Last Sunday, 25 February 2024, ARDD’s Global Network on the Question of Palestine (GNQP) held an online emergency meeting on the current unprecedented political and funding crisis affecting UNRWA, the UN Palestinian refugee agency, in the presence of some 40 of its members as well as several former and current senior UNRWA staff. The meeting discussed a draft Ten-Point Recovery Plan for UNRWA developed by Chris Gunness, former UNRWA Spokesperson and current Director of the Myanmar Accountability Project ahead of the meeting. Following a presentation of the draft by Mr. Gunness, the participants and other GNQP members broadly endorsed the plan and provided feedback on details which are reflected in the final version of the plan, which was subsequently presented to UNRWA’s Commissioner-General for the agency’s perusal.

The purpose of this plan is to fill UNRWA’s funding gap by the end of March 2024 by establishing a ‘Good Donorship Forum’ to leverage defunding donors to resume funding to UNRWA, by highlighting, among others, there there was insufficient intelligence information about the allegations against UNRWA staffers when they made the decision to defund. UNRWA is the most heavily audited agency in the history of the UN and its institutional integrity has been demonstrated on multiple occasions to the satisfaction of all donors.

While it is incumbent on UNRWA to lead the agency’s recovery from the most serious assault on its mandate since its establishment, ARDD, the GNQP and its members undertook to support the agency in this endeavour. For this purposse an Action Plan in support of the implementation of the Recovery Plan has also been adopted, in the implementtion of which the Network and its members will play a key role.

Among others, the two plans highlight key messages in support of UNRWA which the GNQP encourages all “friends” of UNRWA to disseminate furhter:

• UNRWA’s work is unmatched in the region by any other agency. Its proven 75-year track record in building human capital in the oPt and beyond, is a unique and essential contribution to a just and durable solution of the Question of Palestine.
• The political attack on UNRWA is an attack on the Question of Palestine itself. It is also an attack on multilateralism.
• UNRWA is demonstrably vital to stability in the Middle East at a time when powerful members sates are calling for the region to be stabilised. Defunding UNRWA will inevitably lead to instability.
• It is impossible to disband UNRWA and employ staff from UN agencies in Gaza to do UNRWA’s job. Total staff of other UN agencies in Gaza number just a few hundred, significantly short of the 13,000 employed by UNRWA. It would take years to establish a new UN entity in Gaza and the international community does not have time on its side, given 2.3 million people are facing starvation.