UNRWA essential for stability and basic humanitarian needs

UNRWA last week released a statement defending its educational curriculum for Palestinian refugees after an Israeli organization published a report accusing the agency of using educational content that promotes hatred and violence. The report is likely another example of efforts to undermine UNRWA, which have contributed to the agency’s budget crisis.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East was established in 1950 in the wake of the creation of Israel and widespread displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. UNRWA provides crucial assistance to those who fled homes in Palestine due to the 1948 war; their descendants are also eligible to register with the agency.

Today, UNRWA helps 5.6 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, often filling a vacuum in public services. Jordan has extended citizenship to most Palestinian refugees in the country, but both Lebanon and Syria deny Palestinian refugees the ability to naturalize. Those in Lebanon lack access to most public services and endure other restrictions, such as limitations on employment. Most Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza lack any citizenship. More than half of Palestinians in Gaza are refugees who receive UNRWA support.

UNRWA provides food assistance, basic medical care, education, improvements to infrastructure in camps and more. Additionally, it is an important source of employment, as the vast majority of its more than 28,000 employees are Palestinian refugees themselves.

But UNRWA’s services are at risk. A June 23 donors’ conference raised $160 million, as reported by Arab News, but the agency remains $100 million short of what it needs. While the agency has run a similar funding gap for the last few years, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini recently warned, “We have depleted our reserves,” adding that the agency might soon have to cut critical services and employee pay.

The agency has faced financial problems since its inception, but rising costs and funding cuts in recent years threaten its ability to deliver services. In 2018, the Trump administration cut all US government funding to UNRWA — a huge blow from the agency’s largest donor. The Biden administration restored most of that funding but added new conditions. In 2021, another major donor, the UK, cut its funding by half. Also last year, the European parliament blocked €20 million ($20.02 million) in funding unless the agency made specific changes to its textbooks. A media report in May suggested that Sweden might divert significant amounts of international aid, including to UNRWA, to fund support for Ukrainian refugees.

Shifts in global politics, the war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Syrian refugee crisis and more have fueled donor fatigue and deprioritized UNRWA. Furthermore, UNRWA has long been the target of efforts to undermine it. Some critics make good-faith arguments for specific reforms; no organization is perfect and regular accountability is important to ensure that any UN agency functions responsibly and effectively.

However, many of those who criticize UNRWA seek to benefit Israel by undermining the idea that descendants of Palestinian refugees have any right to identify as refugees, to receive international support or to claim a right of return. They want to make the “Palestinian refugee problem” go away. For example, according to a 2018 report in Foreign Policy, Jared Kushner, senior adviser to then-President Donald Trump, wrote about the need for a “sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA,” adding that it “perpetuates a status quo.”

International critics of UNRWA often fail to consider Palestinians’ daily reality. For example, as Dalal Yassine with the Middle East Institute recently noted, efforts to shift to more digital learning do not account for the reality that many Palestinian refugees cannot afford a suitable digital device, while those in Gaza experience regular electricity cuts.

More fundamentally, those who argue that the descendants of refugees should no longer qualify for refugee status ignore that many of them have no access to any other citizenship. Furthermore, they continue to bear the socioeconomic burden of generations denied economic opportunity and basic rights. Those who argue that refugees should help themselves overlook that many Palestinian refugees in Syria and especially Lebanon are excluded from normal society and the economy while those living in the West Bank and Gaza are limited by Israeli restrictions. The reality of the refugee experience is indeed inherited.

UNRWA has flaws, and many Palestinians are among its critics, though often for different reasons than the agency’s international critics. However, it remains an essential provider of services to Palestinian refugees and no other agency — including the UN Refugee Agency — has the resources or mandate necessary to address their unique situation. The only way to truly end Palestinian refugees’ status as refugees is a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Until then, UNRWA remains an essential institution for stability and basic humanitarian needs in the region. It should be funded accordingly.

• Kerry Boyd Anderson is a writer and political risk consultant with more than 18 years of experience as a professional analyst of international security issues and Middle East political and business risk. Her previous positions include deputy director for advisory with Oxford Analytica. Twitter: @KBAresearch