75 Facts About UNRWA

UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Palestine War and subsequent conflicts, as well as their descendants, including legally adopted children.

UNRWA was established in 1949 by the UN General Assembly to provide relief to all refugees resulting from the 1948 conflict.

UNRWA operates in five areas: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; aid for Palestinian refugees outside these five areas is provided by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees .

UNRWA is the only UN agency dedicated to helping refugees from a specific region or conflict.

Unlike UNRWA, UNHCR has a specific mandate to assist refugees in eliminating their refugee status by local integration in the current country, resettlement in a third country or repatriation when possible.

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UNRWA succeeded the UNRPR with a broader mandate for humanitarian assistance and development, and the requirement to function neutrally.

UNRWA has developed its own working definition of "refugee" to allow it to provide humanitarian assistance.

UNRWA's "mandate" is not a single document but the sum of all relevant resolutions and requests of the General Assembly.

UNRWA is a subsidiary organ of the United Nations General Assembly, established pursuant to Articles 7 and 22 of the UN Charter.

The scope and renewal of UNRWA's mandate is determined primarily by resolutions of the General Assembly; unlike other UN agencies, such as the World Health Organization or the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, it lacks a constitution or statute.

UNRWA is led by a Commissioner-General—since 8 March 2020 Philippe Lazzarini of Switzerland—an Under-Secretary-General of the UN responsible for managing all of the agency's activities and personnel.

UNRWA's operations are organised into five fields—Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, West Bank, and Gaza—each led by a Director, who is in charge of distributing humanitarian aid and overseeing general UNRWA operations.

UNRWA services are available to all registered Palestine refugees living in its area of operations who need assistance.

UNRWA provides facilities in 59 recognized refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and in other areas where large numbers of registered Palestine refugees live outside of recognized camps.

UNRWA's budget is set by the UN General Assembly and derives almost entirely from voluntary contributions by UN member states.

UNRWA establishes partnerships with nongovernmental donors, including nonprofit "national committees" based in donor countries.

Voluntary nature of UNRWA funding has led to budgetary problems due to acute emergencies or political developments in donor countries.

In mid-2019, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland temporarily suspended funding to UNRWA, citing ethics report that alleged mismanagement, corruption, and discrimination among the agency's leadership.

In July 2020, Commissioner-General Lazzarini warned that UNRWA's budget was "not sustainable", with shortfalls in four out of the five previous years, and funding at its lowest point since 2012.

UNRWA provides a wide variety of social and humanitarian services, as determined by resolutions of the UN General Assembly.

The school year is often interrupted by conflicts, prompting UNRWA to develop a special programme that provides education in emergency situations.

Per the longstanding agreement, UNRWA schools follow the curriculum of their host countries.

Wherever possible, UNRWA students take national exams conducted by the host governments.

UNRWA provides food aid, cash assistance, and help with shelter repairs to these families.

UNRWA has created community-based organizations to target women, refugees with disabilities, and to look after the needs of children.

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UNRWA provides them with technical and small sums of targeted financial assistance, but many have formed links of their own with local and international NGOs.

Since 1950, UNRWA has been the main healthcare provider for Palestinian refugees.

All UNRWA clinics offer family planning services with counselling that emphasises the importance of birth spacing as a factor in maternal and child health.

UNRWA provides refugees with assistance in meeting the costs of hospitalisation either by partially reimbursing them, or by negotiating contracts with government, NGOs, and private hospitals.

Microfinance Department is an autonomous financial unit within UNRWA, established in 1991 to provide microfinance services to Palestine refugees, as well as poor or marginal groups living and working in close proximity to them.

UNRWA takes a wide variety of actions to mitigate the effects of emergencies on the lives of Palestine refugees.

UNRWA has received praise from Nobel Peace laureates Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Kofi Annan, the President of the UN General Assembly, former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, and representatives from the European Union, the United States, the Netherlands, Japan, Bangladesh, Cyprus, Jordan, Ghana, and Norway, among others.

In 2007, Israel expressed its continued support for UNRWA, noting that despite "concerns regarding the politicization" of the agency, the country supports its humanitarian mission.

In 2011, UNRWA agreed to be assessed by the Multilateral Organisation Performance Assessment Network, a network of donor countries established to determine the organisational effectiveness of multilateral organisations.

UNRWA has been accused of hiring known militants, perpetuating Palestinian dependency, demonizing Israel, and funneling money from Western governments to line the pockets of the Palestinian Authority and purchasing arms for terrorists.

UNRWA definition is meant solely to determine eligibility for UNRWA assistance.

Ideally, the UNRWA would be disbanded and Palestinians given the freedom – and the responsibility – to build their own society.

UNRWA was specifically designed not to prescribe how the outcome of an agreement would take shape.

However, UNRWA has never been given a mandate by the UN General Assembly to resettle refugees.

In 2010 John Ging, head of UNRWA Gaza had stated that he was disappointed in Linday's criticisms of UNRWA for failure to resettle refugees.

In 2006, the UNRWA drew criticism from the US Congressmen Mark Kirk and Steven Rothman.

UNRWA mentioned the difficult conditions in which it operates: its refugee load increased much faster than its budget, while the tightening of the closure regime since the Second Intifada deeply affected the humanitarian situation in the former Israeli-occupied territories.

Senator Kit Bond said that UNRWA is an example of anti-Israel bias, and that Palestine refugees should be treated the same as all others with refugee status around the world.

Point this approach is stresses, I believe, is not that UNRWA is not necessary or that Palestinian refugeehood is not unique and special, but rather that UNRWA is not currently capable of ensuring necessary protection for Palestinian refugees, and that host Arab states cannot use the uniqueness of Palestinian refugeehood to continue upholding discriminatory laws and policies towards Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA is a main service provider for Palestinian refugees in host countries.

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UNRWA had in the past conducted independent research of Palestinian, Egyptian, Syrian, Saudi Arabian, Tunisian, and Iranian schoolbooks between 2000 and 2010, and was thus appointed to be a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the study from The Council For Religious Institutions in the Holy Land.

UNRWA criticized the study and its results for the following:.

UNRWA has taken many steps since the year 2000 to supplement the PA curriculum with concepts of human rights, nonviolent conflict resolution, and tolerance.

UNRWA has taken very few steps to detect and eliminate terrorists from the ranks of its staff or its beneficiaries, and no steps at all to prevent members of organizations such as Hamas from joining its staff.

UNRWA has no preemployment security checks and does not monitor off-time behavior to ensure compliance with the organization's anti-terror rules.

Example, in 2009 it caused UNRWA to suspend a decision to introduce Holocaust studies in its schools.

UNRWA has no plans to change its education programs in Gaza.

UNRWA did not operate its summer camps for summer 2012 and summer 2014 due to a lack of available funding.

In 2013, UNRWA canceled its planned marathon in Gaza after Hamas rulers prohibited women from participating in the race.

In 2013, Israeli media outlets aired a video documenting UNRWA-funded summer camps where children are being taught to engage in violence with Israelis.

UNRWA has conducted a lengthy and detailed investigation into the film and we categorically reject the allegations it contains.

UNRWA has done this again and we again reject his allegations.

UNRWA is committed to fostering human rights and tolerance, and teaches these values through the curriculum in its schools.

UNRWA is one of the few organizations that has implemented human rights and conflict resolution training for millions of Palestine refugee children in the complex political environment of the Middle East for over 12 years.

UNRWA issued a plea to all parties to respect the neutrality of its ambulances.

On 4 February 2009, UNRWA halted aid shipments into the Gaza Strip after it accused Hamas of breaking into a UN warehouse and stealing tonnes of blankets and food which had been earmarked for needy families.

On 7 January 2009, UNRWA officials alleged that the prior day, in the course of the Gaza War, the Israel Defense Forces shelled the area outside a UNRWA school in Jabalya, Gaza, killing more than forty people.

UNRWA strongly condemned the activity as a "flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law" and UNRWA staff were withdrawn from the premises.

They, like others who view the agency more positively, realise that UNRWA makes a major contribution to stability in the Middle East.

In 2004 the U S Congress asked the General Accounting Office to investigate media claims that government funding given to UNRWA had been used to support individuals involved in militant activities.

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UNRWA should make the following operational changes: halt its one-sided political statements and limit itself to comments on humanitarian issues; take additional steps to ensure the agency is not employing or providing benefits to terrorists and criminals; and allow the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or some other neutral entity, to provide balanced and discrimination-free textbooks for UNRWA schools.

An initiative to reform UNRWA was announced by the Center for Near East Policy Research in March 2014.

UNRWA has stated on multiple occasions that the head of this initiative, David Bedein, fabricates the information he publishes.

At the request of the Israel Government, UNRWA would continue its assistance to the Palestine refugees, with the full co-operation of the Israel authorities, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip areas.

UNRWA has been criticised by the Israeli government and politicians for alleged involvement with Palestinian militant groups, such as Hamas.

In November 2002 Iain Hook, a British employee of UNRWA, was shot and killed by an IDF sniper while working in the Jenin refugee camp, during an operation to locate a Palestinian militant suspected of masterminding a suicide bombing that killed 14 people earlier in 2002.

Israel damaged or destroyed a number of UNRWA facilities claiming that they were used for war purposes and thus legitimate targets.

UNRWA stated it intended to seal the tunnel, and that is protested to Hamas.

Monies to UNRWA would be rechanneled to Arab countries in the area in the expectation that they would eventually absorb the Palestinian refugees resident in their states.

In January 2020, UNRWA said that in East Jerusalem, Israel was building schools and institutions "to compete" with UNRWA and stop it from operating there.