UNRWA chief warns agency will run out of funds within months unless donors step up

Children ride their bicycles in front of a health center run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza on October 2, 2018. (AFP/File Photo)
Children ride their bicycles in front of a health center run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza on October 2, 2018. (AFP/File Photo)
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Updated 02 June 2023
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UNRWA chief warns agency will run out of funds within months unless donors step up

Children ride their bicycles in front of a health center run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza
  • Philippe Lazzarini tells Arab News that it is high time to end the ‘dialogue of the deaf’ between donors and host communities, and reflect on what it means to be committed to Palestinian refugees
  • UN chief calls on donors to fully fund ‘one of the few rays of hope’ amid ‘darkening picture’ of 75-year conflict

NEW YORK: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is going through a “massive” financial crisis that threatens its very existence, the agency’s chief has warned.

Philippe Lazzarini said that UNRWA’s ability to “muddle through is slowly but surely coming to an end,” and predicted that by September it will have no cash to keep its schools, health centers and other critical services running.

Lazzarini was speaking in New York ahead of a pledging conference on Friday to support UNRWA organized by Csaba Korosi, president of the General Assembly.

The UNRWA chief said the agency is “about to implode,” lamenting the fact that even as the financial crisis deepens, some of its most committed donors have indicated they will “substantially decrease their contribution to the agency.”

He called on donors to “not take our ability to deliver services for granted,” adding that “sooner or later, we will reach a tipping point.”

UNRWA provides services to almost 6 million Palestinians registered in the occupied Palestinian territories and neighboring countries.

“I keep telling partners that UNRWA is not like any other UN humanitarian or development agency,” Lazzarini said.

“(The) uniqueness in this organization is that we are the only ones who are tasked to provide government-like services. We are, de facto, the ministry of education, the ministry of primary healthcare, the ministry of social services and the ministry of municipal services to one of the most destitute communities in the region — Palestine refugees.

“So, when we talk about adapting spending to resources, I am in no position to say, ‘Well, because we have 20 percent less resources, let’s ask 20 percent of our children to leave our schools.’ Based on which criteria? We have nearly 550,000 girls and boys in our schools. I cannot one year say that I will take 550,000 students and another year say I will take 100,000 students less and bring them back once the funding returns. That is not the way public-like services operate,” he said.

The agency has about 30,000 staff, most of them Palestinian refugees. It runs more than 700 schools for half a million children, and offers health, sanitation and social services, including food and cash assistance.

Palestinian refugees mostly live in often underserved camps that have been transformed into built-up residential areas in the occupied territories, as well as in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Lazzarini said that over the past 10 years the agency’s resources have stagnated, while costs have increased in a region that has been hit by multiple crises.

“Expectations from Palestine refugees vis-a-vis UNRWA as being the only lifeline have also increased. (So) the tension between the costs and the resources has become more and more unbearable,” he said.

In the absence of a political process and in a context where the Palestinian-Israeli conflict “is not a priority anymore,” any decrease in UNRWA’s services would be perceived “as a weakening of the future rights of Palestine refugees,” Lazzarini said.

He urged donors to show “genuine political attention and commitment.”

Lazzarini told Arab News that UNRWA’s approaching 75th anniversary is a “perfect umbrella” to reflect on what it means to be committed to Palestinian refugees.

“This is a discussion that has not really taken place,” he said, adding that since he took up the post as commissioner-general there has been a “dialogue of the deaf” between host communities and donors.

“The donors usually tell you that you have to spend within your resource, but we keep saying, ‘Well, there is a limit to that. We have been involved in efficiency. It became austerity. And, today, going further would mean taking the decision to ask kids (to) be dropped from high school. This is something we cannot do.

“So, we need to have a proper discussion about what do we expect an agency like UNRWA to deliver, and once we agree on (that,) we become a predictable partner for the Palestinian refugees,” he said.

“This discussion has not yet taken place because there hasn’t been a political framework. But we as an agency cannot wait. Our worst enemy today is a status quo, and I’m looking at how to force a discussion, how a group of experts can come up with recommendations to be brought on the table and to be agreed with member states.”

In a statement to the pledging conference, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that UNRWA’s financial crisis comes against the backdrop of the deadliest year for Palestinians in about two decades.

Guterres expressed regret at not being able to attend the conference in person after he was called home to Lisbon because of a family emergency.

“Halfway into the new year, violence rages on without reprieve,” said Chef de Cabinet Courtenay Rattray, who spoke at the pledging conference on behalf of Guterres.

He reiterated the UN position that “there is no alternative to a political solution that realizes the vision of two states — Israel and Palestine — living side by side in peace and security, with Jerusalem the capital of both.

“The outlines of this solution are well known: They are laid out in United Nations resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements. But realities on the ground — from the continuing occupation to expanding settlement construction — are working against us.”

Rattray said that “in this darkening picture, UNRWA is one of the few rays of hope,” and urged member states “to nurture and sustain this hope,” and do their part to “ensure that UNRWA is fully funded.”


Legal fight opens for Australian children to leave Syria

Updated 19 sec ago
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Legal fight opens for Australian children to leave Syria

Legal fight opens for Australian children to leave Syria
  • Save the Children is asking the court to bring the 11 women and 20 children from Al-Roj camp in Syria before the court in Australia
Sydney: More than 30 Australian women and children living in “appalling conditions” in a Syrian detention camp launched court action Tuesday to compel Canberra to bring them home.
Their case opened at the High Court in Melbourne, nearly a year after Australia repatriated the last group of four women and 13 children — the wives, sons and daughters of vanquished Daesh group fighters — from Syria.
“The situation of the remaining persons detained is stark and dire,” said Peter Morrissey, counsel for the charity Save the Children, which is acting on their behalf.
“Save the Children Australia represents women and children charged with no crime, detained in piteous and appalling conditions,” he told the court.
“Their health, safety, and dignity are seriously compromised by any standard. Their detention in the camps has endured for several years.”
Save the Children is asking the court for a writ of habeas corpus (or unlawful detention) requiring the government to bring the 11 women and 20 children from Al-Roj camp in Syria before the court in Australia.
“Despite countless opportunities to repatriate these families, the Australian government has ultimately failed in its duty to bring all of its citizens home to safety,” said Save the Children Australia chief executive Mat Tinkler.
“We desperately hope these children and their mothers will be imminently repatriated home to safety. It is unfathomable that the Australian government has abandoned its citizens,” he said in a statement.
Repatriations of Australian women and children from Syrian camps are a politically contentious issue in a country long known for its hard-line approach to immigration.
The Australian women and children have lived in the Al-Hol and Al-Roj detention camps in Kurdish-controlled northeastern Syria since the 2019 collapse of Daesh.

Lebanese security forces detain man suspected of shooting outside US embassy

Lebanese security forces detain man suspected of shooting outside US embassy
Updated 26 September 2023
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Lebanese security forces detain man suspected of shooting outside US embassy

Lebanese security forces detain man suspected of shooting outside US embassy

BEIRUT: Lebanese security forces on Monday said they arrested a suspected gunman who fired a dozen bullets at the American embassy in Beirut, according to security sources in the country.

A source named the suspect as 26-year-old Lebanese national Muhammad Mahdi Hussein Khalil, who had worked for a delivery company. The source added Khalil had a criminal record for previously opening fired on a Lebanese Public Security center.

According to the source, Khalil confesed to shooting at the embassy compound in the Awkar suburb of Beirut and the weapon used in the attack had been seized.

Surveillance cameras showed a lone gunman dressed in black firing a Kalashnikov rifle before fleeing the scene on a motorcycle.

“The shooter carried out his act after previous disputes between him and embassy security over food deliveries,” the source told Arab News.

There were no injuries in the shooting late on Wednesday when 15 shots were fired at the embassy complex.


Israel says US to announce it has joined Visa Waiver Program

Israel says US to announce it has joined Visa Waiver Program
Updated 26 September 2023
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Israel says US to announce it has joined Visa Waiver Program

Israel says US to announce it has joined Visa Waiver Program
  • Some Palestinians have protested at Israel’s entry into the VWP, citing what they say are decades of discriminatory treatment of Arab Americans and harassment at Israel’s borders

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday it expects the United States to announce this week that it will be admitted to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which would allow Israeli citizens visa-free entry to America as of November.
The deadline for Israel to show compliance with the US conditions is Sept. 30. If successful, it would offer a win for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious-nationalist government, whose relations with Washington have been strained over its plans to overhaul the judiciary as well as over its policies toward the Palestinians.
“Israel joining the Visa Waiver Program is a diplomatic achievement and good news for all Israeli citizens,” said Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.
A US State Department spokesperson said on Monday that a final decision on Israel’s candidacy had not been made.
“The Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, will make a determination in the coming days,” the spokesperson said.
For admission to the program, Washington requires countries to treat all US travelers equally, regardless of whatever other passports they may hold. In Israel’s case, that would mean free passage for Palestinian Americans at its airports and when traveling into and out of the occupied Palestinian territories.
Some Palestinians have protested at Israel’s entry into the VWP, citing what they say are decades of discriminatory treatment of Arab Americans and harassment at Israel’s borders.
In a pilot period that has been running since July 20, Israel has loosened access for Palestinian Americans through its borders and in and out of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Between 45,000 and 60,000 Palestinian Americans live in the West Bank, a US official estimated. An Israeli official gave lower figures, saying that of 70,000 to 90,000 Palestinian Americans worldwide, 15,000 to 20,000 are West Bank residents.
There are currently 40 countries in the VWP. Countries are not added frequently, with Croatia being the latest to join in 2021. 

 


Hundreds dead from dengue fever in Sudan

Hundreds dead from dengue fever in Sudan
Updated 25 September 2023
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Hundreds dead from dengue fever in Sudan

Hundreds dead from dengue fever in Sudan
  • Sudanese doctors’ union said health situation ‘is deteriorating at a horrific rate’

PORT SUDAN: Outbreaks of dengue fever and acute watery diarrhea have “killed hundreds” in war-torn Sudan, medics reported Monday, warning of “catastrophic spreads” that could overwhelm the country’s decimated health system.

In a statement, the Sudanese doctors’ union warned that the health situation in the southeastern state of Gedaref, on the border with Ethiopia, “is deteriorating at a horrific rate,” with thousands infected with dengue fever.

Though Gedaref has been spared the direct effects of the brutal war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, it has nonetheless been impacted by mass displacement and other humanitarian crises.

Over five months into the war, 80 percent of the country’s hospitals are out of service, according to the UN. Even before the war, Sudan’s fragile healthcare system struggled to contain the annual disease outbreaks that accompany the country’s rainy season starting in June, including malaria — endemic in Sudan — and dengue fever.

This year, with Gedaref hosting over 250,000 internally displaced people according to the UN, the situation is much worse.

“The hospital’s beds are all full but the cases keep coming in, particularly children,” a medical source said from Gedaref Hospital.


US-backed Kurdish forces impose curfew in eastern Syria after new clashes with rival militia

US-backed Kurdish forces impose curfew in eastern Syria after new clashes with rival militia
Updated 25 September 2023
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US-backed Kurdish forces impose curfew in eastern Syria after new clashes with rival militia

US-backed Kurdish forces impose curfew in eastern Syria after new clashes with rival militia

BEIRUT: US-backed Kurdish-led forces imposed a curfew after clashes erupted again on Monday in eastern Syria, where their fighters had battled for weeks with rival militiamen, Syrian media and activists reported.

The fighting in a region where hundreds of American troops are deployed has pointed to dangerous seams in a coalition that has kept on a lid on the defeated Daesh for years.

The reports say the Syrian Democratic Forces imposed the open-ended measure in several towns in Deir Ezzor province, including the town of Ziban, close to the Iraqi border where the Americans are based. 

Hundreds of US troops have been there since 2015 to help in the fight against Daesh. 

The province is home to Syria’s largest oil fields.

Al Mayadeen, a pan-Arab TV station, said several fighters from the Kurdish-led forces were killed after gunmen took over several parts of Ziban on Monday. 

Britain-based opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some of the fighters had crossed from regime-held areas.

Local media in the province reported that some Kurdish fighters had fled the area as the clashes intensified. There were no further details.

The Kurdish-led forces have accused the Syrian regime of inciting the violence by allowing the rival militiamen to cross the Euphrates River. 

The clashes first erupted in late August when two weeks of fighting killed 25 Kurdish fighters, 29 members of tribal groups and gunmen, as well as nine civilians, according to the Syrian Democratic Forces .