"UNRWA acts decisively whenever staff misconduct is identified, while all employees are regularly screened, trained and required to comply with UN standards... Israel receives the names of all UNRWA staff twice a year for security screening"... "Nobody has the infrastructure, the experience, the skillset or the staff to be able to do what we do now on behalf of Palestine refugees," Christian Saunders said. "That doesn't mean UNRWA needs to exist forever. As soon as there is a recognised Palestinian administration able to assume these responsibilities, UNRWA should hand over those services. Until then, we have a mandate and an obligation to ensure that Palestine refugees have access to these critical services."

UNRWA, established in 1949, now serves around six million registered Palestine refugees, with approximately 2.6 million people currently receiving assistance across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

UNRWA

@UNRWA 

https://x.com/UNRWA/status/2084882200881766562 

Every day, UNRWA delivers education, healthcare, relief and social services to millions of Palestine Refugees. We will continue to do so until a just and durable solution is found and we can hand over to empowered Palestinian Institutions..  #UNRWAworks  Read the full article: https://chronicle.lu/category/polit

Luxembourg Reaffirms Long-Term Support for UNRWA's Humanitarian Mission

".....  Responding to a question about criticism from Luxembourg politicians who have accused UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas and alleged that Luxembourg's financial support benefits terrorism, Minister Bettel rejected the claims. He said Luxembourg had seen first-hand the projects it supports and continued to trust the agency. "To blame the whole organisation is really unacceptable," he said. "I trust UNRWA, and I will continue to trust UNRWA as long as there is no one able to replace it."

Christian Saunders also dismissed the allegations, describing them as "a smear campaign with a political end." He stressed that UNRWA acts decisively whenever staff misconduct is identified, while all employees are regularly screened, trained and required to comply with UN standards. He added that Israel receives the names of all UNRWA staff twice a year for security screening and "has the opportunity to raise concerns if it believes any staff member has links to a militant group or has committed a criminal act." "

https://www.chronicle.lu/category/politics/62440-luxembourg-reaffirms-long-term-support-for-unrwas-humanitarian-mission 

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine ]

"At the very moment that the Israeli regime, with the support of the United States, is pursuing the dismantlement of UNRWA in violation of international law, there can be no accommodation of political projects designed to facilitate its replacement. UNRWA was established by General Assembly Resolution 302 because the international community failed to implement Palestinian refugees' rights under United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194. Its mandate therefore remains exclusively under the authority of the General Assembly until those rights—including return, restitution, compensation, and reparation—are fulfilled. It cannot be transferred, conditioned, or terminated through political arrangements."

Statement by BADIL and GPRN “Dismantling UNRWA: “The Board of Peace” Agenda”

(Bethlehem, 07 July 2026)

 

As the Israeli regime's genocide in Gaza continues, alongside the mass forcible displacement of Palestinians across the West Bank and the systematic destruction of UNRWA's headquarters in Jerusalem and hundreds of its installations. BADIL Resource Center and Global Palestinian Refugee Network categorically reject recent political remarks made by UNRWA Commissioner-General ad interim Chris Saunders at the UNRWA Pledging Conference suggesting that UNRWA's mandate should be subordinated to externally imposed political arrangements, including the so-called "Board of Peace", or that its responsibilities could be transferred to host countries or the Palestinian Authority.

 

At the very moment that the Israeli regime, with the support of the United States, is pursuing the dismantlement of UNRWA in violation of international law, there can be no accommodation of political projects designed to facilitate its replacement. UNRWA was established by General Assembly Resolution 302 because the international community failed to implement Palestinian refugees' rights under United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194. Its mandate therefore remains exclusively under the authority of the General Assembly until those rights—including return, restitution, compensation, and reparation—are fulfilled. It cannot be transferred, conditioned, or terminated through political arrangements.

 

Against this legal backdrop, the Commissioner-General ad interim's remarks that UNRWA is essential to the Board of Peace’s activities until its services can be transferred to the Palestinian Authority is deeply alarming. Likewise, Article 14 of the New York Declaration, which envisages transferring UNRWA's services to the Palestinian Authority within a two-State framework, unlawfully subordinates the Agency's mandate to a political settlement contrary to Resolution 194. UNRWA was established neither to facilitate state-building nor to administer political transitions, but because Palestinian refugees continue to be denied their internationally protected rights.

 

The Board of Peace has itself made its objective unmistakably clear:

"UNRWA has no place in the new Gaza. We are turning the page on the complex of perpetual aid dependency and conflict. The people of Gaza deserve better."

 

This statement removes any ambiguity. The Board of Peace is the institutional vehicle for implementing the so-called GREAT Plan. What began in 2025 as proposals for "Humanitarian Transit Areas" has now evolved into fenced "Humanitarian Shelters"  in Rafah policed by foreign forces –  while the Israeli military consolidates its colonial control over the remainder of Gaza. These proposals are not humanitarian measures but mechanisms for institutionalizing forcible transfer, replacing UNRWA with externally controlled profit-driven “aid”, and transforming refugee rights into systems of containment, surveillance, and permanent displacement.

 

We call upon the Secretary-General, UNRWA, Member States, and the United Nations system to ensure that UNRWA’s mandate remains under the exclusive authority of the General Assembly, in accordance with international law and General Assembly Resolution 194, and is not subject to political conditionality imposed by any external body, including the BoP:

 

Invoke the “Uniting for Peace” mechanism

We call upon the PLO, the Arab League, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to invoke the “Uniting for Peace” mechanism by convening an emergency special session of the General Assembly under Resolution 377, in order to recommend collective measures in response to ongoing violations of international law, obstruction of UN operations, and grave breaches of peremptory norms by the Israeli regime.

 

Article 6 of the UN Charter

We call upon Member States to initiate procedures under Article 6 of the UN Charter concerning the Israeli regime for persistent and grave violations of the Charter, and to ensure the immediate restoration of full, unhindered operational capacity of UNRWA across the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including Jerusalem, in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 302 (IV), with guaranteed protection for its facilities, personnel, and humanitarian operations.

 

Guarantee UNRWA’s mandate and operational access

We call upon member states and civil society to pressure to ensure UNRWA’s unrestricted access to Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territory, secure its facilities and personnel, and provide sustained, unconditional funding to enable the Agency to fulfil its mandate under UN General Assembly Resolutions 194 and 302 without political interference.    https://badil.org/press-releases/16914.html  

 

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]   

United Nations photo- Palestine Refugees, Middle East, 1951: "The Palestinian conflict forced into exile nearly a million Arabs. Great efforts were made by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency [UNRWA] to provide work and pay for the refugees. But available funds were [are] only sufficient to provide employment for a small minority, without producing lasting economic effects. Refugees make materials and clothes for their own use."

United Nations Photo Palestine Refugees, 1951

Palestine Refugees, Middle East, 1951

The Palestinian conflict forced into exile nearly a million Arabs. Great efforts were made by the UN Relief and Works Agency to provide work and pay for the refugees. But available funds were only sufficient to provide employment for a small minority, without producing lasting economic effects.

Refugees make materials and clothes for their own use.

UN Photo

1951

Middle East

Photo # UN7707935

https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/53376742762/in/album-72177720313177543/ 

This photo is in 1 album

• History of Question of Palestine 184 items  

    [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine] 

Palestine Refugees 1949 

A wagonload of refugee children in the U.N. demilitarized zone at Lake Tiberias on the Israeli-Syrian frontier. [Exact date unknown] 

Photo # UN7505381

https://www.flickr.com/photos/un_photo/53376742872/in/album-72177720313177543/

Displaced from Na’lia in 1948 as children, Ahmad and Aisha have relied on UNRWA services for decades. Today, at 90 and 87 years old, they continue receiving support in Gaza. Now living in an UNRWA shelter, Aisha remembers how the Agency helped families like hers face difficult conditions, by providing assistance and services, including emergency food, healthcare and education. “We still feel the importance of this support” she says. #UNRWAworks #WorldRefugeeDay

 

UNRWA

@UNRWA

 

Displaced from Na’lia in 1948 as children, Ahmad and Aisha have relied on UNRWA services for decades.   

 

Today, at 90 and 87 years old, they continue receiving support in #Gaza.   

 

Now living in an UNRWA shelter, Aisha remembers how the Agency helped families like hers face difficult conditions, by providing assistance and services, including emergency food, healthcare and education.   

 

“We still feel the importance of this support” she says.   

 

 #UNRWAworks  #WorldRefugeeDay

 

https://x.com/UNRWA/status/2068242627183452517/photo/3 

  [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]   

The Evolving Infrastructure of Palestinian Refugee Camps: Perpetuating the Temporary

Fawwar camp, 1950s, UNRWA Archive.

UNRWA's Shelter Program

Broadly speaking, three types of camps existed in the 1950s: camps that evolved by refugees' efforts alone, camps where UNRWA replaced tents with huts or shelters or assisted refugees in this undertaking, and camps built fully by UNRWA. By 1955 UNRWA's approach moved from ad hoc to a more organized shelter program, the main objective of which was to replace tents with shelters in existing camps. By 1959 most tents were replaced with concrete huts. UNRWA shelters in all locations were based on a generic model: a small hut on a relatively large plot to which the family could add rooms and amenities as they found necessary and could afford. According to UNRWA, camps inhabitants generally built a kitchen, latrine, and additional living room as soon as they could, followed by a wall to enclose the plot.

The second objective of the shelter program was to provide grants of materials or money to encourage camp inhabitants to construct their own shelters, often presented as self-help. The practices, however, varied greatly. On the West Bank, East Bank , and in Gaza, UNRWA contractors constructed a large number of shelters. In Lebanon, UNRWA mostly distributed roofing material to refugees who constructed their own shelters. In Syria, it distributed roofing grants and cash grants to refugees, with parallel grants from the Syrian government.

The third objective of the shelter program was to build new camps. One central aim of camps was to bring order, low population density, and improved hygiene to the site. The layout plan (reproduced below) included twin shelters (black squares) with adjoining plots (white squares). There were specific zones for shelters, water sources, latrines, and open spaces and for installations like schools, clinics, and centers, connected by a system of circular roads.

Despite the disciplinary powers of both UNRWA and the host state, the refugees' own agencies imprinted their own meaning on the space and meaning of the camps. In some camp quarters, refugees reconstructed the pattern of organization in their lost village in Palestine. Settling in such microclusters helped establish belonging, familiarity, and security. Camps symbolized loss and defeat but became a powerful field to organize and express national identity and sentiment.

UNRWA established camp regulations, and one aim was to regulate refugees' building. In this undertaking, it relied on host country enforcement. Lebanon placed the most restrictions on refugee construction and refugees, but the degree of host country involvement varied. By the 1960s, UNRWA reported that camps were already overcrowded and in need of repair and maintenance. Shelters and camps had been built at low standards, and refugees' needs were higher than could be met by UNRWA, which was strained by limited funds and refugee and host country attitudes, both... READ MORE https://www.palquest.org/en/highlight/22473/evolving-infrastructure-palestinian-refugee-camps

  [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]   

 

https://www.palquest.org/  

Sections

• Overall Chronology
• Thematic Chronologies
• Highlights
• Biographies
• Places
• Documents

The secret mission to rescue the UN’s vital Palestinian refugee archive- Millions of documents chronicling generations of trauma saved from Gaza and East Jerusalem in 10-month Unrwa operation

Refugees in 1948 fleeing a village in what is now Galilee, northern Israel. Photograph: Reuters

Jason Burke International security correspondent

Thu 14 May 2026

East Jerusalem to Amman should have been an easy trip: a short drive down to the Dead Sea, across the border checkpoint and swiftly on to the Jordanian capital.

But in the early summer of 2024, the distance appeared an almost insurmountable obstacle to humanitarian workers from Unrwa (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees), as they sought to safeguard huge quantities of archival documents vitally important to decades of recent Palestinian history.

A 10-month operation to save the archives kept by Unrwa in Gaza and East Jerusalem was reaching its final stages. The effort had been highly sensitive and sometimes dangerous. It had already involved dozens of Unrwa staff in at least four different countries, risky trips to rescue documents under bombardment, officials carefully carrying unmarked envelopes into Egypt, and precious boxes airlifted to safety in military planes.

But now time was running out. Unrwa’s sprawling compound in East Jerusalem had become the focus of a concerted Israeli effort to expel the agency, and a target of rightwing groups.

The significance of the Unrwa archives, much of which detailed Palestinians’ experiences as they fled or were forced from their homes during the wars that led to the foundation of Israel in 1948, was clear.

“Their destruction would have been catastrophic … If there is ever a just and durable solution to this conflict, then this is the only evidence people can use to show there were once Palestinians living in a particular place,” said Roger Hearn, a senior Unrwa official who oversaw the operation.

Such clandestine efforts were never supposed to be the task of Unrwa, which was founded in 1949 to provide healthcare, food and education to about 750,000 Palestinian refugees... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/14/secret-mission-palestinian-refugee-archive-unrwa-israel  

  [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]  

In Gaza, reconstruction is urgently needed. Despite the ceasefire, hundreds of thousands of displaced people are still living in overcrowded make-shift sites, with nowhere else to go. Thousands of people continue to live in UNRWA buildings, where our teams supply clean water, sanitation staff maintain hygiene, and children engage in learning activities. #UNRWAworks

UNRWA

@UNRWA

 

In #Gaza, reconstruction is urgently needed. 

 

Despite the ceasefire, hundreds of thousands of displaced people are still living in overcrowded make-shift sites, with nowhere else to go. 

 

Thousands of people continue to live in UNRWA buildings, where our teams supply clean water, sanitation staff maintain hygiene, and children engage in learning activities.  

 

 #UNRWAworks

 https://x.com/UNRWA/status/2052026334587633843/photo/1

  [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]