New York - Saba:
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, stressed that the political implications of the collapse of UNRWA would be catastrophic and would have serious consequences for international peace and security.
According to the Palestinian News Agency today, Lazzarini said in a letter to UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang that the attacks on the Agency will lead to unilateral changes in the parameters of any future political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and harm the Palestinians' right to self-determination and their aspirations for a political solution.
He pointed out that the adoption by the Israeli Knesset of two laws on UNRWA effectively deprives it of the protection and basic means necessary for its work, after a year of blatant disregard for the lives of its staff, buildings and humanitarian operations in Gaza, and after intensive diplomatic campaigns by the Government of Israel targeting UNRWA donors with misinformation to undermine funding.
These developments threaten to collapse UNRWA's operations in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza, and severely undermine the entire UN humanitarian operation in Gaza, which relies on UNRWA, and the absence of any viable alternative to the Agency will exacerbate the suffering of Palestinians.
Lazzarini said in his letter: The situation in Gaza goes beyond the diplomatic vocabulary of the General Assembly, Palestinian lives have been destroyed after more than a year of the most intensive bombing of the civilian population since World War II, humanitarian aid has been restricted to below the minimum needs, schools, universities, hospitals, places of worship, bakeries, water, sewage and electricity networks, roads and agricultural land have been destroyed, and survivors live in the most humiliating forms, trapped and waiting to die by air strikes or hunger.
He stressed that dismantling UNRWA would have a catastrophic impact on the international response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, noting that no one other than UNRWA will be able to provide education for 660,000 boys, and an entire generation of children will be sacrificed, with long-term risks of marginalisation, and in the West Bank, refugees will be denied access to education and primary health care, exacerbating the already precarious situation.
These attacks will not end the status of Palestine refugees, which exists independently of UNRWA's provision of services, but will severely damage their lives and futures.
The Commissioner-General of UNRWA called for the support of Member States in the UN General Assembly, commensurate with the gravity of the situation and risks, to ensure the Agency's ability to fully implement the mandate given to it by the General Assembly in resolution 302 (IV) of 1949.
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