UNRWA needs your help

Aref Assaf

 May 10, 2008 

On May 5, 2008, I trekked to New York City to attend the opening of the exhibition to showcase the artistic talents and photographs of Palestinian children and to also herald the creation of Friends of UNRWA, in New York. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) sponsored an impressive exhibition which was mounted in the lobby of the Secretariat building. The timing of the exhibit may have had something to do with  the approaching 60^th anniversary of the creation of Israel and the start of the Palestinian Nakba.

This exhibit strips away the political layers and stereotypes of the Palestinian tragedy and starkly lays bare what remains:  ordinary people struggling with life under extraordinarily inhumane circumstances. The pictures and places brought painful memories of my past as a refugee who knew no other world except the cramps confines of Kalandia camp on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Our world then was limited to one-room home to the my parents and eight children but it was home nonetheless.

The main speaker was UN Secretary general Ban Ki-moon.  He outlined the past achievements and the forthcoming challenges facing the mission of the UNRWA. UNRWA has been working alongside these Palestinian refugees in the Middle East for almost as long as the problem has existed. That is already almost 60 years; "this is just unacceptable," he so summarily opined. He related how he was so humbled by looking at all those pictures in the exhibit. "Those children in the pictures should now be almost 60 or 70 years old -- this is just an unacceptable situation."

Through both times of war and peace, UNRWA has assisted millions of Palestinians whose plight remains at the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Were it not for UNRWA, generations of Palestinian children would not have received a decent education.  And they would have been denied the most basic tools necessary for them to stand on their own feet or to contribute to the societies in which they live.

 Were it not for UNRWA, gender equality in the refugee population would be a meaningless slogan; and primary health care for all -- from reducing common childhood diseases to ensuring maternal well-being -- would be a distant dream.

 Indeed, long before world leaders proclaimed the Millennium Development Goals at the United Nations, UNRWA had quietly been putting those same principles into action -– with impressive results.

But for all its remarkable work, UNRWA -- and the United Nations -- has not escaped criticism.  Amidst the passions engulfing the Arab-Israeli conflict, claims of bias have come from all directions.  Some have even insisted that UNRWA is part of the problem, not the solution.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  I can personally vouch that the UN is strictly impartial in its approach to the conflict.  If it harbors a bias, it is towards the peace and welfare of all people.

 And were it not for UNRWA, this often underrated and misunderstood UN agency, the lives of millions of Palestinians would be much, much, more worse. I'm also sure that, without UNRWA, the threat to peace and security in the Middle East would undoubtedly be far greater as well.

My friend, Dr. Ghassan Shabaneh recently completed his PhD on  the role of the UN in state building. His focus was the UNRWA and the future Palestinian state. The thesis that the UN has a far reaching role in not only building a civic Palestine society  wit institutions such has schools, hospitals and vocational centers but its pivotal role in defining and some would say nurturing a unique Palestinian national identity. This thesis is not without critics, however. One  such pundit is  Barry Rubin who writing recently, stated that the agency "actually helps destroy the chance of Arab-Israeli peace, promotes terrorism, and holds Palestinians back from rebuilding their lives".

We owe a debt of gratitude to Karen AbuZayd who the Commissioner General of UNRWA. Mrs. AbyZayd, an American with a lifetime of service to refugees around the world, should be recognized for her resolute and inspiring leadership.