What is the UNRWA?
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency is a relief subsidiary of the overall UN dedicated to the human index and development of Palestinian refugees in the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli War of 1948.
The organization has 30,000 employees, mostly Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Outside of the Palestinian Territories, UNRWA also operates in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.
The majority of UNRWA are from the European Union, the United States, Japan, and other national donors worldwide.
A UNRWA outpost in Gaza via Jerusalem Post
Controversies Related to the October 7th Massacres
On January 26th, the UNRWA announced that the relief agency is investigating several employees, nine of whom were dismissed after evidence linked the organization to the deadly October 7th attacks in Israel.
Evidence brought forth by the Israeli government and UNRWA head was enough to convince various countries to indefinitely suspend funding to the Palestinian relief organization—cutting at least 78% of the overall monetary donations. The UNRWA would then announce operations could cease past February if further funding were not allocated to the organization.
The United Nations Relief Workers Agency has attempted to push back on the allegations as the NGO considers such allegations to be collective punishment. Soon after, the Wall Street Journal reported that over 1,200 employees of the UNRWA are members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which the Israeli government brought forth.
In early February, the Israeli Defense Forces uncovered an extensive Hamas tunnel network underneath a UNRWA headquarters during the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA has set up a public link for donations to stop a looming release of tens of thousands of employees, but it is unknown if the strategy will keep the organization going into the spring.
How Other Historical Humanitarian Organizations Outperformed the UNRWA
The United Nations Relief Workers Agency has not only come under scrutiny for the links to the October 7th Attacks but also for the lack of progress the organization has made. Allegations of keeping Palestinians in a perpetual state of refugee status, even those in the fourth and upcoming fifth generations, have been made against the UNRWA.
In comparison to the United Nations Relief Workers Agency, the Near East Relief (NER) organized the world’s largest and most significant humanitarian project due to the genocides against Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks by the late Ottoman Empire.
During the 1915 genocides, reports, particularly from US Ambassador Henry S Morgantheau, convinced several humanitarian organizations, one of which was the Near East Relief, to directly support the plight of millions of Christians who were persecuted by the Young Turks regime of the Ottoman Empire.
Using grassroots methods, the NER campaigned across the United States to raise money to build refugee camps, schools, clothing, and food for Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks. From fundraising, the Near East Relief raised over $119 million in the early 1900s, which equals close to a billion dollars adjusted to inflation by today’s standards.
Later, the organization would help Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks towards citizenship in the US as their ancestral homelands were all but razed to the ground. The now Near East Foundation is an example that the UNRWA should follow.
Fold the Organization into the UNHCR or UNICEF
To better reorganize UNRWA, the organization should be fully incorporated under the auspices of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), with Palestinian children under the oversight of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
With or without allegations, UNRWA will now come under constant scrutiny for the lack of proper management and oversight with employees in Gaza—especially the ones who were not adequately vetted for having sympathies and affiliations to a global terrorist organization.
Whereas the UNHCR and UNICEF have a constant stream of funding, the UNRWA does not for the next several months as an international investigation will occur into the humanitarian organization.
Now, the United Nations as a whole is faced with a critical choice—to either keep funding the UNRWA, which could bring more unwanted trouble, or absorb the Middle East-based organization into the main UNHRC.
