The agreement between Israel and the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) is now officially broken. On Monday, the Jewish state notified the United Nations of the cancellation of this agreement, voted for a week ago by an overwhelming majority by the Israeli Parliament.
Long marked by fundamental disagreements, relations between the Hebrew State and UNRWA have notably deteriorated since the start of the war following the Hamas offensive against Israel on October 7, 2023.
A year later, the decision to abolish all links with the UN agency was taken. In the meantime, and according to UN reports dated September 13, 2024, no fewer than 220 UNRWA members lost their lives and more than 140 centers (including schools) were destroyed by Israeli strikes.
In a context of increased tensions in the Middle East, exacerbated by the situation in Gaza and the lack of tangible results in the peace process, the cancellation of this agreement is therefore not without humanitarian and political consequences.
Why this decision?
Created in 1949 to be a temporary agency (pending the application of resolution 194 of the General Assembly (GA) of the United Nations, advocating a right of return to the Palestinians, as a lasting solution to the conflict), UNRWA aims aims to provide assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled from their lands during the 1948 war.
Over the decades, it has played a crucial role, providing essential services such as education, health and food aid. If its mandate is renewed every three years by the UN General Assembly – 194 having never been put into force -, UNRWA is often perceived by Israel as supporting a narrative which denies the existence of the State of Israel and which reinforces the refugee condition of the Palestinians. Rooted in security concerns, political perceptions and differences on the issue, relations between the agency and Tel Aviv are today at an all-time low, with several points of friction.
Israel rejects, in fact, the principle according to which refugee status should be perpetuated indefinitely, arguing that this hinders peace and reconciliation efforts. He considers that an integration policy should instead be favored. For its part, UNRWA defends the Palestinians' right of return, an existential threat to Israel.
By “Palestinian refugee”, let us specify, UNRWA means any person “whose usual place of residence was Palestine between 1is June 1946 and May 15, 1948 and who lost both his home and his means of subsistence due to the conflict of 1948”. This definition also concerns the descendants of the 1948 refugees.
On the other hand, on the notion of stewardship, the Israeli government has always criticized the effectiveness of the agency, highlighting problems of transparency. Added to this were allegations of corruption within UNRWA, which prompted Israelis to demand a review of its functioning.
Furthermore, the Jewish state has regularly accused the UN body of not taking sufficient measures to prevent its aid from being diverted by militant groups, notably Hamas. This fear was reinforced during the Gaza war, with agency infrastructure suspected of being used for military purposes.
So many accusations, predating the October 7 offensive, which led its main donor, the United States, to cease all funding in 2018, under former US president Donald Trump. Renewed after Joe Biden came to power in 2020, the American contribution was suspended again in January 2024, Israel having pointed the finger at UNRWA employees, accusing them of having actively participated in the offensive of Hamas of October 7, 2023.
Consequences of canceling the agreement
The cancellation of the agreement now risks worsening the humanitarian situation of the Palestinians. Without Israeli support, the services provided by UNRWA could be seriously compromised, leading to an increase in tensions between the Israeli authorities and the Palestinians, thereby increasing the risk of confrontations and outbreaks of violence, especially in a already volatile context.
“The decision taken by Israel does not concretely prohibit the activities of UNRWA in Gaza and the West Bank,” explains an expert, on condition of anonymity. “It complicates them by imposing conditions that are almost impossible to respect,” he continues. By therefore limiting humanitarian aid, the voted text prohibits Israeli officials from collaborating with UNRWA and its employees, which will block any “coordination with the Israeli authorities and prevent the granting of entry permits into the occupied territories” , as Unrwa explained in a statement following the vote. Threats which therefore compromise access to essential services for millions of Palestinians.
To this assertion and to the controversy aroused internationally, the Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs, Israel Katz, hastened to react. Estimating “13% of the aid that comes from UNRWA”, Mr. Katz indicated on Monday that “a large part of the humanitarian aid in Gaza is delivered by other organizations”.
At a time when the cancellation of the agreement is perceived as an attack on the rights of the Palestinians, which could complicate peace efforts in the region, the minister in question intends, through his remarks, to emphasize the attachment of Israel adheres to international law according to which the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip must be facilitated.
If the humanitarian and political implications of this decision were to unfold, the international community would have to closely monitor developments in the situation to respond to the resulting challenges. How can we take into account Israel's security concerns while preserving Palestinian rights? A dilemma that the countries concerned by the issue are now faced with.
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