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Another kick to Palestinian justice
When US aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency finally fell, it was all but shock. It was fully in keeping with the mysterious ways in which the current US administration operates.
For example, its promise of a "century agreement" to restore peace between Israelis and Palestinians now looks more like a negotiation of recycled ideas ranging from the economic reconstruction of Gaza to a confederation between Palestine and Jordan. Fundamental issues such as East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine or what the future holds for the rights of Palestinian refugees are treated in such a way as to leave the scorched earth in the idea of meeting around the world. 39, a bargaining table. One wonders whether Washington's proposals are the result of a total misunderstanding of the situation or of a deliberate attempt to sabotage all that is left of the chance to reach a peace agreement based on the two-State solution.
There was first the unilateral recognition by the Trump administration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the relocation of the US embassy in that country, and then last week, the announcement of US funding for UNWRA was to be fully withdrawn. Unless other countries fill this gap and cover the deficit, which is about a quarter of UNRWA's $ 1.2 billion budget, the services it provides to 5.4 million Palestinian refugees are threatened in a real and serious way.
The US State Department has accused the agency of being "irretrievably flawed". What seems irremediably wrong is the logic of the decision to cut these funds and to believe that the United States can play an honest mediator in future peace negotiations. If an agreement negotiated by the United States is imminent, why can not the role and funding of UNRWA be part of a future agreement?
The State Department's comments reflect the administration's overly simplistic approach to the Palestinian refugee issue. His argument that the United States pays disproportionately more than any other country is numerically correct. However, foreign aid is a tool of influence on foreign policy which, in this case, serves the interests of the ally of the United States, Israel.
It also helps to prevent political unrest in other places hosting Palestinian refugees, such as Jordan and Lebanon. Twenty-five years after the great promise of the Oslo accords, many Palestinian refugees languish under the punitive occupation in the West Bank; they are stuck in Gaza; their lives have been broken in Syria; and they are generally abused in Lebanon. How does reducing the funds of the only agency on Earth, with an overall picture of their challenges and needs, employing 30,000 people and having considerable experience and expertise, help to build trust? future peace agreement?
There can only be one answer to that.
What seems irretrievably flawed is the logic of the decision to cut those funds and always believe that the United States can play an honest broker role in future peace negotiations.
Yossi Mekelberg
The US administration, acting in concert with the Israeli prime minister and his government, is deliberately trying to dismantle UNRWA as one step closer to burying hopes that could be left to the two-state solution. On the two most important and sensitive issues at the heart of this conflict, Washington's message to the Palestinian people symbolically and practically is that even the smallest demands will not be met: Jerusalem will not be the capital of their independent future. State, and as for the United States, the refugee problem is limited to the 50,000 refugees originally from 1948 who are still living, not to the 5.4 million registered with UNRWA.
But if these millions of people who are the descendants of refugees are not so refugees, then what are they? What are their rights? What is their legal status? Not one, not even a hundred American statements will change the fact that many still live in refugee camps and are stateless. Most of them do not want to exercise their right of return, but they want and need to close their doors, with compensation, recognition of their physical and mental suffering and choice of where they live. This is not much to ask.
According to Washington, UNRWA is a "community of authorized recipients in constant and exponential expansion". Nothing could be further from the truth. The growing number of Palestinians registered with the organization represents the natural growth of a population whose situation has never been resolved.
The UN has entrusted UNRWA with ensuring the well-being of these people. It is her duty and, given the hostile environments in which the Agency has worked for its 70 years of existence and the extremely limited resources it has had to exploit, it deserves much more praise than criticism.
Throughout its existence, UNWRA has been a pillar to protect these victims from many wars against malnutrition and homelessness, while doing its best to ensure their education and their health and even by doing all this, they gave these people a lot of hope and, by doing so, prevented them from becoming easy prey for extremist views and religious fundamentalism.
This is an accomplishment for an organization operating in one of the most complex conflicts in the world and dealing with the most complex issues. Why, then, is UNRWA so violently attacked? This is mainly because it is an easy target, as a UN organization whose leaders are forced to show restraint in the face of many unfounded allegations while continuing to do what they do best – take care of Palestinian refugees. by Israel and the United States to undermine the two-state solution and deny refugees their status, let alone justice.
- Yossi Mekelberg is Professor of International Relations at Regent's University in London, where he directs the International Relations and Social Sciences Program. He is also a partner of the Chatham House MENA program. He regularly contributes to the international print and electronic media. Twitter: @YMekelberg
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the authors in this section are theirs and do not necessarily reflect the views of Arab News.
