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View all search resultsPalestinians warn against plans to weaken their UN agency
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Palestinians, whose houses were destroyed during the 2014 war, sit at a United Nations-run school to protest against the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East’s (UNRWA) decision to stop paying rents in the northern Gaza Strip in 2018 (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
A
proposal by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees to delegate some services to other United Nations agencies has sparked outrage among Palestinians, who have warned of a plot to "dismantle" the body.
Established in 1949, a year after Israel was created, UNRWA is the only major UN body dedicated exclusively to one conflict and one people, and holds a symbolic role that experts say matches its importance as provider for Palestinian refugees.
The agency has long been a target of Israeli criticism, with accusations it has fuelled the conflict in part by teaching anti-Zionist messages at its schools.
UNRWA is "not just about the delivery of services", said Muhammed Shehada from the Swiss-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.
"As long as UNRWA is there, it's a reminder that the international community has a responsibility to solve the issue of Palestinian refugees," he told AFP.
The agency tasked with assisting Palestinians who were forced from their homes during the war surrounding Israel's creation – and their descendants – has faced a funding crunch for years, regularly falling tens of millions of dollars short of its stated needs.
At first glance, the announcement last month by agency chief Philippe Lazzarini that UNRWA could ask other UN bodies to help with service delivery may have looked like a bland, bureaucratic cost-sharing plan.
