Over the weekend, nine countries announced they are cutting off contributions to the UN agency tasked with aiding Palestinian refugees. The move comes after the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced it had fired several of its employees who were suspected of participating in the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas against Israel.
UNRWA was founded in 1949, in the wake of Israel’s establishment. Its mandate includes Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war, in which Arab states began a war to thwart Israel’s founding. The Palestinians are the only population not included in the work of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and have a separate agency dedicated to them.
According to the UN, there are currently 5.9 million Palestinians under UNRWA auspices, a substantial growth from the original 700,000 refugees.
UNRWA definition of a refugee
The UNRWA defines a Palestinian refugee as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 war.”
According to the UNHCR definition, based on the 1951 Refugee Convention, a refugee is one who, “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”
These definitions are at the source of what has become a dispute between Israel, the Palestinians, and UNRWA.
Israel rejects the rights of Palestinians to return to their homes. The return of millions of Palestinians is seen by many in Israel as a threat to its existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people.
“UNRWA was supposed to be a temporary agency, similar to other ones founded at around the same time, aimed at settling the refugees and then closing,” said Dr. Einat Wilf, a former Israeli member of parliament and co-author of The War of Return. However, Wilf told The Media Line, “The Arab refugees refused to settle and refused any process that would end their refugee status.”
According to Wilf, this refusal has a direct connection to the Arab approach to the newfound Israel.
“The meaning of ending their refugee status is that they have relinquished their fight against the establishment of the Jewish state,” she explained.
“The existence of the agency … has long been considered a symbolic proof of the international community’s commitment to the refugee issue as a form of compensation for the inability of the UN to resolve the issue of Palestinian refugees and secure their return,” said Nihad Abu Gosh, a Ramallah-based Palestinian analyst, who told The Media Line that the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their lands is “the most important” Palestinian principle.
Since the beginning of the current war between Israel and Hamas, UNRWA has been the main facilitator of humanitarian aid to residents of Gaza, raising millions of dollars in donations for the organizations. On Friday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini announced it had terminated the contracts of several employees who were suspected of participating in the Hamas offensive against Israel. According to a UNRWA statement, an independent investigation will be conducted into the allegations.
In response, several countries, including the US and the UK, announced they were suspending their funding for the agency.
“Palestinians in Gaza did not need this additional collective punishment,” Lazzarini wrote in a statement.
“The decision of the Western countries, some of which are major funders of UNRWA, will have disastrous effects,” Abu Gosh added. “But in the eyes of the Palestinians, it carries fatal political risks and consequences and is a retaliatory punishment for the agency and its role.”
Israeli officials welcomed the move by some of its allies. Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said the UN Secretary-General António Guterres had been “ignoring” proof for years that has shown “support and involvement of UNRWA in incitement and terrorism.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called on Lazzarini to resign.
“Israel was well aware that the [Palestinians’] perpetuation of the refugee status was aimed at maintaining its war of independence as an open case and tried to fight this,” said Wilf.
As a result of the 1967 War between several Arab countries and Israel, the latter took over lands that included the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
“For the first time, Israel is in control of territories in which UNRWA operates and decides to cooperate with it, seeing it as a tool to supply services for the Arab population in the territory,” Wilf explained. “Israel became a lobbyist for UNRWA, seeing it as an allegedly moderating and calming actor, when it is actually the contrary.”
UNRWA is one of the UN’s largest agencies with over 30,000 staffers, most of them Palestinians, in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza. In addition to emergency services, it also offers social services, medical care, and education.
In recent years, Israel has criticized the organization, often focusing on UNRWA’s education system, which it claims incites violence and promotes antisemitism.
“You cannot separate between UNRWA and the Palestinians,” said Wilf. “It is not really a UN organ. The Palestinians have taken over the agency; it is part of the Palestinian ethos that includes the right of return, rejection of the Jewish state, and revenge.”
In 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the dismantling of UNRWA. Then US President Donald Trump announced that the US would cut its funding for the organization. However, in 2021, US President Joe Biden restored American funding for the agency.
According to Abu Gosh, these efforts, and the latest ones, are an attempt to “liquidate” the UNRWA in an effort to rid it of the Palestinian refugee issue.
Since the latest war began, the Israeli military has accused UNRWA facilities of harboring Hamas terrorists and weapons. According to Israeli media reports, Israeli defense officials showed their US counterparts proof of UNRWA employee involvement in Hamas’ offensive, which led to the immediate American announcement of defunding the agency, an announcement that was followed by other countries.
The October 7 attack resulted in the killing of approximately 1,200 Israelis, the injuring of thousands more, and the abduction of approximately 250 people, many of them civilians. In response, Israel launched a massive air, land, and sea offensive. Since then, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza has reported over 26,000 Palestinian deaths and the injury of more than 64,000. Almost two million residents of Gaza are considered internally displaced, also at the hands of UNRWA, which is the most dominant aid agency operating in the territory.
As it set out its goal for the war, Israel announced it aims to destroy Hamas, ridding it of its military capabilities, and essentially removing it from controlling the Gaza Strip. Throughout almost four months of an aggressive military campaign, Israel has accused UNRWA of collaborating with Hamas.
“Targeting the relief agency and reducing its funding achieves a number of Israeli goals, including targeting the issue of refugees and their right of return … increasing the difficulties of life for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories,” said Abu Gosh. “This encourages them to emigrate, which imposes challenges on the Palestinian leadership, institutions, and the Palestinian people in general.”
The current move by several donor countries to suspend UNRWA funding could be temporary. It has occurred before and funding has later resumed. For Gazans, who, according to the UN, are now facing dismal conditions with almost a quarter of the population facing starvation, withholding funds could be dire.
For Israel, who for many years used UNRWA as a means to keep the Palestinian issue contained, the matter poses a serious dilemma. If UNRWA is currently the main pathway of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, immobilizing it could leave Israel with the burden of caring for the Palestinians there.
“For many years, Israel was short-sighted and thought it was buying quiet,” said Wilf. “If Israel will insist that this is not just an issue of a few murderers, but that the organization itself needs to cease to exist, this could change things. A lot now depends on how Israel will handle itself and whether it decides to fight this.”