| Washington Report Archives (2006-2010) - 2009 July |
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 2009, page 61
Waging Peace
UNRWA at 60: The U.N. and Palestinian Refugees
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THREE PANELISTS discussed the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC on April 24. “It is hardly a cause for celebration,” said Karen Koning AbuZayd, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, “that, six decades on, some 4.6 million Palestinians remain in a state of exile, with no immediate prospect of the resolution of their plight.” Nevertheless, this poignant anniverary provides an opportunity to outline the work of UNRWA and describe its main challenges, she added.
UNRWA was established in 1949 to serve some 750,000 Palestinians who lost their homes and livelihoods during the 1948 conflict and were forced into exile. Today, UNRWA serves a population of 4.6 million registered refugees, nearly half of them under 20 years of age, in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. UNRWA offers humanitarian and human development services, including health and education, through over 29,000 staff, almost all of whom are Palestine refugees themselves.
Chronic conflict has made UNRWA’s role ever more urgent. Every year, the natural growth of the refugee population, increasing living expenses, and now Israel’s blockade of Gaza and movement restrictions in the West Bank have increased UNRWA’s operating costs.
Ultimately, the future of Palestinians and Palestine refugees rests on the prospects for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. AbuZayd stated that the majority of Palestinians—like the majority of Israelis—desire nothing more than the opportunity to pursue a normal life in a climate of peace and security. How much more time will we waste, and how much more distress and torment will we allow civilians on all sides to endure, before we rise to the challenge of laying this conflict to rest? she asked the audience.
Palestinian-American journalist Ali Abunimah offered a very personal testimonial to UNRWA’s work. Although he never lived in a refugee camp, Abunimah said, his father was evicted from his land by Zionist militia, the precursors to the Israeli army. He lived out in the open until he was able to return to his village. In 1955, his father finished school and obtained a scholarship to study at the American University of Beirut. He taught in Dheisheh refugee camp, near Bethlehem, and ended up teaching UNRWA teachers.
UNRWA has the highest level of trust of any institution in the territories, Abunimah said. Nonetheless, UNRWA is under constant attack in the United States and Israel, perhaps because it gives visibility to refugees. In the minds of its detractors, if UNRWA disappears, the refugees will disappear. Using that same reasoning, Abunimah noted, if hospitals vanish so will sick people.
UNRWA’s role is not unproblematic, Abunimah opined. A continued subsidy for refugees is actually a “palliative” which allows Israel to ”evade its responsiblities as occupier,” he concluded, nevertheless recommending continued support for UNRWA.
President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace Philip C. Wilcox, Jr. said there is a myth that refugee camps are warrens of violence, but they are actually vibrant communities of people who have not abandoned their dignity or aspirations. The Palestinian devotion to education is evidence of that hope for a future.
Wilcox called for negotiations without preconditions. He pointed out that in previous conflicts issues are resolved in the course of negotiations, not as a precondition to negotiations.
“Today there is an increased urgency to bring about a Middle East peace agreement,” Wilcox stated. The excuse that the stars are not completely aligned has been used for years, he said. When the history of this dispute is written, he said, “there will not be many heroes.” One hero will be recognized, he added: the one who decides to use our relationship with Israel to make comprehensive peace.
—Delinda C. Hanley
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