https://arab.news/52ynx
Having failed to dismantle UNRWA, the UN organization responsible for the welfare of millions of Palestine refugees, Israel is now resorting to blackmailing the Palestinian Authority to replace the organization in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Last week, as Arab and some Western countries ratcheted up diplomatic pressure on the Trump administration to secure a role for the PA in governing postwar Gaza, Israel suggested that Ramallah could have a role in Gaza if the Palestinian body shuttered all UNRWA offices across its territories, with particular emphasis on Gaza, while transferring complete responsibility for civilian needs to the PA. Israel further insisted on transforming refugee camps into standard neighborhoods or towns and abolishing the refugee designation throughout PA areas.
Israel’s onslaught on UNRWA, which was established by a UN General Assembly resolution in 1949, has been going on for years. It picked up in 2017, particularly under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called for the dismantling of the organization and the folding of its responsibilities into other UN agencies. The logic behind this extreme policy was to end the status of Palestine refugees, which is passed on to offspring and which remains one of the most complex final-status issues under the Oslo Accords.
