millions of dollars in humanitarian aid going to those who can afford to pay for UNRWA services.
Lindsay also stated that UNRWA’s failure to match UNHCR’s success in resettling refugees "obviously represents a political decision on the part of the agency".
Lindsay claimed that UNRWA "seems to favor the strain of Palestinian political thought espoused by those who are intent on a 'return' to the land that is now Israel".
Lindsay argued that UNRWA’s education system is highly problematic. Lindsay quoted a number of American researches that defined UNRWA's schools' curriculum as "highly nationalistic" and "not a 'peace curriculum'" and stated that the textbooks fail "to identify Israel on maps", and that they avoid "discussing Jews or Israelis as individuals (which critics argue would
make them more “human” to the reader)".
Lindsay also expresses concern regarding United States endorsement: "The United States, despite funding nearly 75 percent of UNRWA’s initial budget and remaining its largest single country donor, has mostly failed to make UNRWA reflect U.S. foreign policy objectives."
In his report Lindsay also offered suggestions for improvement:
UNRWA should make the following operational changes: halt its one-sided political statements and limit itself to comments on humanitarian issues; take additional steps to ensure the agency is not employing or providing benefits to terrorists and criminals; and allow the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), or some other neutral entity, to provide balanced and discrimination-free textbooks for UNRWA schools.
UNRWA's Jerusalem spokesman Chris Gunness stated that UNRWA rejects Lindsay's report and its findings
and claimed that the study was inaccurate and misleading, since it "makes selective use of source material and fails to paint a truthful portrait of UNRWA and its operations today".
John Ging, head of UNRWA Gaza, stated in regards with Lindsay's criticism on UNRWA failure to resettle refugees that he was disappointed to find this issue in Lindsay’s report. Ging argued that Lindsay had "no basis to say that it is UNRWA’s decision because our mandate is given to us. I agree that it is a political failure, but we don’t set up the mandate, we are only the implementers".
Regarding the report portion about UNRWA's schools, Ging said: "As for our schools, we use textbooks of the Palestinian Authority. Are they perfect? No, they’re not. I can’t defend the indefensible."
Praise
UNRWA received public expressions of praise and appreciation by the Nobel Peace Laureates Mairéad Corrigan Maguire and Kofi Annan, by the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, and by representatives from the European Union, the United States, the Netherlands, Japan, Bangladesh, Cyprus , Jordan , Ghana, and Norway, among others. In 2007, the Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations described his country as a "strong supporter" of UNRWA, which acts as "a safety net" for the Palestine refugees, providing them with "immediate relief, basic services and the possibility of a life in dignity." The same day, the Representative of Iceland praised the fact that "despite times of exceptional hardship and suffering in the region, UNRWA has been able to deliver substantial results. On the humanitarian front, UNRWA played a central role in easing the suffering of both refugees and Lebanese civilians during its emergency operations in Lebanon and on the Gaza Strip. Under often life-threatening conditions, UNRWA's staff showed relentless dedication to the Agency's responsibilities."
Gershon Kedar, Israel's delegate to the fourth committee, confirmed Israel's support for the UNRWA: "My delegation wishes to inform the Committee that despite our concerns regarding the politicization of UNRWA, Israel supports its humanitarian mission, and will continue to work in a spirit of dialogue and cooperation with the agency under the leadership of its Commissioner-General, Karen Honing AbuZayd."
Relations with Israel
After Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza in the June 1967 Six-Day War, Israel requested that the UNRWA continue its operations there, and agreed to facilitate them. In the years since, relations between Israel and UNRWA have found themselves subject to the varying intensities of conflict that have continued to rock the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. During the Al-Aqsa Intifada, which started in late 2000, UNRWA often complained that Israeli road closures, curfews and checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza have interfered with its ability to carry out its humanitarian mandate. The Agency has also complained that large scale house demolitions in the Gaza Strip have left over 30,000 people homeless. Israel justifies the demolitions as anti-terrorism measures.
Relations between UNRWA and Israel have often been strained. UNRWA has been under routine attack from the Israeli government and politicians for alleged involvement with Palestinian militant groups, such as Hamas. For example, the Israel Defence Force released a video from May 2004, in which armed Palestinian militants carry an injured colleague into an UNRWA ambulance, before boarding with him. The ambulance driver requested that the armed men leave, but was threatened and told to drive to a hospital. UNRWA issued a plea to all parties to respect the neutrality of its ambulances.
On other occasions, UNRWA buildings have been caught in battles between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants resulting in the deaths of several employees.
In November 2002 Iain Hook, a British employee of UNRWA, was shot and killed by an Israeli military sniper while working in the Jenin refugee camp, during an operation to locate a Palestinian militant suspected of masterminding a suicide bombing which had killed 14 people earlier in 2002. Peter Hansen, the head of UNRWA at the time criticized the killing: "Israeli snipers had sights. They would have known who the two internationals (non-Palestinians) were. They did not dress like Palestinians."
January 6, 2009 incident
On January 7, 2009, UNRWA officials alleged that the prior day, in the course of the Gaza War, the Israel Defense Forces shelled an UNWRA school in Jabalya, Gaza, killing more than forty people. The IDF initially claimed it was responding to an attack by Hamas gunman hiding in the compound, but upon reexamination, said that an "errant shell had hit the school." This accusation caused harsh criticism of Israel from all over the world. In a clarified report, a United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs official stated: "The shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school."
IDF officials have disputed the accuracy of the UN fatality assessment: "It was not certain that the number of casualties reported by the UN, 43, was accurate and that Military Intelligence noticed Hamas attempts to cover up the identity of those killed in the strike." and video documenting what they initially claimed was a group of Palestinian militants load a rocket into UN-marked vehicle. Israel announced its intention to file a strong complaint against UNRWA and demand that Danish diplomat Peter Hansen, UNRWA's head, be removed from office.
Hansen responded that the footage was of UNRWA crew members carrying a stretcher into the UN ambulance, stating "While the quality of the video clip is poor, its analysis shows beyond the shadow of a doubt that the object carried and thrown into the vehicle is not / cannot be a Qassam rocket". Moreover, Hansen accused Israel of making "baseless accusations" which put UNRWA's ambulance crews in "grave danger".
The Israeli authorities initially dismissed UNRWA's reaction, blaming Hansen for being "anti-Israeli".. Later on, however, Israeli General Yisrael Ziv recognized having doubts over whether the object was a rocket launcher or a stretcher. Eventually, the Israeli military changed some of its earlier statements and conceded the possibility that the object could have indeed been a stretcher, but did not offer the apology Hansen had demanded.
Peter Hansen
Israel has stated that Peter Hansen, UNRWA's former Commissioner-General (1996–2005) "consistently adopted a trenchant anti-Israel line" which resulted in biased and exaggerated reports against Israel.
Hansen caused controversy in Canada in October 2004 when he said in an interview with CBC TV:
Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime. Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another.
We demand of our staff, whatever their political persuasion is, that they behave in accordance with UN standards and norms for neutrality.
Hansen later specified that he had been referring not to active Hamas members, but to Hamas sympathizers within UNRWA. In a letter to the Agency's major donors, he said he was attempting to be honest because UNRWA has over 8,200 employees in the Gaza Strip. Given the 30 to 40 percent support to Hamas in Gaza at the time, and UNRWA's workforce of 11,000 Palestinians, at least some Hamas sympathizers were likely to be among UNRWA's employees. The important thing, he wrote, was that UNRWA's strict rules and regulations ensured that its staff remained impartial UN servants. But he was retired from United Nations service on March 31, 2005.
Investigation by the United States Congress
The United States government financed a programme of "Operations Support Officers", part of whose job is to make random and unannounced inspections of UNRWA facilities to ensure their sanctity from militant operations. In 2004 the US Congress asked the General Accounting Office to investigate media claims that taxpayer's dollars given to UNRWA had been used to support individuals involved in militant activities. During its investigation, the GAO discovered several irregularities in its processing and employment history.
Loss of Canadian support
In January 2010, the Government of Canada announced that it was redirecting aid previously earmarked to UNRWA "to specific projects in the Palestinian Authority that will ensure accountability and foster democracy in the PA." Victor Toews, the president of Canada's Treasury Board, stated, "Overall, Canada is not reducing the amount of money given to the PA, but it is now being redirected in accordance with Canadian values. This "will ensure accountability and foster democracy in the PA." Previously, Canada provided UNRWA with 11 percent of its budget at $10 million (Canadian) annually. The decision came despite positive internal evaluations of the Agency by CIDA officials. The Canadian decision put it very much at odds with the US and EU, which maintained or increased their levels of funding. Some suggested that the decision also cost Canada international support in its failed October 2010 effort to obtain a seat on the UN Security Council.
Relations with Hamas
On 4 February 2009, UNRWA halted aid shipments into the Gaza Strip after it accused Hamas of breaking into a UN warehouse and stealing tonnes of blankets and food which had been earmarked for needy families.
A few days later, the UN resumed aid after the missing supplies had been returned.
On 5 August 2009, the IDF accused Hamas of stealing three ambulances that had just been transferred through Israel to the UNRWA. The UNRWA spokesmand denied the claim. A week later, Hamas confirmed it confiscated the ambulances due to bureaucratic reasons. A UNRWA spokesman also confirmed this but soon retracted this admission and denied the incident, even publicizing a photo it claimed was of one its officials with the ambulances.
On 23 May 2010, a group of 30 armed masked men set fire to the construction site of an UNRWA summer camp in Gaza City, destroying it. The arsonists left a letter addressed to UNRWA head John Ging, threatening his life. Four bullets were attached to the letter. Hamas condemned the arson but tried to minimize its importance. Additionally, Hamas "advised" UNRWA to reexamine its curriculum to ensure its suitability for Palestinian society, implying that this was the cause of the incident. The previous year Hamas denounced UNRWA and Ging, accusing them of using their summer camps to corrupt the morals of Palestinian youth. Hamas has its own network of summer camps and the two organizations are regarded to be vying for influence with Gazan youth. Only 95 of the 11,400 UNRWA workers in the West Bank and Gaza are not Palestinians.
See also
List of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East employees
Israel, Palestinians and the United Nations
Palestinian people
Palestine refugee
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Palestinian textbook controversy
References
External links
Official UNRWA homepage
UNRWA in Syria
UNRWA in Lebanon
Friends of UNRWA Association
2004 Report on UNRWA by journalist Pearl Herman (pdf)
Collection of relevant documents
United States GAO report on UNRWA (pdf)
Map showing all camps serviced by UNRWA
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants' Campaign to End Refugee Warehousing in refugee camps around the world, people are confined to their settlement and denied their basic rights.
Israel Feuds With Agency Set Up to Aid Palestinians (New York Times: October 18, 2004)
Fixing UNRWA: Repairing the UN's Troubled System of Aid to Palestinian Refugees (By James G. Lindsay, Washington Institute for Near East Policy: January 2009)
Category:Arab–Israeli conflict
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Category:United Nations operations in the Middle East
Category:United Nations General Assembly subsidiary organs
Category:Organizations established by the United Nations
