Cairo – A ceremony celebrating the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) was held this week at the headquarters of the League of Arab States, in Cairo. The event was attended by the League’s secretary general, Amr Mussa, the commissioner general and head of the humanitarian organization, Karen Abuzayd, and other Arab and international personalities in arts, politics and media.
The UNWRA was established in 1949 to provide assistance to the 700,000 Palestinian refugees who were forced to leave their country behind in 1948. “When the agency was established, in December 1949, there was hope that the issue of Palestinian refugees would be solved quickly, and that they would be able to return to their homes in a short while. Unfortunately, however, six decades later, the problem still persists, and gets worse with each passing moment,” said the Arab League’s assistant secretary general for Palestinian Affairs, Mohamed Sobeih, himself a Palestinian. “This makes the UNRWA increasingly important to the lives of the Palestinians,” he added.
The UNWRA, which operates in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in refugee camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, currently provides assistance to 4.7 million Palestinians. “However, our work does not consist solely of granting urgent aid to the vulnerable populations in these locations. Our goal is to develop human capital. We do it through a framework that also provides education, healthcare, social services, shelter and microcredit,” said Karen Abuzayd.
According to her, the UNRWA has 663 schools, eight vocational training centres, 125 healthcare centres, 65 programmes for assisting women and 39 community rehabilitation centres. “All of these institutions employ nearly 30,000 refugees, of whom almost 20,000 are teachers at UNRWA schools, and 4,000 work in the social assistance and healthcare sectors. Since 1991, our agency has supplied over 100,000 microcredit loans to the populations in the refugee camps that we assist,” claimed Karen.
Calling out
On its 60th birthday, the UNRWA faces serious financial obstacles to the continuation of its work, especially in the occupied Palestinian territories in Gaza and the West Bank. “Unfortunately, we are nearing the end of 2009 with our safes virtually empty,” said the commissioner.
During a press conference, she called out for the agency’s actions not to be threatened. “Over the last twelve months, living conditions have deteriorated even further in both Gaza and several West Bank communities, as a direct consequence of the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements,” said Karen.
She underscored that in Gaza, in addition to the consequences of the Israeli military attack last January, which caused a large number of casualties and widespread destruction, the blockade continues. “Until this day, Gaza residents still suffer with the lack of basic items and building material,” she declared.
According to the UNWRA’s director of operations for Gaza, John King, the basic nutritional needs of the population living in the territory are not being met. “Sixty percent of the population depends directly on food aid to stay alive,” he said. He added that the sanitary situation is also extremely serious. “Ninety percent of the water is not suitable for consumption,” he stated. According to King, one entire family in Gaza currently survives on 700 dollars per year, on average.
According to the UNRWA representatives in the West Bank, the situation is also a cause for concern, because most of those living in the region have seriously restricted access to basic resources, and the development opportunities are badly limited.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
