Defund UNRWA
By: Asaf Romirowsky
The Washington Times | Tuesday, May 20, 2008
A few days ago an Israeli air
strike killed a member of a Palestinian missile team that had been
firing rockets from Gaza. Now the United Nations has come out with an
unusual statement of bewilderment and utter shock as the truth has come
out. The dead man, Awad al-Qiq, was a U.N. employee and headmaster of a
top prep school in Gaza. He was also the chief rocket-maker for Islamic
Jihad.
Mr. Al-Qiq — not surprisingly, a science teacher — worked for
one of the schools run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Now that he is out of the
rocket business, the employment of such a "respectable" individual by
the sole U.N. agency devoted to Palestinian refugees deserves an
explanation.
In a new report by the Global Research in International
Affairs Center by this author and Professor Barry Rubin, "UNRWA: Refuge
of Rejectionism," the case is made that this group is a major cause of
the continued Arab-Israeli conflict, the incitement of a whole
generation of Palestinians to terrorist violence and even the suffering
of the refugees themselves.
The report's recommendation is simple and workable: UNRWA
should be dissolved and its functions divided between the far more
effective and depoliticized U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR)
and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Since Hamas came to power in 2006, Palestinians in the new
Islamic state of Gaza have been crying out for more and more UNRWA aid.
Historically, UNRWA has been the main vehicle for the perpetuation of
the Arab-Israeli conflict in the United Nations. Where once it was
charged with resettling Palestinians, its explicit mandate in recent
decades has been to maintain them in the camps where Arab states left
them some 60 years ago. Education, health and limited vocational
training are provided, just enough to keep Palestinians as "refugees."
UNRWA is an apparatus that maintains the status quo — a huge
bureaucracy with no incentive to move toward a resolution of the
Palestinian refugee problem. This arrangement is ripe for abuse.
As one of the largest employers in the host countries with
Palestinian refugee camps, UNRWA is staffed mainly by local
Palestinians — more than 23,000 of them, with only about 100
international U.N. professionals. The pattern of hiring within the
served population is unique in the U.N. system. By contrast, UNICEF (to
cite one example) avoids employing locals who are also recipients of
agency services, considering it a conflict of interest. UNRWA
bureaucracy has created an infrastructure for Palestinian dependency.
Refugees, now in their third generation, rely on the services UNRWA
provides and have no incentives to plan or implement solutions that may
endanger their livelihood by rendering UNRWA's services obsolete.
It was under the leadership of former UNRWA Commissioner Peter
Hansen that the organization's complicity with terror was openly
exposed. In a statement to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Mr.
Hansen admitted: "I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA
payroll " and I don't see that as a crime."
As Hamas' genocidal agenda has become impossible to cover up,
UNRWA has now resorted to professions of shock and promises of "zero
tolerance." For some UNRWA's affiliation with terrorism is not a
detraction but an added value that shows "diversity." As Rashid
Khalidi, Edward Said professor of Arab studies at Columbia University,
notes, "humanitarian and charitable institutions throughout Palestine
employ personnel regardless of sectarian or political affiliation and
offer services on a similar basis. Thus, UNRWA, NGO-run institutions
[and] public hospitals and clinics, for example, employ members of
different political groups such as Fatah, the [Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine], Hamas and Islamic Jihad, without reference to
their belonging to a specific group."
As we look for ways to crack down on terrorism and terrorist
activity, looking at UNRWA is a good start. American taxpayer dollars
fund approximately one-third of UNRWA's operating budget. UNRWA
provides food, medicine, economic aid, jobs, radical education,
political opportunities, and even logistical assistance to Hamas and
other extremist groups. UNRWA's budget, which exceeds $365 million, is
funded by many nations, but the United States and other Western nations
are the largest contributors.
Cutting off UNRWA's budget would be detrimental to Hamas in
Gaza, which would be forced to either provide services to Palestinians
or admit it has no intention of doing so. It would also send an
important message to the United Nations, which perpetuates the
Palestinian refugee problem and lends legitimacy to groups like Hamas
through UNRWA's continued existence.
Transferring UNRWA's services to other agencies, notably the
High Commission for Refugees, which has a long and productive
experience, would be another important move. And lastly, actually
having the Palestinian Authority take responsibility for the social
services if it is to truly govern the Palestinian people would send a
signal to all parties that a future state of Palestine would be
prepared to live in peace with its neighbors and itself.
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