UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations General Assembly has, by anoverwhelmingly vote, extended the mandate for a UN agency supportingPalestinian refugees for another three years amid a cash shortfalltriggered by a halt in US funding.
The 193-member Assembly renewed the mandate mandate of the United NationsRelief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) with 169 votes infavour and nine abstentions. The United States and Israel voted against.
UNRWA, which as established in 1949, provides education, health and reliefservices as well as housing and microfinance assistance to more than 5million registered refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and EastJerusalem, as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
The agency has faced budgetary difficulties since last year, when theUnited States – its biggest donor – halted its aid of $360 million peryear. The United States and Israel have both accused UNRWA of mismanagementand anti-Israeli incitement.
In a statement published by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA,Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas praised the vote as a victory forinternational law and the rights of the Palestinian refugees.
Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, hailed the U.N. vote as a defeat for theUnited States and a failure of its attempts to pressure U.N. member-statesagainst UNRWA.
“We welcome the decision to renew the international mandate to UNRWA and wesee it as another failure to hostile U.S. policies to the Palestinianrights,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.Last month UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl resigned amid aninvestigation into misconduct allegations. Krahenbuhl has denied wrongdoingand said his agency was the victim of a political campaign designed toundermine it.
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Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium suspended payments to UNRWA overthe inquiry, deepening the budget crisis set off last year by the UnitedStates. UNRWA hopes the management shake-up will help pacify donors, said asource with knowledge of the organization’s thinking.
The United States has advocated shifting the agency’s relief services torefugee host countries. But UNRWA counters it provides a humanitarianlifeline and that it safeguards and advances Palestinians’ rights underinternational law.
Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official, praisedthe U.N. vote on Friday and said it was the United Nations’ responsibilityto combat what she called U.S. and Israeli attacks on Palestinian refugees.
“All attempts at trying to limit UNRWA’s mandate or defund it or attack ithave failed, and we hope that the international community will continue tocome to the rescue,” she said.
