UNRWA ban: Israel moves to cut the Palestinians’ rights to their homeland

By Andrew Whitley

Chair, Balfour Project

30 Jan 2025

For millions of Palestinians worldwide, 30 Jan 2025 is set to become yet another painful landmark in their long struggle for self-determination. As of this date, Israel hopes to sever the umbilical cord which ties the Palestinian refugees to their ancestral homeland and, in the process, remove the issue from the future political chessboard.

The instrument chosen for this power play by the Netanyahu Government is UNRWA, the UN agency charged by the international community with taking care of refugees from the 1947-48 conflict, which led to the birth of Israel, until a final peace deal is reached.

Under Knesset legislation that comes into effect today, UNRWA is now barred from working in East Jerusalem and will find it practically impossible to work in the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Without decisive international action, not just hand-wringing objections, UNRWA could collapse within weeks; if it does, more than six million refugees in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the OPT will be bereft of basic services.

For the next few weeks, pending agreement on who will administer the territory once fighting ends, it is expected to continue its essential humanitarian work in Gaza. But the Agency has already been kicked out of its Jerusalem headquarters and forced to stop its education, health, training and other work on behalf of tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees living in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, legally an integral part of the OPT.

The consequences of these brazen acts, undertaken in flagrant defiance of international law, treaties and agreed diplomatic norms to which Israel is a signatory, go far beyond the fate of an elderly UN agency often taken for granted. They seek to undermine the refugees’ right to return home, a right enshrined in UN General Assembly resolutions and customary international law, and damage respect for the rule of law everywhere.

On the surface, our Government’s stance has been good. The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, met UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini, in a signal of support, and the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, recently raised the future of the Agency with his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar. At the UN Security Council, Britain sided with the overwhelming majority during a debate on UNRWA’s future on Tuesday. Only the United States backed Israel’s position, calling it a done deal.

Dig further though and, behind the rhetoric, there has been a clear lack of resolve to use British leverage over Israel and influence with other states on this matter. As the Balfour Project has long argued, Britain has a special role to play, not just because of its history in the region but because of its prized position as a permanent member of the Security Council. The fact that this Labour Government says it stands for international law globally only adds to the burden and obligations that fall on it to act now – with resolve.

To protect the rights of the Palestinian people (not only those registered with UNRWA as refugees); defend the goal of a two-state solution; help the transition in Gaza from a shaky ceasefire to an end-of-war; and promote regional security, the Balfour Project calls on our Government to work urgently with others to devise a way out of this crisis.

The moral starting point must be protection of the interests and rights of the refugees themselves. In turn, this will help promote stability in countries like Jordan, a key ally. Equally non-negotiable should be the legal obligation that will then fall on Israel, as the occupying power in the OPT, to assume the burden of caring for the refugees’ essential needs. The 1993 Oslo Accords did not absolve it of this responsibility. Israel’s failure to act would add to growing calls in the UN General Assembly and elsewhere for it to be suspended from the world body for egregious breaches of its Charter. Credible threats such as this would likely give Israelis serious pause for thought about whether the reckless direction in which their Government is heading is in their long-term interests.

There is too much at stake to leave matters to the uncertain whims of the Trump Administration in Washington. Instead, working with a coalition of like-minded allies in Europe, the Arab world and the Global South, Britain must give a lead.

Our Government should:

  • Put the interests and rights of the Palestinian refugees first. They should be protected. If UNRWA is forced to end its work in the OPT, because of Israeli fiat, Britain should declare that this action does not obviate the need for a “just and durable” solution to the Palestinian refugee problem in in any future negotiations. The issue remains alive.
  • Insist that under international law, if the UN is unable to exercise its mandate in the occupied territories, then the occupying power bears responsibility for the wellbeing of all residents. Failure to do so will have practical consequences for UK/Israel relations.

Andrew Whitley, Chair of the Balfour Project, is a former UNRWA Director of External Relations and its North America Director (2002 – 11)

 

26 Jan 2025 statement from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Amman

The State of Israel ordered UNRWA to vacate all premises in occupied East Jerusalem and cease its operations in them by 30 Jan 2025.

This order is in contradiction to international law obligations of UN member states including the State of Israel, which is bound by the General Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.United Nations premises are inviolable and enjoy privileges and immunities under the United Nations Charter.

The State of Israel is a signatory -without reservations- to the General Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations and enacted its provisions in its domestic law. These provisions oblige the State of Israel to respect United Nations privileges and immunities, including respect for United Nations premises.

UNRWA property and assets including in East Jerusalem are immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation and any other form of interference.

Claims from the Israeli authorities that UNRWA has no right to occupy the premises are without foundation. They promote anti-UNRWA rhetoric, placing the Agency’s facilities and personnel at risk. The Government of Israel has stated publicly that the aim to vacate UNRWA premises in Sheikh Jarrah is to expand Israeli illegal settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

The State of Israel must take all appropriate measures consistent with international law obligations to ensure that UNRWA’s property and installations are respected and protected.

ENDs-

Notes to Editors:

  • The order referred to in the statement above was transmitted via a letter from the Israel UN Permanent Representative.
  • The letter was sent to the Secretary General of the UN on 24 January 2025. It was widely circulated to the media and is available in the public domain.
  • Across occupied East Jerusalem, UNRWA has been operating since the 1950’s. The Agency provides 70,000 patients with primary health care and 1,150 students with education in UNRWA schools and clinics.
  • The UNRWA Headquarters in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem, where the Agency has had an established presence for more than 70 years, is the centre of operations of the Agency’s work in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem.
  • The Kalandia compound is a vocational training centre for 350 students (aged 15-19), on a land made available to UNRWA by the Government of Jordan.
  • Over the years, there have been repeated attempts to force UNRWA to vacate the premises in Sheikh Jarrah including through arson attacks, protests by extremists and eviction letters. UNRWA staff have been subjected to violence and arrests.
  • UNRWA has repeatedly protested against these attempts to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel.
Andrew Whitley, Chair of the Balfour Project Trustees, is a former regional director of Unrwa, in the Near East and in New York. In June 2020 he described in a Balfour Project webinar, the vital work of the agency in providing schooling, health, welfare and housing for all registered Palestinian refugees, in the occupied Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, iand its significance in establishing and maintaining the right of return of those refugees to their original homes.
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