February 8, 2024 | The Boston Globe
The UN agency that’s supposed to aid Palestinian refugees has only made things worse
While the UN Relief and Works Agency’s message may be celebrated by advocates of Palestinian nationalism, the agency’s policies undermine the case for Palestinian statehood.
February 8, 2024 | The Boston Globe
The UN agency that’s supposed to aid Palestinian refugees has only made things worse
While the UN Relief and Works Agency’s message may be celebrated by advocates of Palestinian nationalism, the agency’s policies undermine the case for Palestinian statehood.
Excerpt
A growing bipartisan group of legislators is calling to permanently end American taxpayer support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency amid accusations that it took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. But there’s another reason for Democrats and Republicans to unify behind the plan to replace UNRWA: The agency denies millions of Palestinians their basic human rights.
For nearly 30 million refugees around the world, and tens of millions more who are internally displaced by conflict, one UN agency exists to help people replace chaos and despair with stability and hope. It’s not UNRWA. It’s the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. With an international staff of 19,000 and operations in more than 100 countries, the High Commissioner has a mandate to move people out of harm’s way — whether through repatriation, local integration, or resettlement.
Richard Goldberg is a senior adviser at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan think tank, where Jonathan Schanzer is senior vice president for research.