UNRWA at risk: Israeli ban and Trump’s policies thretaen lifeline for Palestinian refugees

The fate of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, is uncertain as US-President-elect Donald Trump begins his second term in office next week . Last November the Israeli Knesset adopted a law which prohibits all contacts and cooperation with UNRWA. This means UNRWA staff will not receive visas to enter Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza where UNRWA operates. Goods will not be allowed to be imported into these areas and UNRWA’s tax exempt status will end.

While Israeli politicians and military officers have been considering alternatives to UNRWA for more than a year, no “plan B” has been prepared for rapid implementation when Israel’s ban comes into effect on January 27.

The UN and international aid agencies argue they cannot assume UNRWA’S multiple roles.

UNRWA was established in December 1949 to provide food, shelter, protection and health and educational services to most of the 750,000 Palestinians systematically driven from their homes, villages, towns and cities by Israel during its 1948 war,  General Assembly resolution 302 of December 8, 1949, which created UNRWA referred in particular to paragraph 11 of Assembly resolution 194 of December 11, 1948. This resolved that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the governments or authorities responsible”. Palestinians regard paragraph 11 as the source of their “right to return”.

The UN chose to create UNRWA, a specific agency depending on voluntary funding in the expectation that Palestinian refugeedom would be short-lived. However, as paragraph 11 was rejected by Israel and ignored by the dominant Western powers, it has never been implemented. Consequently, the refugees settled in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria where many have lived in 58 UNRWA camps. Most refugees remain stateless, neither allowed to repatriate nor gain nationality in host countries apart from Jordan.

Today UNRWA cares for 5.9 million Palestinians of refugee stock. There are 912,879 UNRWA registered refugees in the West Bank and 1,476,706 in Gaza. Therefore, closing down UNRWA would be catastrophic. UNRWA has become a quasi-Palestinian state, employing 30,000 refugees, running schools, health centres, vocational training and welfare programmes. UNRWA defends Palestinians as a people seeking self-determination in their Israeli- occupied homeland. Israel has sought to end UNRWA for this reason. Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has long led the anti-UNRWA campaign. His hardline cabinet ministers believe Israel must inflict extreme hardship on Palestinians to drive them to emigrate “voluntarily” although there are few countries which have said they are ready to receive them.

The very words “Palestine” and “Palestinian” delegitimise Israel which emerged in a war involving conquest, ethnic cleansing, land expropriation and exploitation of resources. This means “Palestine” and “Palestinian” challenge what Israel claims its “right to exist”.  So does the Palestinian presence in Palestine/Israel. During 2024 there were an estimated 5,350 million Palestinians living in the occupied areas and 2.1 million Palestinian citizens of Israel, making a total of 7,450 Palestinians. Israel’s Jewish population was 7,208 million.

Israel’s founding fathers knew full well that its emergence would be at the expense of Palestine’s native population but did not count on this uncomfortable trajectory.

The author of the 1896 pamphlet, “The Jewish State”, Theodor Herzel wrote in this diary that Jewish colonists would have to transfer the Palestinians across the border “surreptitiously”. Transfer took place from Israel in 1948 but not “surreptitiously” and Palestinians remained in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza, creating the foundations of the proposed Palestinian State.

During his first term in office Trump defunded UNRWA, reversing a decades-old policy which committed the US to make the largest contribution — about 30 per cent — to the agency’s slender budget. In 2021, the Biden administration partially restored funding to UNRWA but in January 2024 “paused” funding following Israeli allegations that 12-19 members of UNRWA’s 13,000 Gaza staff took part in the October 7th, 2023, raid into southern Israel by Hamas which killed 1,200 and abducted 251, according to Israel. UNRWA suspended those named and investigated the charges despite Israel’s failure to provide evidence. An independent probe reported that nine could have been involved and they were terminated by UNRWA. Nevertheless, the US Congress legislated that US financial aid to UNRWA would remain suspended until March 25th, 2025. Trump is likely to back Israel’s closure of UNRWA in the occupied territories whereby making renewal of US contributions unnecessary.

Like outgoing President Joe Biden, Trump could stick to the Israeli line although the UN’s highest judicial body, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ruled in July 2024 Israel’s occupation and settlement of the territories are “illegal”. ICJ President Nawaf Salam said, “The State of Israel is under the obligation to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible.” The court also said Israel should evacuate all its settlers from the West Bank and East Jerusalem and pay reparations to Palestinians for damage caused by occupation. This should mean that Israel has no right to order the closure of UNRWA until Palestinians are lawfully settled in the territories, Israel meets its obligations under resolution 194, paragraph 11, and Palestine becomes the 194th UN member.