27 May 2025
From Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner-General as posted on his official X account (previously known as Twitter)
Over the past 20 months, the
Government of Israel has continuously made unsubstantiated claims
against UNRWA and its neutrality.
These claims have put the lives of UNRWA staff at serious risk and harmed the reputation of the Agency.
In a letter I have recently written to
the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, I repeated the concrete
steps that UNRWA has taken for more than a decade in cooperation with
the Government of Israel in line with transparency and neutrality.
In that regard, the Agency has
requested on numerous occasions for cooperation from the Government of
Israel by providing information and evidence to substantiate the
accusations made against UNRWA.
To date, UNRWA has not received any
response, nor has the Government of Israel shared any sufficient
evidence, to back up these very serious claims against the Agency and
its personnel.
The UN depends on Member States for security and information concerning its premises and personnel.
Member States – not the United
Nations- are responsible for criminal investigations and prosecutions of
armed militant activity.
It is expected that Member States will
pursue their investigations in compliance with due process and report
to the United Nations on the outcome of these processes where they may
impact upon UN operations or staff.
In this case, the Government of Israel
has neither shared adequate evidence with the UN to allow
substantiation through administrative processes nor pursued its own
criminal proceedings, which would also require the presentation of
credible evidence and due process.
Had the Government of Israel taken
either of these steps and cooperated with UNRWA, the Agency could have
acted in accordance with its regulations and due process.
The minimum requirements are
sufficient evidence and due process. The absence of both more than one
year later raises the possibility that the accusations were unfounded.
In the letter, I urged once again the
State of Israel to renew the decades-long cooperation with UNRWA in line
with the United Nations Charter and other international frameworks.
I have requested that they put an end to the unfounded dis-information campaign against the Agency.
I have also stated that UNRWA,
together with other UN agencies, is ready to continue the critical work
it does in humanitarian relief, education and health care to Palestine
Refugees. Gaza is a case in point where the Agency has the supplies and
the structure to deliver at scale.
UNRWA is
the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in
the Near East. The United Nations General Assembly established UNRWA in
1949 with a mandate to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to
registered Palestine refugees in the Agency’s area of operations
pending a just and lasting solution to their plight.
UNRWA operates in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, The Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Tens of thousands of Palestine refugees who
lost their homes and livelihoods due to the 1948 conflict continue to
be displaced and in need of support, nearly 75 years on.
UNRWA helps Palestine Refugees achieve
their full potential in human development through quality services it
provides in education, health care, relief and social services,
protection, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance, and
emergency assistance. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary
contributions.
Your support is crucial to help us provide emergency aid to displaced families in Gazahttps://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/unrwa-commissioner-general-statement-letter-sent-israeli-minister
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