The United Nations (UN) will carry out a “strategic evaluation” of the work of their agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), to see how to “serve” these populations, said a spokesman on Tuesday, April 22.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, appointed the British Ian Martin to carry out this evaluation of the agency’s mandate in the current context of “political, financial, security and others,” said Stéphane Dujarric, while UNRWA is one of Israel’s black animals. In particular, he will have, in mid -June, “identify action options by the United Nations Member States and/or Nations.”
This exam is carried out within the framework of the UN initiative, launched in March to make the United Nations “more effective” in a context of chronic financial difficulties reinforced by the US budget cuts in international aid programs.
“It works better and serves better”
Not all UN agencies must be individually subject to such a strategic evaluation, but “the UNSR operates in a unique environment”, especially in the Gaza Strip, said Stéphane Durric.
“We want to see how Unrwa can work better and better serve the communities that depend on it,” he added. But “we will not question Unrwa’s mandate,” he said.
The agency was created by a resolution of the UN General Assembly in 1949 following the first Israeli Arab conflict, shortly after the creation of Israel in May 1948.
In the absence of a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it has provided essential assistance for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, in occupied Bank, in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan for more than seven decades.
In the Gaza Strip devastated by the war between Israel and Hamas, caused by the unprecedented attack against the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel on October 7, 2023, the UN and many states believe that UNRWA is the backbone of humanitarian aid. But Israel, who reduced all contact with the agency at the end of January, accuses him of serving as coverage in Hamas and accused 19 of his 13,000 employees in Gaza had he been directly involved in the attacks of October 7.
Source: BFM TV
