The U.N. refugee agency has issued its 2009 Global Trends Report, which says the number of refugees who returned home last year was the lowest in two decades, while the number of people displaced by conflict hit a record high.
The U.N. refugee agency reports conflict and persecution forcibly uprooted more than 43 million people around the world, the most people displaced from their homes since the mid-1990s.
The report finds the number of refugees to return home hit the lowest point in 20 years. The refugee agency's protection director, Volker Tuerk, says only one-quarter million refugees went home in 2009.
"What this tells us is that obviously in many parts of the world, conflict is entrenched in such a way that it does not allow for safe and dignified returns as it normally would be the case. Once you are able to resolve a conflict, you are obviously in a much better position to effect and arrange for the return of refugees. What this shows us is that we are moving into an era of more prolonged refugee situations," he said.
The report shows overall refugee numbers remained relatively stable at 15.2 million. Of those, nearly three million were Afghans, 1.8 million Iraqis and 680,000 Somalis.
The total also includes 4.8 million Palestinian refugees who are cared for by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, not by the UNHCR.
Tuerk says most refugees are hosted by neighboring countries. He says statistics show the perception that refugees from Africa, Asia or elsewhere flood into Western industrialized countries is wrong.
"Developing countries who are host to four out of five refugees worldwide. So, that is the reality. So, it is 80 percent of the global refugee situation, of the global refugee population is in the south. I think that is an important point, especially in all these discussions that we often see occur in the industrialized world where there is all this anxiety about the flood of refugees," he said.
Tuerk says xenophobic tendencies are fueled by fear, not by reality. The statistics show refugee numbers in the industrialized world have decreased by about 70 percent during the past 50 years.
The report finds the number of people uprooted by conflict within their own country grew by four percent, to more than 27 million at the end of 2009. It says persistent conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Somalia drove hundreds of thousands of people from their homes and this mainly accounts for the increase.
On a more positive note, the report finds 19 countries approved 128,000 refugees for resettlement last year.
EVERYONE is in an awkward position due to the ongoing Israel/Palestine conflict... and we all have our own very personal and very important reasons for either speaking out or staying silent about what is going on.
I personally do not want to support and/or empower and/or apologize for HAMAS or armed Islamic resistance- or religious tyranny funded by public taxes in any way, shape or form. That includes not wanting to be forced to fund Israel's religious "scholars" and soldiers and settlers. Nor do I want to be giving to charities and organizations that help exasperate religious tensions and bigotry anywhere in the world.
I do however want to support Palestine, the rule of fair and just laws, secular democracy on all sides of every border- and a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.... for everyone's sake.
Sincerely, Anne Selden Annab ***********************
I don't have a clue who Marwan Kreidie is- but if all his letters are as revealing and helpful as the one I just read [Egyptian marriage rule followed Israel's example ] I think you should give him a regular column. I very much agree that peace in the Middle East is possible- and necessary.
According to Ramallah government Prime Minister Salam Fayyad (as quoted in a delightful article announcing that President Mahmoud Abbas on an international tour, was to open a square in Paris named after the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish)...."The political process would fail to meet its desired ends, he [Fayyad] said, without a return to credibility. " This cannot be achieved unless the international community adheres to its responsibilities of ending the occupation, applying international resolutions, and securing the Palestinian right to self-determination and statehood."" http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=291631
Our media really does play a large part in either advancing the truth as well as informed interpretations, or in sabotaging the peace process and the many noble efforts being made to create a real Palestinian state.
UN Resolution 194 from 1948 Article 11 Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.
The right to return is in accordance with legitimate international decisions, namely UN Resolutions 194, 242, 338 and the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002.... In 1948 United Nations Mediator Count Folke Bernadotte pointed out that "It would be an offence against the principles of justice if those innocent victims of could not return to their homes while [Zionist] immigrants flowed into Palestine to take their place." This is still true today.
GENEVA — Entrenched conflicts in Afghanistan, Somalia and other countries prevented a record number of refugees from returning home last year, the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.
Only an estimated 251,500 refugees went home in 2009 — the lowest number since 1990, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in its annual report.
The world's total number of refugees stood at 15.2 million, according to the report. Of those, around 2.9 million were Afghans, 1.8 million Iraqis and 680,000 Somalis. That total also includes 4.8 million Palestinian refugees managed by a separate U.N. agency....read more
Ramallah – Ma'an – Ramallah government Prime Minister Salam Fayyad attended the inauguration of the Mahmoud Darwish Foundation for Creativity in the Kafr Yasif village, northern Israel on Saturday, delivering an address for the celebration.
"From the Darwish platform, I hereby assert that we will not be hostages to Israeli choices of either siege or separation," the premier told conveners, which included the late poet's family, Arab Follow-Up Committee head Muhammad Zeidan, Nazareth Mayor Ramiz Jaraysa, Kafr Yasif local council chief Awni Tomam, Bishop Atallah Hanna, as well as Palestinian Knesset members Muhammad Barakeh, Ahmad Tibi, Talib As-Sanna, and
"As we refuse both siege and separation and we stand united in the face of siege, we should be more united to face separation because unity of our homeland is our path to freedom, independence and statehood in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the eternal capital of our state,” Fayyad said.
Fayyad described the Palestinian minority of Israel as "constant pioneers of peace efforts" in the face of adversity and discrimination, leading efforts to crystallize a just peace, and securing Palestinian rights "determined by international resolutions, particularly the right of return."
The political process would fail to meet its desired ends, he said, without a return to credibility. " This cannot be achieved unless the international community adheres to its responsibilities of ending the occupation, applying international resolutions, and securing the Palestinian right to self-determination and statehood."
The premier described the foundation in the Galilee as "an organic expansion" of Palestinian culture, stemming from Darwish's "status and creativity," adding that the Palestinian Authority will "stay committed to the promotion of Palestinian culture, following in the footsteps of Darwish and other pioneers."
Meanwhile, as President Mahmoud Abbas continues his international tour, he is expected to open a square in Paris named after the late Palestinian poet on Monday, a diplomatic source in Paris told Ma'an.
Best piece of advice you were ever given, and who gave it to you?
I was in my early twenties and as I often did, I went over to my belated teta’s* house, known to her grandchildren as Ninnin, to have lunch with her. I came wearing a summery navy blue decolté* dress that had small flower patterns on it and that gave me a delicate cleavage. As I entered the living room, my teta looked at me from where she always sat and said: ‘il faut t’habillé comme ça plus souvent*’. From her facial expression and her encouraging ways, I understood her advice as ‘live your dreams, be the woman you want to be, and don’t let anyone tamper with your freedom’. I keep her spirit alive in me.
*1: grandmother in arabic *2: strapless *3: ‘You should dress like that more often’.
ATFP Senior Fellow Tells NCUSAR Students US Perspective on Middle East is Evolving
Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact Information: Hussein Ibish June 14, 2010 - 12:00am
On June 8, ATFP Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish spoke at a seminar for approximately 30 students at the Elliott School at George Washington University, hosted by the National Council on US-Arab Relations. Ibish spoke about evolution of US perspectives on Middle Eastern regional dynamics and peace, and about the present strategic situation with regard to Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. He told the audience that the current Israeli government and some of its supporters in the United States were struggling to deal with a new reality, in which the American foreign policy establishment and military has adopted a new perspective on Middle Eastern regional dynamics which emphasizes the interconnectedness of all developments. He emphasized that “because the situation between Israel and the Palestinians has much more political and symbolic resonance than anything else throughout the region, it has therefore assumed an even greater significance in American planning.”
Ibish said this new perspective was “largely a consequence of the ongoing and unsuccessful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which had forced the foreign policy and military establishments to look again at the model they were using to understand regional dynamics and to adopt a more holistic approach.” He told the students that American experts generally now recognized that because events in Palestine are more likely to impact dynamics involving Iraq, Iran, Turkey, other parts of the Arab world or even Afghanistan, than the other way around, this renews attention on the need for an end to the conflict and the occupation. He said that this means that the argument about “linkage” that began in late 1990 in the run-up to the first Gulf War has been institutionally and generationally resolved, and that linkage is now an accepted phenomenon by a consensus of the foreign policy establishment. However, he said “the form of linkage that has become a consensus is different than earlier versions that sought to simply link the Israeli occupation with US foreign policy challenges,” and that “the linkage that has prevailed in contemporary American thinking is a much broader model in which everything is linked to everything else.”
Ibish said that what this means, as a practical matter, is that, like all other Middle East actors, Israeli policies and conduct are now viewed as important elements in shaping US strategic position in the region. However, he emphasized that this is a new reality for Israel and its US supporters, since in the past the US-Israel relationship has mainly been understood in terms of the bilateral special relationship and also in terms of domestic US politics. He said “there is now a third register, that of regional strategic dynamics, in which Israel's policies and conduct are being viewed, and this new dimension has not been fully accommodated or appreciated by the current Israeli government.”
Ibish told the students all of this explains why the Obama administration has been emphasizing Middle East peace from the outset and refuses to be deterred by setbacks or false starts. He said that given this perspective, for the United States Middle East peace is not optional, it is imperative, and that the Israelis do appear to have fully understood the urgency and importance that Washington now attaches to this issue. He also said that the Palestinians and other Arabs were being judged by the same yardstick in terms of their cooperation with American peace efforts, and that the Palestinians could and should do more to present themselves as dynamic partners with the Obama administration in the pursuit of peace, whether or not Israel is being cooperative at any given stage. He added that the recent crisis over the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla and its fallout demonstrate that Turkey is interested in an expanded and possibly hegemonic role in the region and is now competing with Iran for “ownership” of the Palestine issue through symbolic and largely meaningless gestures that outbid all Arab parties. Ibish said that “the last thing the Palestinians need is for Turks and Iranians, or even the Arab states, to be hijacking or manipulating their national cause for their own parochial purposes.”
UNRWA and the Palestinian Refugees after Sixty Years: Some Reflections
Lex Takkenberg (Guest Editor)*
This volume of Refugee Survey Quarterly marks the 60th anniversary of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees1 in the Near East (UNRWA). Unlike its sister agency UNHCR, which is mandated to assist and protect refugees worldwide, UNRWA remains dedicated to supporting and protecting Palestinian refugees.2 The Agency has undergone extensive reformation since its inception in response to operational challenges and evolving refugee needs and has sought to remain abreast of emerging international practices. As such, it became a leader in responding to protracted refugee situations. The aim of this volume is to pay tribute to the important role UNRWA has played on behalf of Palestinian refugees and to engage in reflection and debate that might foster the Agency’s continued success in fulfilling its mandate and help the refugees live in dignity pending a just and comprehensive solution to their plight.
When the United Nations General Assembly met in December 1949 to consider the establishment of a successor to the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees,3 it was presented with a draft resolution sponsored by France, Turkey, and the United States, the three countries comprising the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP)4 as well as the United Kingdom.5 The draft came in response to the announcement that the non-governmental agencies providing relief to the more than 700,000 Palestinians, who had become refugees as a result of the 1948–9 Arab–Israeli War, would be unable to continue the aid operation beyond the autumn of 1949. In addition, during the second half of 1949, the United States as chair of the UNCCP, began seeking alternatives to repatriation as the solution to the plight of the refugees foreseen by the international community.6 Invited by the UNCCP, Gordon Clapp, then president of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), visited the Near East in 1949 to explore whether the US solution to the drought of the 1930s and 1940s could be replicated in the Jordan Valley and beyond.7 The Economic Survey Mission, as Clapp’s visit became known, provided an upbeat assessment of the potential for economic development in the Near East in its report published in September 1949.8 In it, Clapp recommended the establishment of an Agency under the auspices of the United Nations that could lead the large-scale development effort he envisioned.
Countries hosting refugees from Palestine cautiously welcomed Clapp’s mission and much suspicion and scepticism remained. This was triggered, in part, by the omission of Palestine refugees and of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 from the initial draft resolution incorporating the recommendations of the Economic Survey Mission. Resolution 194 not only established the UNCCP but also included, in paragraph 11, the resolve of the international community to permit the refugees to return to their homes.9 In response to host country and broader Arab criticism, the draft was amended to accommodate the aforementioned concerns and subsequently adopted without dissent on 8 December 1949. UNRWA was established by a vote of 48-0-6. Five communist governments and South Africa abstained. All of the Arab governments and Israel voted in support of the resolution.10
The new agency commenced operations on 1 May 1950, focusing in part on continued relief operations in support of the nearly 1 million refugees and other recipients of aid it inherited from its predecessor and also on the large-scale development schemes envisioned by the Economic Survey Mission. Many of its initial international personnel, including its second Director,11 John Blandford, Jr, were seconded by the TVA. In December 1950, UNRWA was provided with a 200 million dollar Reintegration Fund. However, as early as the spring of 1951, agency officials recognized that the expensive work relief, works projects, and emigration activities held little promise to resolve the economic difficulties of the refugees.12 By 1956, when the Suez Crisis broke out, only about twenty-seven and a half million of the 200 million dollar fund had been used and, from then on, the large-scale development effort was shelved. In the words of Schiff,
[i]n retrospect, it took a dollop of optimism, or naïveté, to believe that the refugee problem could be solved with these ambitious water schemes. All the ingredients to thwart the plans were present: the states of the region were mutually suspicious; the effort required allocation of a scarce resource over which participating countries were prepared to fight; the client population did not want to be moved, except back to their homes; and the time schedule for success, set by U.S. enthusiasm, was very short. In a pattern later repeated across the Third World, an economic development plan devised by western experts evaporated when exposed to the dry winds of local, economic, political and cultural realities.13
At the same time, the refugees remained in need of international support and hence UNRWA’s mandate was repeatedly extended. From the mid-1950s onward, UNRWA’s relief mandate shifted from continuing the emergency assistance previously provided by its predecessor – food, shelter, clothing, and basic health care – to more comprehensive support for social development of the Palestine refugee population.14 Education rapidly replaced relief as UNRWA’s central programme, with the Agency establishing a strategic partnership with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), adopting the host country curriculum to its schools and successfully introducing vocational and technical training in addition to its basic education programme. A similar partnership with WHO formed the basis for UNRWA’s highly cost-effective primary health-care programme. As the refugees gradually attained self-sufficiency, dependence on direct relief dropped so drastically that, by the mid-1980s, UNRWA was able to replace its general ration programme with a much more selective programme targeting families in special hardship.
UNRWA’s pioneering human development strategy proved a success. Some 1.42 million pupils15 graduated from UNRWA’s basic nine year16 education cycle, paving the way to economic self-sufficiency for the vast majority of the refugees.17 Literacy rates among Palestine refugees compare well with regional and global levels and enrolment statistics have revealed gender equity since the 1960s. At present, the Agency operates approximately 690 schools in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank, with an enrolment of nearly 500,000 children. More than 60,000 students have graduated from technical and vocational training programmes, offered by the Agency’s ten vocational and technical training centres, since the Agency’s founding. Approximately two-thirds of the registered refugees (approximately 3 million persons) obtain health services from 137 primary health-care centres.
To respond to high rates of infant mortality, UNRWA introduced a special oral rehydration formula to treat mildly dehydrated diarrhoeic infants in 1957. The results were spectacular and the principle of oral dehydration therapy was later adopted globally by WHO and UNICEF. As a result of approaches like this one, infant, child, and maternal mortality rates are amongst the lowest in the region and nearly 100 per cent of refugee households are connected to water networks. Apart from recent emergencies, moreover, dependence on direct relief assistance reduced dramatically from nearly 100 per cent at UNRWA’s inception to 6 per cent at present. The Relief and Social Services Programme has also been the catalyst for the development of a strong, community-based network of social services, comprising approximately sixty-five women programme centres, thirty-seven community-based rehabilitation centres for persons with disabilities, and thirty youth activity centres.
The outbreak of the first Intifada in 1987 and broader regional developments, including a growing acceptance within refugee communities that improving living conditions does not mean relinquishing the right of return, provided a push for a number of programmatic innovations introduced from the early 1990s onwards. As a result, great progress was made, including with the introduction of a highly successful microfinance programme known as the Microfinance and Microenterprise Programme. Since its establishment in 1991–2, this programme has issued some 180,000 loans totalling 200 million USD, making it the largest non-bank financial intermediary in the region. UNRWA strives to reach full self-reliance and financial self-sufficiency for the programme as soon as possible, and aims to be fully independent in the next decade, in line with international best practice.18 Another innovation introduced by UNRWA relates to a more sustained and systematic effort on improving the physical infrastructure inside refugee camps.19 Since the early 1990s, some 13,500 refugee shelters were rehabilitated. In recent years, UNRWA developed and successfully piloted a participatory camp improvement methodology which is now being rolled out throughout the Agency’s area of operations.20 A new infrastructure and camp improvement department was created within UNRWA to increase capacity and develop efforts in this domain. The more developmental approach adopted since the early 1990s also saw a number of major water and sanitation projects implemented as well as the construction of a 232-bed general hospital in Gaza.
Apart from these “regular” programmes, refugees have also looked to UNRWA when crises strike. These may be small-scale family disasters, destitution arising from protracted emergencies (such as the first and second Intifada in the West Bank and Gaza); or large-scale emergencies that cause both immediate devastation and have long-term consequences (such as the 1967 war, the civil war in Lebanon between 1975 and 1990, the 2007 events resulting in the destruction of Nahr al-Bared in Lebanon, and the recent Gaza conflict). UNRWA has demonstrated repeatedly its ability to respond timely and appropriately to recurrent emergencies and is currently building capacity to better plan, manage, and monitor emergency response through dedicated capacity at headquarters and a network of Operations Support Officers across three of the five fields.21
In spite of these impressive achievements, UNRWA’s 60th anniversary is no cause for celebration. Palestinians have been refugees and stateless persons for three generations, with no end in sight to their plight. Refugees are confronted with ongoing denial of their rights as well as recurrent armed conflict in UNRWA locations. After the relative optimism of the Oslo years, during which UNRWA began to harmonize services with those of the Palestinian Authority in preparation for an eventual handover, the start of the second Intifada in late 2000 demonstrated that UNRWA’s services would be needed for years to come. This prompted UNRWA and the Swiss Government to organize a major conference in Geneva in 2004 to build new partnerships in support of UNRWA and to prepare the Agency for the challenges that lay ahead. The conference generated an ambitious agenda for reform, prompting amongst other things a major survey into refugee living conditions, the further development of the Agency’s protection activities, the launch of the Camp Improvement Programme, and a comprehensive overhaul of various aspects of the Agency’s management which became known as the Organizational Development process.
UNRWA has a mandate to provide protection which, according to the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee, refers to “all activities aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights of the individual in accordance with the letter and spirit of the relevant bodies of law (human rights law, international humanitarian law, refugee law)”.22 United Nations General Assembly resolutions affirm UNRWA’s protection role, referring to the “valuable work done by the Agency in providing protection to the Palestinian people, in particular Palestine refugees”23 and encouraging the Agency to “make further progress” in addressing the needs and rights of children and women in its operations, in accordance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.24 Building on these foundations and under the leadership of Commissioner-General Karen AbuZayd, UNRWA has developed a more explicit focus on protection in the past decade. It has taken steps to mainstream protection concepts and practice at all levels of the Agency. The importance currently attached to protection within UNRWA is made evident by the emphasis placed on human rights as a core human development goal in the Agency’s Medium Term Strategy for 2010–15 (MTS).25
The Organization Development process (OD) has laid the foundations for a transformation in UNRWA management, of which decentralization and innovation are core themes. UNRWA has reviewed its approach to resource mobilization in response to the Agency’s funding constraints, comprehensively overhauled its approach to programme management, and established sound strategic planning processes resulting in a MTS that is being translated into action through three cycles of Field Implementation Plans, Headquarters Implementation Plans, and two-year Programme Budgets based on the strategy. Other elements of OD include the implementation of results-based budgeting by which resources will be linked to the MTS; improved arrangements for knowledge management, in particular the need to build better capacity to gather and use data on refugees;26 more robust arrangements for evaluation; human resource management reforms; and stronger risk management and accountability.27
The refugee issue is unique amongst the so-called permanent status issues in that it is not a bilateral issue but involves other stakeholders, including host countries, donor countries, and the wider international community. Whereas UNRWA’s focus is the provision of humanitarian and development assistance, it is also uniquely placed to advise and support, where possible, necessary efforts by other actors towards achieving and implementing a solution. Realizing that this constitutes a key element of its protection mandate, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General and other senior staff have been contributing experience and insights on related matters, as appropriate. And while the strategic framework for the next six years, embodied in the MTS, is based on the status quo prevailing, the Agency has also recognized that it must be ready to respond to changes in political and economic contexts, including more fundamental change, leading to a significantly different scenario, should a just solution to the refugee issue emerge.28
The present volume brings together a wealth of scholarly and practitioner insights into the various issues touched upon in this introduction. Focusing on some of the key challenges facing the longest lasting case of forced migration in modern history, it is hoped that it will contribute to a better understanding of a unique agency and of the centrality of the Palestinian refugee issue for peacemaking in the Middle East.
Endnotes * Lex Takkenberg is UNRWA’s Senior Ethics Officer. He has worked in different positions with the Agency since 1989 and is author of The Status of Palestinian Refugees in International Law (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1998). The views expressed in this introduction are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by the United Nations or by UNRWA. 1 UNRWA is mandated to support Palestine refugees, that is, refugees from the territory that had been under the British Mandate for Palestine, regardless of nationality. Although the vast majority of refugees who have been assisted by UNRWA are Palestinians, over 1 per cent of those registered have a different national background. 2 On 8 Dec. 1949, the United Nations General Assembly adopted UNGA res. 302(IV) establishing UNRWA. Five days earlier, on 3 Dec. 1949, it had set up UNHCR; UNGA res. 319(IV) refers. Whereas UNRWA is the principal Agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNHCR’s mandate covers Palestinians who are refugees, which could include Palestine refugees as defined by UNRWA. Ordinarily, UNHCR only addresses the case of Palestinian refugees when they are outside UNRWA’s area of operations. For the past 60 years UNRWA and UNHCR have been cooperating, each within its respective mandate, and in close coordination with the host states, to support and protect Palestinian refugees. For a more detailed description of the complementary mandates of UNRWA and UNHCR in support of Palestinian refugees, see “The United Nations and Palestinian Refugees”, UNRWA & UNHCR, 2005, available at: http://www.un.org/unrwa/publications/ pubs07/UN&PR_en.pdf (last visited 1 Dec. 2009). 3 UNGA res. 212(III), 19 Nov. 1948, establishing the UNRPR. Apparently in response to the criticism concerning the UN Disaster Relief Project set up by the UN Mediator for Palestine earlier in the same year, the General Assembly saw a major role for the Red Cross and other voluntary agencies in the 32 million dollar relief plan it adopted on 19 Nov. 1948. UNRPR contracted with ICRC, LRCS, and AFSC to carry out relief activities in Dec. 1948–Aug. 1949. UNRPR effectively replaced the Disaster Relief Project. 4 See UNGA res. 194 (III), 11 Dec. 1948. UNCCP was created three weeks after the establishment of UNRPR to deal with the general task of a peaceful settlement, including of the refugee issue. 5 See E. H. Buehrig, The UN and the Palestinian Refugees: A Study in Non Territorial Administration, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1971, 36. 6 In para.11 of UNGA res. 194 (III) which had established the UNCCP, the General Assembly resolved that: “the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity should be made good by the Governments of authorities responsible”. Para. 11 also instructed the UNCCP: “to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and, though him, with the appropriate organs and agencies of the United Nations”. See also the contribution by J. Al-Husseini and R. Bocco in the present volume. 7 The TVA was created in 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly impacted by the Great Depression. 8 ‘First Interim Report of the United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East’, appended to UNCCP, Final Report of the United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East, Part 1 (The Final Report and Appendices) and Part II (The Technical Supplement), UN doc. A/AC.25/6, New York, 1949. 9 See Buehrig, The UN and the Palestinian Refugees, op. cit. 10 Cf. ibid. The text of the resolution appears in the document section at the end of this volume. 11 The title of UNRWA’s chief executive officer was Director; until 1962 at which time it became Commissioner-General. 12 Cf. B. N. Schiff, Refugees unto the Third Generation: UN Aid to Palestinians, Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 1995, 21. 13 Ibid., 37. 14 On this shift in UNRWA’s approach, see the contribution of M. Rosenfeld in this volume. 15 The author is grateful to M. Rosenfeld of Hebrew University for her support in providing an accurate estimate of the number of students who completed at least nine years of basic education in UNRWA schools from the Agency’s establishment until today. Unlike other statistics pertaining to UNRWA’s many achievements, this critical piece of information was not easily available. The estimate is based on the interpretation of data in UNRWA annual reports, with approximations for missing data. It is believed that the margin of error does not exceed 2.5 per cent. 16 Ten years in Jordan. 17 See on the impact of UNRWA’s education and other programmes on refugee youth, the contribution by D. Chatty in this volume. 18 See UNRWA’s Medium Term Strategy 2010-2015, available at: http://www.un.org/unrwa/publications/ pubs08/mts_report_2010_2015.pdf (last visited 1 Dec. 2009), 34–5. 19 On the evolution of the Palestinian refugee camps, see the contribution of H. Rueff and A. Viaro in this volume. 20 See the contribution of P. Misselwitz and S. Hanafi in this volume with regards to UNRWA’s (new) Camp Improvement Programme. See the contribution of T. Rempel in this volume, regarding the Agency’s efforts to introduce participatory approaches, including in relation to camp improvement. 21 See UNRWA’s Medium Term Strategy 2010-2015, op. cit. 34. See the contribution by M. Rosenfeld in this volume regarding the effects of UNRWA’s emergency operations on its regular programmes. 22 IASC, Growing the Sheltering Tree: Protecting Rights through Humanitarian Action, 2002, 11. On UNRWA’s mandate in general, and its protection mandate in particular, see the contribution of L. Bartholomeusz in this volume. The contributions of R. Khoury, B. Goddard, M. Kagan, O. Al-Abed, and N. Morris also deal with various aspects of protection of Palestinian refugees and other vulnerable Palestinians. 23 UNGA res. 62/104 of 17 Dec. 2007 on Operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. 24 Ibid. 25 UNRWA’s Medium Term Strategy 2010-2015, op. cit. 23–4, 37–9. 26 On strengthening UNRWA’s knowledge management, see also the contribution of R. Terbeck in this volume. 27 See UNRWA’s Medium Term Strategy 2010-15, op .cit. ch. 6; see also the section on OD on the UNRWA web site, available at: http://www.un.org/unrwa/organization/index.html (last visited 1 Dec. 2009). 28 See UNRWA’s Medium Term Strategy 2010-2015, op. cit. 23, 9–10, 25. On future prospects for UNRWA and Palestinian refugees, see the contributions by M. Dumper, J. Peters, and O. Gal and L. Hilal in this volume.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Hello, everybody. Be careful, careful.
Before I begin, I know that there was just a vote in the United Nations Security Council. I'm going to comment on that separately. I don't want to detract from the topic at hand here. So for reporters who are interested in that issue, I will be making a statement about that after our session here.
I just want to thank President Abbas for being here, and his delegation. We just concluded some very productive discussions on this issue. I commended President Abbas for the excellent work that he and Prime Minister Fayyad have been engaged in over the last several years in strengthening the security as well as improving the economic situation for his people. He’s done so through hard work and dedication, and I think the whole world has noticed the significant improvements that we've seen as a consequence of his good administration.
But obviously there is a lot of work that remains to be done so that we can create a two-state solution in the Middle East in which we have an Israel that is secure and fully accepted by its neighbors, and a Palestinian people that have their own state, self-determination, and the ability to chart their own destiny.
Now, we've just gone through a difficult period in the region. We saw the tragedy with the flotillas, something that I think has drawn attention all around the world to the ongoing problems in Gaza. As part of the United Nations Security Council, we were very clear in condemning the acts that led to this crisis and have called for a full investigation. And it is important that we get all the facts out. But what we also know is that the situation in Gaza is unsustainable. I think increasingly you're seeing debates within Israel, recognizing the problems with the status quo. And so President Abbas and I had very extensive discussions about how we could help to promote a better approach to Gaza.
We agree that Israelis have the right to prevent arms from entering into Gaza that can be used to launch attacks into Israeli territory. But we also think that it is important for us to explore new mechanisms so that we can have goods and services, and economic development, and the ability of people to start their own businesses, and to grow the economy and provide opportunity within Gaza.
And so we are going to be working hand in hand to make sure that we come up with a better approach, and urge Israel to work with all parties involved -- Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, and the international community -- to find a resolution to this issue.
In the meantime, the United States -- which is already the biggest humanitarian aid donor in Gaza -- is going to be announcing an additional $400 million in assistance for housing, school construction, business development -- not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank, because we think it’s important for us to reaffirm once again our commitment to improving the day-to-day lives of ordinary Palestinians.
Now, what we also discussed, though, and what we will continue to work on over the next several months is the fact that not only is the status quo with respect to Gaza unsustainable, the status quo with respect to the Middle East is unsustainable. It is time for us to go ahead and move forward on a two-state solution that will affirm the needs of Israeli citizens and will affirm the needs of Palestinian -- Palestinians who are desperate for a homeland.
We have had very productive proximity talks. Senator Mitchell -- who is here, I think standing in the back -- has been very active, working with both the Palestinians and the Israelis to try to start moving this process forward. And I want to thank President Abbas for participating in these proximity talks even under some difficult circumstances. He has shown courage and tenacity in wanting to resolve this issue. And we believe that with Israelis and the Palestinian Authority coming together, making clear that a peaceful, non-violent solution that recognizes both the security needs of Israel as well as the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians is the right way to go, can yield real progress in the coming months.
It’s important that we understand the sense of urgency that the Palestinian people feel in this process. Obviously you’ve got organizations like Hamas that have not recognized Israel, have not renounced violence, who are calling for a different approach. And we think it’s important that, given President Abbas’s commitment to a peaceful diplomatic solution to these issues, and I think the desire of people both in Israel and Palestine -- Palestinian Territories for a peaceful solution, that we move forward. And the United States is going to put its full weight behind those efforts.
I did share with President Abbas, in order for us to be successful in these next several months, that both sides have to create an environment, a climate, that is going to be conducive to an actual breakthrough. And that means on the Israeli side, curbing settlement activity and recognizing some of the progress that has been made by the Palestinian Authority when it comes to issues like security. It means on the Palestinian side -- and I was very frank with President Abbas that we have to continue to make more progress on both security as well as incitement issues.
And if we can over the next several months try to lift up what are the honest and legitimate concerns of both sides and if both Palestinians and Israelis can recognize that they have a common interest in moving off of what has been this dead end, then I believe that potentially we can make significant progress before the end of the year.
So I just want to let President Abbas know that I said when I took office this was an issue that I cared deeply about and I was willing to spend a lot of time and energy and political capital on. That commitment has not wavered. And I think the American people want to see a resolution of this issue that is equitable. We will continue to work side by side with you, as well as the Israelis, to resolve this in a way that is good for the children and future generations both in Israel and in a future Palestine.
So thank you very much.
PRESIDENT ABBAS: (As translated.) Thank you, Mr. President. And we, indeed, have just held very important discussions that touched on the political process as well as the very important latest development that happened in Gaza.
Of course we value and deeply appreciate all the efforts of the United States, as well as the effort of President Obama, and all the assistance and help for pushing forward the economic and security levels. And we have reached a satisfactory picture of the economic and security levels. Yet we are determined to keep pushing forward in our efforts to bring it up to the next level.
And I also appreciate the attention and the determination of President Obama in seeing that we push forward the political process as soon as possible. And I assert and I affirm that we will not give up on this endeavor ahead of us, because it is in our interest, it in the interest of Israel, in the interest of the world, and also, most of all, in the interest of the United States.
We know that time is of essence; we know that we must not miss this opportunity. We affirm the importance of bringing about peace and security in the region.
And I would like to thank President Obama for the support that he will give to Gaza -- and we have just talked about that now. This is a positive signal of the United States that the United States cares about the suffering of the people in Gaza and about the suffering of the Palestinian people.
And we also see the need to lift the Israeli siege of the Palestinian people, the need to open all the crossings, and the need to let building material and humanitarian material and all the necessities go into the Palestinian people.
And also we appreciate the attention given to the formation of an investigation committee that would investigate what happened in the latest events, the events of what we call the Freedom Flotilla, or the Freedom Fleet.
And I say in front of you, Mr. President, that we have nothing to do with incitement against Israel, and we’re not doing that. What we care about is to live in coexistence with Israel, in order to bring about the independent Palestinian state that will live side by side with Israel in peace and stability.
We adopt and we affirm the Arab Peace Initiative that was adopted in summits, in Arab summits, as well as in summits held by Islamic countries. Fifty-seven Arab and Islamic countries have said that they would recognize Israel if Israel withdrew from the occupied Arab land.
Mr. President, we thank you and we express our deep respect for all your efforts, specifically on the peace process and bringing about peace in the Middle East. We know the two-state solution you said is a critical interest of the United States. This is a slogan that we are proud of and we will pursue very seriously our efforts in order to bring about peace in the Middle East.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: We got time for, I think, two questions. So, on the U.S. side, we’re going to call on Matt Spetalnick of Reuters.
QYes, Mr. President, I know you’re going to be making a statement later on Iran, but I just wondered if --
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes, so just don’t waste that question on that.
QYou’re not going to answer anything --
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I'll do that at the next one.
QOkay. Did President Abbas ask you to take a tougher line with Israel over the Gaza aid flotilla raid, and will you in fact do so in outright condemnation of Israel’s actions? And do you support Israel’s insistence on doing a flotilla investigation on its own, perhaps with some foreign involvement, or are you in favor of the U.N. proposal for a completely independent inquiry?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, let me take the second question first. What the U.N. Security Council called for was a credible, transparent investigation that met international standards. And we meant what we said; that's what we expect.
I think everybody -- people in Israel, people in Turkey, people within the Palestinian Territories, certainly people here in the United States -- want to know the facts of this tragedy, what led to it, how can we prevent it in the future. And I think I’ve said to the Israelis directly and certainly my team has communicated the fact that it is in Israel’s interest to make sure that everybody knows exactly how this happened so that we don't see these kinds of events occurring again. And we expect that the standard that was called for in the U.N. Security Council to be met.
With respect to the issue of taking a tougher line, I think President Abbas and I spent most of our time discussing how do we solve the problem. One of the things that we see is that so often rhetoric when it comes to issues in the Middle East outstrip actually solving issues. And our conversation was focused on how do we actually allow more goods, more services into Gaza? How do we allow businesses to thrive? How can we get construction moving? How can we put people to work in Gaza?
The Palestinian Authority is already doing a number of things inside of Gaza, providing employment opportunities, providing assistance to people directly. The United States is already providing assistance. But the status quo that we have is one that is inherently unstable. And I think the Israelis have come to recognize that.
The question now is how do we create a different framework so that people in Gaza can thrive and succeed; so that extremists are isolated as opposed to having an excuse for engaging in violent activities; but also, how do we do it in a way that Israel’s legitimate security concerns are met.
We -- and I think President Abbas agrees with this -- recognize that Israel should not have missiles flying out of Gaza into its territories. And so there should be a means by which we are able to stop the flow of arms that could endanger Israel’s security. At the same time, we’re doing so in a way that allows the people in Gaza to live out their aspirations and their dreams both for themselves and their children. And that's something that we’re going to spend a lot of time focusing on. And we’ve already begun some hard-headed discussions with the Israelis in achieving that.
Q (Asks a question in Arabic.) And, Mr. President, if I may ask you a question --
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Okay, I was just finding out what you were asking him. (Laughter.)
Q I can translate that to you if you want. I just asked him that there is talk that the administration wants to move from proximity talk to direct negotiation, what the Palestinian Authority wants to see as a condition to move to that stage.
And if I may ask you, the European Union has proposed opening of the Gaza crossing. Would you endorse that, with the E.U. supervision? And the money you talked about now, the $400 million, what mechanism -- who is going to distribute this money? Because in the past it has been a problem regarding the money.
PRESIDENT ABBAS: (As translated.) With regards to the transitioning from the proximity talks to the direct talks, we did not say -- we are not saying that we have conditions. What has happened is that we agreed that should a progress be achieved, then we would move on to direct talks. We are working in order to make progress. President Obama is working for that to see progress. And we -- this is what we have.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: With respect to the aid to Gaza, I’ll let my team give you the details in terms of how that will be administered and how the money will begin to flow.
With respect to the broader issue of lifting the blockade, as I said before, I think the key here is making sure that Israel’s security needs are met, but that the needs of people in Gaza are also met. And it seems to us that there should be ways of focusing narrowly on arms shipments, rather than focusing in a blanket way on stopping everything and then in a piecemeal way allowing things into Gaza.
So if we can get a new conceptual framework -- and I’ll be talking to my European counterparts, as well as Egypt and Israel and the Palestinian Authority -- it seems to me that we should be able to take what has been a tragedy and turn it into an opportunity to create a situation where lives in Gaza are actually directly improved.
But let me make this final point, that in the long run, the only real way to solve this problem is to make sure that we’ve got a Palestinian state side by side with an Israel that is secure. And so we’re going to be dealing with these short-term problems, but we also have to keep our eye on the horizon and recognize that it’s that long-term issue that has to be focused on. So many of the immediate problems in front of us have to do with the fact that we haven’t solved this broader problem.
This round of negotiations provides an 11th-hour opportunity to achieve a permanent and lasting peace based on the two-state solution. For the opportunity not to be lost, courage and bold leadership are required.
The emergence of Salam Fayyad is the best thing to happen to the Middle East in ages.
The Palestinian State and Institution Building Program Documents detailing the state and institution building program of the 13th Palestinian Government, including the overall plan and priority interventions for 2010.
Quote from Slate Magazine article by Michael Weiss
According to Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, Fayyad has done a dangerous thing, all right: He has given Palestinians agency, responsibility, and much to lose, creating a new paradigm that many die-hard adherents to the "cause" find threatening to their idealism. As Ibish puts it, "nation-building is supposed to be a glorious top-down endeavour, not a mundane and workaday set of policies."
