how UNRWA is preparing for the end of its activities in the occupied Palestinian territories

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees will be banned from the end of January, after the passage of two laws in the Israeli Parliament. Without this support from the Jewish state, UNRWA is directly threatened, which risks worsening the humanitarian crisis there.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees has two months to pack its bags. Since the passing of two laws in the Israeli Parliament at the end of October, UNRWA's days are numbered. Without the support of the Jewish state, its employees will no longer be able to provide aid to Palestinians in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza and the occupied territories. In the enclave, the already dramatic humanitarian crisis will worsen. In the West Bank, thousands of children and adolescents will be abandoned to their fate.

Of the 700 schools managed by UNRWA, almost a hundred are in the West Bank. “It doesn't make sense to close, estimates Ahmad, 17, who must finish his training as a house painter at the end of the year. I came here to study hoping for a better future. I don’t know what I’m going to do if I can’t make a living.”

Ahmad is from Tulkarem, in the northwest of the West Bank. Like more than 350 students, he is learning his future profession at the training center in the Kalandia refugee camp, 80 kilometers further south. “My main concern is the future of these children, explains Baha Awad, head of professional sectors. If they are no longer trained here, they will be on the streets. And what will they be able to do? They will be exploited and could be involved in the conflict.”

“Who else, apart from UNRWA, offers free training to their children? Without a goal in their lives or a career, what are they going to do? We are putting them in danger.”

Baha Awad, head of professional sectors at UNRWA

at franceinfo

For the moment, UNRWA leaders do not know what will happen in two months. “We are not in a perspective of anticipating the unacceptable, he adds. What could happen if this stops? We don't hear anything about it. We just hear: 'Stop, stop work.' UNRWA doesn’t work like that.”

“The children are very worried, the parents too, and everyone is asking questions, alarms Jonathan Fowler, spokesperson for the agency. What will happen to us? This is an unfortunately unanswered question because we do not know the implementation intentions or not. If we imagine the worst, it is that the agency must shut down completely. What are the solutions? In this case, there is none. We're desperate to figure out how to continue and that's it.”

And then, there is a financial issue. Since the suspension of the American contribution to the UNRWA budget eight months ago, the agency has been sticking its tongue out. Without new funds, schools and health centers will have to close in the coming weeks.