{"id":98982,"date":"2019-05-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/actionpal.ahmadalkhuleyf.net\/post\/8663\/"},"modified":"2019-05-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T21:00:00","slug":"8663","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/actionpal.tech\/en\/post\/8663","title":{"rendered":"UNRWA rejects US bid to remove its mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"
The head of UNRWA, the\u00c2\u00a0United Nations\u00c2\u00a0agency that has supported Palestinian refugees for seven decades, has rebuffed a US proposal to have host countries take over the services it provides across the Middle East.<\/div>\n
The suggestion, from US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt at a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday that\u00c2\u00a0UNRWA should be effectively dismantled was the latest US attack on an agency that began operations in 1950.<\/div>\n
“We need to engage with host governments to start a conversation about planning the transition of UNRWA services to host governments, or to other international or local non-governmental organizations, as appropriate,” Greenblatt said after the Security Council was briefed by UNRWA chief Pierre Krahenbuhl.<\/div>\n
Asked at a Gaza news conference on Thursday about Greenblatt’s remarks, Krahenbuhl said UNRWA’s mandate was a matter for the entire UN General Assembly to consider, not by “one or two individual member states”.<\/div>\n
“Therefore, Palestinian refugees should remember that the mandate is protected by the General Assembly, and of course, we will engage with member states to ensure what we hope is a safe renewal of that mandate,” Krahenbuhl said.<\/div>\n
Since Trump assumed office in 2017, Palestinians have grown concerned that he intends to bring about UNRWA’s demise.<\/div>\n
Formerly UNRWA’s largest donor, the US cut off its roughly $300m annual donation in 2018, deeming its fiscal practices “irredeemably flawed”, stoking tensions between the Palestinians and US President\u00c2\u00a0Donald Trump’s administration.<\/div>\n
US ally\u00c2\u00a0Israel\u00c2\u00a0claims that the work of UNRWA only perpetuates the plight of Palestinians.<\/div>\n
“Year after year, Palestinians in refugee camps were not given the opportunity to build any future; they were misled and used as political pawns and commodities instead of treated as human beings,” Greenblatt told the Security Council.<\/div>\n
Krahenbuhl however, rebuffed Greenblatt’s criticism at a conference in Gaza saying UNRWA cannot be blamed for stalled peace efforts.<\/div>\n
“I unreservedly reject the accompanying narrative that suggests that somehow UNRWA is to blame for the continuation of the refugee-hood of Palestine refugees, of their growing numbers and their growing needs,” Krahenbuhl said in response to a question about Greenblatt’s comments.<\/div>\n
“The fact that UNRWA still exists today is an illustration of the failure of the parties and the international community to resolve the issue politically – and one cannot deflect the attention onto a humanitarian organization.”<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The head of UNRWA, the\u00c2\u00a0United Nations\u00c2\u00a0agency that has supported Palestinian refugees for seven decades, has rebuffed a US proposal to have host countries take over the services it provides across the Middle East. The suggestion, from US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt at a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday that\u00c2\u00a0UNRWA should be effectively dismantled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-98982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.tech\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.tech\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.tech\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.tech\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.tech\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.tech\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.tech\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.tech\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.tech\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/actionpal.tech\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}