Together with the rest of the UN humanitarian and human rights system, UNRWA must place protection of the Palestinian refugees’ identity, rights and claims at the centre, writes Lex Takkenberg [photo credit: Getty Images]
On October 28 2024, the Israeli Knesset passed two bills aimed at banning the operations and functions of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) across all occupied Palestine (OPT).
The pattern of Israel’s regular attacks against UNRWA from 1967 onwards have escalated since the onset of the current extreme rightwing Israeli government. In particular, since October 7 2023, the Israeli government appears intent on shutting down UNRWA’s operations in the OPT and the two laws are the culmination of this process.
Israel has been justifying its attacks on UNRWA with reference to either antisemitism (content in textbooks used in UNRWA schools; staff social media posts) or ‘terrorism’ (the involvement of local staff with Hamas, most recently in the attacks on 7 October 2023).
However as among others UNRWA’s Commissioner-General has made clear, the real reason is that the attacks represent “a concerted attempt to erase the Palestinian refugee question once and for all.”
As such, Israel’s ban on UNRWA is part of Israel’s genocidal settler-colonial project to create “Greater Israel”, extending its control over all of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea and beyond, while erasing Palestinian Indigenous presence.
The challenges faced by UNRWA because of the Knesset ban are exacerbated by Trump’s return to the White House which is likely to accelerate ongoing US efforts at undermining and possibly dismantling the agency.
With US funding to the agency — representing roughly one-third of the agency’s budget — currently suspended by the Biden Administration, based on Trump’s previous policy vis-à-vis UNRWA, it is almost certain that there will be no new US funding until at least 2029. UNRWA’s funding situation is further complicated by the fact that abruptly dismantling the agency in the OPT will cost more than half a billion dollars in staff separation indemnities alone.
Violations of International Law
The new legislation breaches Article 105 of the UN Charter, the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN, and UN Security Council resolution 2730 of May 2024 on the protection of humanitarian and UN personnel.
Moreover, it defies the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the unlawfulness of Israel’s presence in Gaza and the West Bank, including eastern Jerusalem, and the subsequent resolution of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) calling for the withdrawal of Israel from these areas by September 2025.
By adopting these laws, Israel also violated the provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice in South Africa v. Israel, which urged Israel to cease all its actions that create conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the protected Palestinian group and to allow for unhindered and appropriate humanitarian aid into Gaza. Finally, under international humanitarian law, as occupying power Israel is obliged (here and here) to provide the services currently provided by UNRWA should the agency’s operations come to a halt.
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Although ambiguities remain and the Knesset ban has been strongly criticised by the international community — including the Biden Administration — urging the Israeli government not to implement the legislation, Israel has now given formal notice that it is withdrawing from the Comay-Michelmore agreement, which provided the basis for UNRWA’s continued operation in Gaza and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, upon Israel’s explicit request following the 1967 War.
Based on the prevailing political climate, the expectation is that the ban will be implemented in full, perhaps at a different pace dependent on whether it concerns East Jerusalem, Gaza or the remainder of the West Bank.
In Gaza, UNRWA’s future has been in serious jeopardy for over a year and its fate is now inherently connected with the future of the Strip more generally.
With respect to east Jerusalem, the immediate ‘prize’ seems to be UNRWA’s headquarters compound, which Israel has been regularly attacking over the past year and which has now been designated by the Israeli government as a new colony.
In the remainder of the West Bank, a ban on UNRWA may force the agency to hand over its services to the Palestinian Authority, which, subject to the effective control of the Israeli occupation, is a further threat to refugee rights. This would then reduce the agency to a “rump UNRWA” confined to supporting Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Refugee rights must be protected
The question of the status of the refugees and their rights and historical claims are not dependent on UNRWA’s continued ability to provide services in Gaza and the West Bank; they flow from the illegality of Zionist settler-colonialism in Palestine during and following the Nakba and were re-affirmed by UNGA (in resolution 194) to apply to Palestinian refugees as well as the right of the Palestinian People to self-determination.
This means that whatever happens to the agency’s capacity to operate on the ground, it must maintain and even strengthen its protection mandate, including its registration services, to which there is no alternative. UNRWA was established only one year after and without jeopardy to UNGA resolution 194 which not only affirmed the right of return but also established the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP).
UNRWA’s founding resolution instructs the agency to cooperate “in the best interest of [UNCCP’s and UNRWA’s] respective tasks, with particular reference to paragraph 11 of (…) resolution 194 (…)”. UNRWA’s registration system—including its operational definition of a Palestine refugee—was eventually developed to administer the delivery of relief, without a direct link to UNCCP’s work. However, UNCCP ceased operations from 1965 onwards, leaving only UNRWA with a comprehensive record of the Palestine refugee population. It is critical that this is secured and updated irrespective of whether refugees are receiving services.
UNRWA’s registration system has the potential to become the central archive and repository of evidence of the refugees’ longstanding claims. This would have a huge symbolic and practical impact for the refugees, especially once the registration system gets harmonised and synchronised with UNCCP records.
The latter would connect property loss and damages in 1947/1949 to individual refugees and their families and descendants. In the current political landscape, it is paramount to support UNRWA in integrating its registration system and other historic archives and refugee data maintained by the agency into a potential Palestine refugee data centre.
Way forward for UNRWA
As I have argued in a recent essay, UNRWA’s future cannot be considered in isolation—a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder approach, with displacement issues at its centre, is now necessary.
Under the mandate of one such stakeholder, UNHCR, the cessation of UNRWA’s ability to assist and protect Palestinian refugees triggers the responsibility of the global refugee agency with respect to these refugees. However, to date no efforts have been made to extend the protections of the global refugee regime to them—including with respect to Palestinians who were able to flee Gaza to Egypt. Similarly, there has been no effort to advance a political solution to advance decolonial justice, which is premised on Palestinian refugees’ return to their homes and lands.
If the United Nations is to remain relevant with respect to the Question of Palestine and if it is to prevent the dystopian scenario of Israel’s settler-colonial erasure of Palestinians and their land from succeeding in full, then this is the time for a forceful and fundamental reset. Together with the rest of the UN humanitarian and human rights system, UNRWA must place protection of the Palestinian refugees’ identity, rights and claims at the centre.
The consolidation of the UNRWA registration system and historic archives, as mentioned earlier, is a critical step in this direction, especially as most Palestinians have indicated proof of refugee status as the main significance of registration with UNRWA.
Refugees, the Palestinian leadership, and host governments see in UNRWA’s existence (including its registration system) confirmation that the refugees’ unfulfilled rights remain an international responsibility. As mentioned earlier, this is exactly the reason why the current Israeli government and its supporters in the US and beyond wants to see UNRWA abolished.
The agency should now urgently take the lead in closing the durable solutions gap left by the demise of the UNCCP. Palestinian refugees need and deserve, like all other refugees, an international arrangement engaged not only in supporting their humanitarian needs but also in upholding their human rights, including to return, restitution, and compensation, as well as facilitating such other durable solutions that refugees may want to pursue.
These are inalienable and non-derogable rights and have only become stronger with the passage of time and the further advancement of international law. In view of the ongoing genocide, principled and courageous advocacy to allow the Palestinian refugees in Gaza to return to their original homes in Palestine should be urgently undertaken, in spite of the strong opposition this will obviously trigger.
Finally, UNRWA and the rest of the UN system should be expanding their role in supporting the various efforts at holding Israel’s settler-colonial enterprise accountable for the gross violations of international criminal law perpetrated during the current and previous wars in Gaza, and the rest of Palestine.
Dr. Lex Takkenberg is Senior Advisor on the Question of Palestine with Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD). He worked for UNRWA from 1989 until 2019, most recently as its first Chief Ethics Officer.
Follow him on X: @LTakkenberg
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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.