Palestine’s National and Islamic Action factions announced their rejection of the statement of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and Works (UNRWA), Philip Lazzarini, about “increasing partnerships within the United Nations to provide services on behalf of UNRWA under its supervision and direction.”
Lazzarini warned that the financial implosion the Agency has been facing over the last 10 years could lead to an interruption or end of services provided to five million Palestine refugees in Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
The factions said that it is “an attempt to dismantle UNRWA as a prelude to ending its work as a political witness to the refugee issue,” calling for wide participation in an event organized tomorrow, Monday, in front of the UNRWA gate in Gaza.
The Joint Committee for Refugees in the Gaza Strip stressed that “it is an attempt to establish a diversion of the agency from the function for which it was established, which is serving Palestinian refugees until they return to their homes in accordance with UN Resolution 194.”
The Committee absolutely rejected the Commissioner-General’s letter of an attempt to search for other international bodies to provide the service on behalf of UNRWA, under the pretext of providing sustainable funding and limiting UNRWA’s role to supervision.
It pointed out that “the danger in presenting these ideas is that the Palestinian refugee issue is considered a humanitarian issue only related to relief, health, education, and others, and isolates it from the closely related political dimension, which is the implementation of Resolution 194.”
Moreover, the Joint Committee called on the Commissioner-General of UNRWA to quickly retract this and provide clarification about the goals behind it and who is behind it.
“This constitutes a disregard for the rights of Palestinian refugees and the mandate given to UNRWA by 173 countries around the world.”
For his part, the head of the refugee department and the popular committees in the Hamas movement, Muhammad Al-Madhoun, expressed his rejection of the statement of Lazzarini, saying “We view with great gravity the statements of UNRWA Commissioner-General Philip Lazzarini about providing services on behalf of UNRWA.”
“We affirm our rejection of them altogether and in detail, as they are an attempt to dismantle UNRWA as a prelude to ending its work, as it is a political witness to the refugee issue,” Al-Madhoun added.
He explained that “this means removing political responsibility towards the refugee issue, and this requires a peaceful move at the official, popular and national levels to confront this proposal, which aims primarily to remove international political responsibility towards the refugee issue.”
Al-Madhoun stressed the need for the United Nations, the Advisory Committee and the Commissioner-General to move to find alternatives aimed at compensating the financial deficit, and urged countries to fulfill their obligations.
In turn, the Department of Refugee Affairs in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine described what was stated in the UNRWA Commissioner-General’s letter to the refugees that “international institutions may provide services in place of UNRWA” as dangerous, paving the way for more dangerous decisions and measures to end UNRWA’s work.
“This entails an additional step on the path to liquidating the right of return of refugees to their homes from which they were displaced.”
The department considered that these statements issued by the first international employee responsible for managing UNRWA cannot be justified at all and under any circumstances, even if it was due to the financial crisis.
The department called on the Commissioner-General to retract these dangerous statements and to harness all his efforts to raise funds for the continuity of UNRWA’s work.
The department concluded its statement by calling on the Palestinian people to adopt a unified position that rejects what was stated in the Commissioner-General’s letter.
Also, the resistance committees in Palestine denounced the statements, saying that “the statements of the UNRWA Commissioner-General are consistent with the schemes of the Zionist entity to end the Palestinian refugee issue.”
It described Lazzarini’s statements as “dangerous and cunning,” explaining that it is “a clear attempt to tamper with the refugee issue on the way to its liquidation that can never be tolerated.”
It called on Philip Lazzarini to immediately retract his recent positions, which constitute a disregard for the mandate given to UNRWA and the rights of Palestinian refugees. It also called on the masses of our Palestinian people everywhere to stand up and be ready to defend their rights and the UNRWA, the political witness to the Palestinian cause.
In the same context, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine called on the Commissioner-General of UNRWA to retract his recent statement regarding the possibility of referring services to United Nations bodies.
It called to provide clarifications about their goals and the international parties behind them, considering that this constitutes a disregard not only for the rights of the Palestinian refugees but also for the mandate given to the agency, which is still valid now.
It also urged the Palestinian people and all its political and popular components to reject this altogether and to prepare for the battle of defending UNRWA and its services.
It should be noted that UNRWA provides services for over 6 Palestine refugees in Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, including education and health.
Shortlink for this post: https://daysofpalestine.ps/?p=18456
