Palestinian employee of United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) hold a sign during a protest against a US decision to cut aid, in Gaza City January 29, 2018. (REUTERS/Mohammed Salem). (photo credit: REUTERS/MOHAMMED SALEM)
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UNRWA and the Trump administration will go head-to-head on June 25, when they both hold economic conferences for the Palestinians, in a scenario likely to deepen the growing divide between them.
“UNRWA is currently running on fumes,” charged US special envoy Jason Greenblatt on Wednesday as he made a special appearance at the United Nations Security Council.
It is “surviving on a surge in foreign donations in 2018 that is unlikely to be sustained this year, or in the future,” he said.
Greenblatt spoke after a briefing by UNRWA Commissioner General Pierre Krähenbühl who warned that his organization, which services more than five million Palestinian refugees and their descendants, was in danger of running out of funds by mid-June.
Greenblatt urged the international community to stop supporting the UN Relief and Works Agency, and to get on board with the US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, an initial portion of which will be unveiled in Manama, Bahrain on June 25-26.
“I cannot but help point out the irony that at the time of our conference in Bahrain, which can pave the way to prosperity for Palestinians, UNRWA is hosting a pledging conference for a broken system,” Greenblatt said.
“Next month, in Bahrain, we and many others will participate in an economic workshop on an alternative path with the potential to unlock a prosperous future for the Palestinians,” he said.
“This is the first stage of a process” that will showcase “how, if we can achieve a political solution to the conflict, we can also transform the lives of the Palestinians,” Greenblatt said.
It is time to “face the reality that the UNRWA model has failed the Palestinian people,” he said.
He took issue with UNRWA’s refugee definition, which allows for the descendants of Palestinians who fled their homes during the 1948 and 1967 wars to be considered refugees.
That definition creates an unsustainable aid model “which is inherently tied to an endlessly and exponentially expanding community of beneficiaries” and a result, it “is in permanent crisis mode,” Greenblatt said.
“UNRWA is a band-aid, and the Palestinians who use its services deserve better – much better. We do not have to wait until a comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in place to address that fact,” Greenblatt said.
United Nations Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon also questioned the refugee definition, asking why a Palestinian born in Ramallah is considered a refugee.
He warned that an ever growing refugee population makes it impossible to resolve the issue because the return of such a large number of Palestinian would make it impossible for Israel to maintain its identity as a Jewish state, and thus it would cease to exist.
He asked Krähenbühl what UNRWA’s goals were. “UNRWA, like any organization, must have clear goals. What are those goals? How long will it take to reach them? And how much will it cost?” Danon asked.
Many of the 15 UNSC member spoke in support of UNRWA, with the German representative wanting to know why the US was not concerned by the possibility of Hamas-led schools replacing UNRWA ones in Gaza.
Krähenbühl said that the US and Israel had mischaracterized his organization’s definition of refugees, noting that it was the same standard used by the UN for all refugees in situations of protracted conflict.
“I reject the accompanying narrative and the suggestions that the UNRWA model is irredeemably flawed,” he said.
He accused the US of deflecting attention onto his organization rather than focusing on resolving the conflict, noting UNRWA was not responsible for the failure to resolve the conflict.
“Making a humanitarian organization responsible for the [Israeli-Palestinian] crisis is misguided and unhelpful,” he said.
“It is clear that the responsibility for the protracted nature of refugee [status]… lies squarely with the parties themselves and the international community and the lack of will and or utter inability of the political actors to bring about a solution to this long standing crisis.”
US special envoy Jason Greenblatt will be speaking at the June 16 Jerusalem Post Conference in New York.
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