Recent legislation by Israel’s parliament banned the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from the state and occupied East Jerusalem. This new law puts in place a three months deadline and effectively puts the final nail in the work coordination that UNRWA was conducting with Israeli officials; its provision of basic facilities for the Palestinian refugees residing in East Jerusalem and in Gaza is now greatly inhibited.
Set up more than 70 years ago, UNRWA provides life-saving assistance, education, and healthcare for over five million Palestinian refugees across the region. It will paralyze its work in East Jerusalem, as it runs schools, health centers, and others within the Shuafat refugee camp. This would also interfere with humanitarian work by UNRWA because coordination of work has to take place with Israeli authorities within areas of Gaza where the organization is employing 13,000 people and disbursing aid along with other organizations.
The group of opponents of UNRWA within Israel, comprised of former Knesset members, are arguing that the agency is perpetuating the Palestinian refugee issue due to its stance on upholding the right of return for refugees. Many individuals who registered with UNRWA do not meet international standards for refugee status, but the United Nations is of the view that their status as Palestinian refugees endures until their displacement situation is fully resolved.
The ban might compel the international bodies to consider how better they can support the Palestinians of Gaza and West Bank if UNRWA operations turn out to be infeasible under the new restrictions. Experts share the belief that other agencies by the United Nations or other foreign assistance groups may not come up to the task, given the scale and scope of mission of UNRWA.
For Palestinians, UNRWA is a lifeline that the organization has been providing them with for decades, so the decision to ban signals a huge policy shift; it raises concerns about its implications on the welfare of refugees, given that the Palestinian Authority lacks the resources required to manage UNRWA’s responsibilities independently.