In survival mode, UNRWA awaits outcome of leadership change<\/a><\/p>\nUNRWA was established by the UN in 1949 as a stop-gap measure, intended to operate only until a political solution was found for Palestinian refugees displaced following the creation of Israel.<\/p>\n
Lazzarini said that he had requested UN member states to allow the agency to \u201cretrieve its temporary nature to be part of the solution within a political process\u201d, as the political solution had never materialised. He now hoped that the political process could resume.<\/p>\n
Part of US-driven peace plan<\/p>\n
UNRWA should be viewed as an \u201casset\u201d in implementing last year\u2019s UN Security Council resolution supporting US president Donald Trump\u2019s Gaza peace plan, Lazzarini argued. The initiative, envisages Gaza being governed by a yet-to-be-appointed \u201ctechnocratic apolitical Palestinian committee\u201d, responsible for running public services. It also assigns a central role in the enclave\u2019s reconstruction to Trump\u2019s Board of Peace.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The resolution, which was welcomed by the Palestinian Authority and Israel, does not mention UNRWA. It was condemned at the time by human rights organisations, which said it legitimised indefinite Israeli control of the Strip, given the government\u2019s membership on the board gives it oversight of reconstruction plans and its future governance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lazzarini explained that Palestinians\u2019 future authority should ultimately take over from UNRWA.. But for that to happen, \u201cwe need a genuine political process and\u2026genuine commitment,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u2018A ceasefire only by name\u2019<\/p>\n
When asked about the future of the organisation, Lazzarini said that it will depend on the implementation of the Gaza peace plan and how any governance transition unfolds. \u201cWe have to enter into a transitional mindset to ensure we have a soft landing, and to have that, it means having a proper future recipient,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With funding for UNRWA\u2019s services for Palestinians, such as clean water, health and education, only expected to last till September, any variations of financial flows, often shaped by domestic politics in donor countries, will also be decisive.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, delays in the implementation of the peace plan are only causing more \u201cmisery\u201d for the people in Gaza. Families are still living amid the rubble of their homes and waiting hours for water, said Lazzarini, adding that they were living a \u201cceasefire only by name\u201d \u2013 more than 650 people have been killed since its start in October.<\/p>\n
Hostilities, while less intense, continue as talks to disarm are stalled as Washington focuses on its war with Iran. Under the peace plan, an international stabilisation force would also replace occupying Israeli forces as Hamas fighters lay down their arms. Last week, a Bulgarian diplomat, Nickolay Mladenov, presented a detailed plan for decommissioning Hamas weapons at the Security Council. A number of countries, including Kosovo, Kazakhstan and Indonesia, have indicated their willingness to contribute troops to the mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warning of the risks of a collapse of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, its outgoing chief, Philippe Lazzarini,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,1731,2720,23606],"class_list":["post-42449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-geneva","tag-israel","tag-peace","tag-unrwa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116325125002017263","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}