TAG: GS-3: WILDLIFE & BIODIVERSITY
THE CONTEXT: The Israeli parliament passed two bills to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from working in Israel and the Palestinian territories until October 2024.
EXPLANATION:
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- Israel’s recent actions against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) stem from long-standing tensions over its role and operations in the Palestinian territories, particularly Gaza.
- Israel has accused UNRWA of alleged bias, mismanagement and ties to Palestinian terrorist groups, as some of its schools and facilities have been used by militants to store weapons.
- This criticism has intensified during the recent Gaza conflict, with Israel raising concerns that UNRWA’s presence may indirectly help terrorist groups by providing cover for their activities.
What is United Nations’ Refugee Agency for Palestinians (UNRWA)?
- It is a subsidiary agency created by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in 1949.
- Objective: To provide relief, health, and education services for Palestinians who lost both their homes and their means of livelihood during the Arab Israeli wars following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
- Beginning operations in 1950, UNRWA was originally headquartered in Beirut but was moved to Vienna in 1978.
- Following the conclusion of the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s, the General Assembly moved the agency to the Gaza Strip in 1996 to demonstrate the General Assembly’s commitment to the Arab Israeli peace process.
- In the absence of a solution to the Palestine refugee problem, the General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA’s mandate, most recently extending it until 30 June 2026.
- Services: The agency’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance, and emergency assistance, including in times of armed conflict
- Fields of operations: It provides services in its five fields of operations: Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank, including the East of Jerusalem.
- It supports more than five million registered Palestinian refugees, and their patrilineal descendants, who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 Palestine war, as well as those who fled or were expelled during and following the 1967 Six Day war.
- Funding:
- It is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN Member States.
- UNRWA also receives some funding from the Regular Budget of the UN, which is used mostly for international staffing costs.
- Its chief officer, the commissioner-general the only leader of a UN agency to report directly to the General Assembly is appointed by the UN secretary-general with the approval of an Advisory Commission
What has Israel accused UNRWA of?
- Israel has alleged that 12 staff members of UNRWA were involved in the October 7 attack.
- It has also claimed that Hamas siphons off funds given to UNRWA and fights from in and around the agency’s facilities.
- Israel has alleged that Hamas tunnels are running next to or under UNRWA facilities and accuses the agency of teaching hatred of Israel in its schools.
How has UNRWA responded?
- The UNRWA has denied all the allegations, saying it has no links to Hamas.
- In the statement, UN officials said out of 12 staff members who were accused of being involved in the attack, nine have been terminated.
- One is confirmed dead and the identity of the two others is being clarified.
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