The head of the UN’s Palestinian Refugee Agency has told the United Nations General Assembly that UNRWA is “facing a deliberate and concerted campaign to undermine its operations, and ultimately end them”.
Philippe Lazzarini said that part of the campaign involved “inundating donors with misinformation designed to foster distrust and tarnish the reputation of the agency”.
“More blatant, is the Israeli Prime Minister openly stating that UNRWA will not be a part of post-war Gaza,” he said.
“The implementation of this plan is already under way with the destruction of our infrastructure across the Gaza Strip,” he said.
The UNRWA chief said that movement restrictions in the West Bank and the banning of local staff from entering occupied East Jerusalem was affecting “every aspect of our services”.
“Attempts to evict UNRWA from its Headquarters in East Jerusalem, and from a nearby vocational training centre for Palestine Refugee youth are under way,” he told the General Assembly.
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He added that draft legislation in the Israeli Knesset sought to prohibit outright any activity by UNRWA on Israeli territory.
Mr Lazzarini said that the repeated calls by the government of Israel to eliminate UNRWA were not about neutrality but intended to “shift the long-standing political parameters for peace in the occupied Palestinian territory set by the General Assembly and the Security Council, without consulting either body.”
“Dismantling UNRWA is short-sighted. By doing so, we will sacrifice an entire generation of children, sowing the seeds of hatred, resentment, and future conflict,” he said.
UNRWA is in crisis after major donors cut funding in the wake of allegations that 12 UNRWA employees took part in the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October.
Sixteen donor countries suspended funding, totalling $450 million.
In his speech to the General Assembly yesterday, Mr Lazzarini said that he had not received further information regarding the allegations against the UNRWA staff members but “the gravity of the allegations necessitated swift action”.
“I terminated the contracts of the staff concerned in the interest of the agency,” he said.
“UNRWA has no capacity to absorb financial shocks, especially while a war rages in Gaza,” he added.
Mr Lazzarini told delegates he was not arguing for UNRWA to exist forever but it could only be disbanded through a political settlement.
“It is a stain on our collective conscience that for 75 years UNRWA has had to fill a vacuum left by the lack of a political solution and genuine peace,” he told the General Assembly.
The General Assembly heard from the Israeli permanent representative to the UN, Gilad Erdan, who called for UNRWA to be defunded and dismantled.
“After all that has been exposed about UNRWA, it’s very clear: UNRWA will never again operate in Gaza as it has prior to October 7th,” he said.
He said UNRWA’s role in Gaza was “finished” and the agency must be replaced immediately.
At a news conference following the General Assembly meeting, Mr Lazzarini said he had no regrets about terminating the contracts of the implicated UNRWA employees but had “frustrations” that funding continued to be withheld.
Mr Lazzarini also told reporters that UNRWA had an unpublished internal report detailing Israeli abuses of Palestinian detainees since 7 October including allegations of “systematic humiliation” and “sleep deprivation” but declined to give further details.
