#WTH The other side of the UNRWA story

A short Q&A with an UNRWA advocate

One of the worst things one can do in the policy world is to get trapped in your own narrative, talk only to your own ideological mates, and otherwise live in a world of your own making. As many of you have heard Marc and me say, part of the problem in our political world nowadays is that not only does one side not talk to or understand the other, in many cases outside of Washington, partisans have never actually met anyone who thinks differently. (Charles Murray wrote a fascinating book that touches on this called Coming Apart, btw.)

So, in the practice that you preach department, I agreed to share with you the views of someone who disagrees entirely with our characterizations and work on UNRWA — the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestine. (If you didn’t see it, here’s one piece, and another.) Joost Hiltermann is the program director for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group. You may see merit in his answers to my questions; you may disagree.

You may also look at Joost’s accusations of hate-mongering from Israel, for example, and be tempted to argue that it can hardly be worse than the atrocities of October 7. Of course that’s true, but this isn’t a contest to see which side can be more vile. It is evidence of what others who perceive this conflict differently see with their own eyes. That is always worth understanding. And particularly as we watch Congress battle over whether or not to bar additional US funding for UNWRA, hearing an opposing argument makes all of us smarter.

Written Interview with Joost

What’s your overall assessment of UNRWA?

UNRWA is a humanitarian organization mandated with the unenviable and nearly impossible task of providing services to a highly politicized community in the midst of the ongoing, and worsening, Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinian refugees are a result, a symptom, and a symbol of the conflict, not a cause, but they represent a dynamic element in it; any attempt to remove them as a factor can only aggravate the conflict, not help resolve it. In this context, UNRWA provides services that no other UN agency is mandated or qualified to offer, especially education. It is indispensable as long as the conflict remains without a durable solution based on two states for two peoples. It should be applauded for the incredible work it does, and for functioning in the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

Is it your view that there are almost 6 million Palestinian refugees?

If you are asking about the definition of who counts as a refugee, this is not a matter of opinion. UNRWA’s operational definition, based on UN resolutions, holds that any person displaced from Palestine in 1948 as a result of the conflict is deemed a refugee, registered by UNRWA, and that their descendants can also be registered as such, as can Palestinian refugees from the 1967 war and their descendants. UNRWA reports that worldwide there are 5.9 million registered Palestinian refugees, all of whom are eligible to receive its services; in practice, UNRWA provides services to between 2.5 and 3 million, so about half. Under UNRWA’s mandate, conferred by the UN General Assembly in 1949, Palestinian refugees are defined as those residents in Palestine before the 1948 War who lost their homes and livelihoods in the war and their descendants. Perhaps you are asking whether the almost 6 million Palestinian refugees *should* be considered refugees given how few of them personally experienced the 1948 war. Even if hardly any of the original refugees are still alive, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict certainly lives on. The refugee issue is among the big ones that need to be settled to resolve the conflict as a whole. It cannot be resolved by fiat or by changing definitions.     

Can you help us understand why people who live under Palestinian governance are still referred to by UNRWA as “refugees”?

As occupying power in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, Israel is responsible for the welfare of the population under its control. The Palestinian Authority has been afforded, and thus plays, only a limited role, in terms of both geography and authority. COGAT (the Israeli military administration of the occupied territories) has long favored the continuation of UNRWA’s role there (regardless of what this Israeli government prefers) because it knows that without UNRWA the responsibility of providing the critical services that UNRWA provides would fall to either the PA, which is incapable of doing so, or the Israeli state, which has no desire to.

Recent evidence that UNRWA employees participated in the October 7 attacks have caused a number of countries to suspend support. But for many years, UNRWA has used antisemitic textbooks, promoted extremist ideologies, and otherwise fostered intolerance and hostility to peace. This is a loaded question – if it’s unfair, why? And if it’s not, why should we fund it?

There is little evidence for such far-reaching allegations. UNRWA is not itself a governing authority but an international implementing agency. It has no effective control over the population it serves, and has only minimal control over curriculums and textbooks, which by and large fall under the direction and supervision, within their real or nominal jurisdiction, of the governments of Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, and the PA’s Education Ministry in the West Bank as well as the Gaza Strip. Most important for present purposes, UNRWA has been largely responsive to the accusations leveled against it, as the U.S. government itself has recognized.

With the vast majority of the UNRWA workforce drawn from local communities, it is inevitable that the staff will share the social, political and other convictions of the people they serve. If that weren’t the case, the agency could not function. Personally, I see empowerment of local communities as a strength. But I think I see what you are getting at here by asking about fostering intolerance and hostility to peace. The answer is that UNRWA has little to do with whatever intolerance and hostility to peace you see. A population living under a harsh military occupation doesn’t need any encouragement to fight the occupying power, whether by peaceful or military means.

Regarding the UNRWA employees accused of having participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks, UNRWA fired them on the spot the moment it became aware of the allegations – without due process – and launched an investigation. It could hardly have done more.

Finally, the accusations are a bit rich in the context of the deeply disturbing hate-mongering and dehumanization that seem to have become a staple of mainstream Israeli discourse in recent weeks.

Is it strange that one organization is committed solely to the question of Palestinian refugees in the UN system, and that there is one other organization for the entire world? Is this equitable?

There are many quirks in history, and I suppose this is one of them. Had the Palestinian refugee crisis occurred just a year later, the refugees might have been captured by the 1951 Refugee Convention. But in 1948-1949, there was no such convention, nor its accompanying agency, the UNHCR. This is why the UN General Assembly established the UNRWA. And until and unless it decides otherwise, UNRWA will continue to exist – with its current mandate.

While all the focus is on Gaza right now, UNRWA “refugee” camps in Lebanon have been “no-go” zones for some UNRWA employees, the Lebanese Army, and others in recent years. Is UNRWA properly managing these camps, or have they allowed them to be exploited by salafis?

Lebanon is close to being a failed state, and UNRWA, by mandate, has no governing authority and therefore does not have a police force. It cannot control what happens in Palestinian refugee camps, merely monitor and report on what it sees, which it does. UNRWA cannot manage the camps or prevent political groups from operating among the refugee population. In Lebanon this is the role of the Lebanese state, but it is incapable of fulfilling it.

The southern Lebanon branch of Fatah recently accused UNRWA of allowing its school to be used to stage an assassination of a Fatah official. One such instance would be concerning, but there appears to be a pattern in which UNWRA facilities are used by extremists for ends unrelated to the refugee question. Is this an issue?

The issue is the lack of law and order, of legal accountability, in many of the places where UNRWA works. It is not empowered to prevent political and armed groups from abusing or attacking its facilities. It has not been able to prevent Israel’s targeting of its schools and clinics in Gaza and the West Bank either!

Coming back to Gaza, Israeli Defense Forces recently uncovered a large server center underneath UNRWA HQ. UNRWA claimed to know nothing about it (despite it using UNRWA’s electricity), and refused to countenance suggestions it had been warned such activities were pervasive. How should we react to this?

There are currently two investigations into UNRWA operations, one of which is fully independent of the UN. Let’s see what they conclude. UNRWA should act on the basis of what they find and recommend, as directed by the UN Secretary-General. Hamas taking advantage of civilian infrastructure for its military activities is nothing new. The question is whether UNRWA actively collaborated, or knew about it but failed to report it. All of this remains to be sorted out.  Suspending or even cutting funding for UNRWA in the midst of a raging conflict, when humanitarian needs are at their most urgent, is unconscionable and would constitute collective punishment of the over 2.5 million refugees UNRWA serves in the Middle East, including and especially in Gaza.

What have I missed?

There is no plausible replacement for UNRWA under the current circumstances, and suggestions that other UN agencies could pick up the slack are misguided. UNRWA’s personnel and logistics infrastructure are the backbone of the entire UN humanitarian aid operation in Gaza. No other entity can match the Agency’s capacity to deliver at scale across the Strip. Extended funding pauses not only jeopardize UNRWA’s future but also the viability of the last lifeline for international aid into Gaza. Israel knows this, as do European countries and the US. This is why even Israel has called to delay shutting down UNRWA. 

Don’t hesitate to leave a comment, start a discussion, share why you agree or disagree. But as always, please do so with courtesy and facts. Many thanks…