AMMAN: The chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Wednesday called for urgent funding and the renewal of the agency’s mandate to protect millions of Palestinian refugees “pending a just and lasting solution to their plight.”
“Later today in New York, Member States will vote on the renewal of UNRWA’s mandate at the General Assembly’s Fourth Committee, before voting in December in a plenary session,” UNWRA chief Philippe Lazzarini said.
“We hope that the result of the vote will reflect the overwhelming solidarity of people across the world with Palestine Refugees and UNRWA,” he added at a gathering of the agency’s advisory commission in Amman.
He nonetheless noted that the renewal of the mandate is “not sufficient,” noting that it “must come with adequate funding for the Agency’s public-like services, and a delineation of its role in political plans for the occupied Palestinian territory.”
“To do otherwise risks the rights, lives and future of millions of Palestine Refugees.”
