{"id":280537,"date":"2024-11-18T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T12:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=280537"},"modified":"2024-11-17T08:50:57","modified_gmt":"2024-11-17T08:50:57","slug":"the-un-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-darkest-moment-of-its-75-year-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/11\/the-un-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-darkest-moment-of-its-75-year-history\/","title":{"rendered":"The UN Agency for Palestine Refugees in \u201cDarkest Moment\u201d of Its 75-Year History"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

UNRWA staff with displaced people in Gaza.\u00a0 \u00a9 UNRWA<\/p><\/div>\n

13 Nov 2024 – The UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, is enduring its \u2018darkest moment\u2019 as Israeli laws threaten operations, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said today, pointing to legislative, operational and security challenges.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Speaking at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York, he detailed the implications of the recent laws passed by the Israeli Knesset, which aim to dismantle UNRWA<\/a> activities across the occupied Palestinian territory, including Gaza and the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe intention is to undermine the agency<\/strong>,\u201d he said, emphasizing that these measures are politically motivated.<\/p>\n

Since the onset of the war in Gaza on 7 October 2023, 243 UNRWA staff members have lost their lives. Around 190 buildings and installations have been damaged or destroyed, and lifesaving aid operations severely restricted.<\/p>\n

Disinformation campaign<\/h2>\n

\u201cIn addition to that there has been [an] intense and aggressive disinformation campaign, [including] reaching out to donor capitals to delegitimize the agency<\/strong>,\u201d Mr. Lazzarini said.<\/p>\n

He reiterated that despite operating in an environment fraught with risk, UNRWA upholds a \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy toward breaches of neutrality<\/strong>, emphasizing that the agency is a \u201csoft target\u201d for anyone which perceives its presence or activities as a threat.<\/p>\n

This includes Hamas, which over many years has accused the agency of \u201ccolluding\u201d with Israel, given UNRWA\u2019s programmes on education, gender equality, or arts, culture and sport. At the same time, Israel has accused UNRWA of colluding with and being infiltrated by Hamas.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, this morning [at the Fourth Committee of the General Assembly] I also wanted also to clean the record on this,\u201d Mr. Lazzarini said, refuting the allegations and referring to his annual briefing to UN Member States at the General Assembly\u2019s main Special Political and Decolonization Committee.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, briefs journalists at the UN Headquarters, in New York. UN Photo\/Mark Garten<\/p><\/div>\n

Staff targeted<\/h2>\n

In addition to legislative and financial hurdles, UNRWA staff have faced intensified security risks, he said, recounting a recent incident involving a female staff member in northern West Bank who was detained, interrogated and forced to provide access to sensitive information after being accused of working for a \u201cterrorist organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such events, he highlighted, reflects the heightened risks for staff in an increasingly hostile environment.<\/p>\n

UNRWA is irreplaceable<\/h2>\n

UNRWA is irreplaceable he said \u2013 a position that has been frequently reiterated by the UN Secretary-General in recent weeks and multiple UN humanitarian agencies on the ground.<\/p>\n

The agency had been providing education to hundreds of thousands of girls and boys in the Gaza Strip for decades. He said only \u00a0UNRWA could continue with the necessary educational services once a ceasefire is in place.<\/p>\n

Likewise, it steers all critical public health services, providing thousands of consultations daily.<\/p>\n

If UNRWA ceases to operate, Mr. Lazzarini warned, \u201cthe only alternative is that the onus and the responsibility goes back to the occupying power, meaning that Israel will be responsible to provide these critical services.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

Prevent UNRWA\u2019s collapse<\/h2>\n

Mr. Lazzarini reiterated his call on UN Member States to act to prevent the implementation of the newly adopted laws, and to ensure continued financial and political backing for UNRWA.<\/p>\n

Alongside, it is vital that the question of UNRWA be addressed within a political framework and that any political pathway leading to the two-State solution should clearly define its continuing role.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, he stressed that attacks on UNRWA \u201care attacks on the United Nations\u201d itself<\/strong>. Israel\u2019s assault defies the General Assembly and the Security Council<\/a>, and undermines the rule-based international order established after World War Two, he added.<\/p>\n

Mr. Lazzarini urged the dozens of countries who support its work to \u201cdeploy all political and legal capital to prevent this from happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Our operation continues<\/h2>\n

Responding to a question from a journalist, Mr. Lazzarini said agency operations will continue in Gaza, \u201cbut our operational space is very, very narrow<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGaza is one of the most dangerous places to operate. You have also been regularly briefed on how harrowing the situation is there,\u201d he said, describing the scale of death and destruction, immense humanitarian needs and severe limitations on aid.<\/p>\n

Answering another query on how long UNRWA could continue to operate in Gaza, Mr. Lazzarini said that the \u201csimple and short answer is we will be operating until the day we cannot operate anymore<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will deliver the services until we are forced to stop the services,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Go to Original – news.un.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13 Nov 2024 – The UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, is enduring its \u2018darkest moment\u2019 as Israeli laws threaten operations, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said today, pointing to legislative, operational and security challenges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":280538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[1854,101,100,87,865,88,427,2159,99,3220,124,965,1025],"class_list":["post-280537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-united-nations","tag-crimes-against-humanity","tag-cultural-violence","tag-direct-violence","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-israel","tag-palestine","tag-rogue-states","tag-structural-violence","tag-un-agency-for-palestinian-refugees-unrwa","tag-united-nations","tag-war-crimes","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280537"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":280542,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280537\/revisions\/280542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}