Ending UNRWA and Advancing Peace

[mbig]

The insanity must stop.
The UNRWA is 4x Larger than the rest of the UN's whole refugee apparatus that Should serve the whole world.
It has Hogged the the planet's ability to take care of other Real refugees such as World by eating 80% of refugee resources.
And of course it's just another tool/political football used against Israel and inhibits peace.
It has made a mole hill into a mountain by not disolving easrly on.

The recent string on the so-called 'Right of Return' reminded I have wanted to do something besides just mention this issue in other strings.


http://blogs.cfr.org/abrams/2011/12/19/ending-unrwa-and-advancing-peace/
Ending UNRWA and Advancing Peace
by Elliott Abrams
December 19, 2011

Since the end of the Second World War, millions of refugees have left refugee camps, and refugee status, and moved to countries that accepted them–quickly or slowly–as citizens. Post-World War II Europe was an archipelago of displaced persons and refugee camps, housing 850,000 people in 1947–Czechs, Poles, Lithuanians, Germans, Latvians, Greeks, and many more nationalities. By 1952, all but one of the camps had closed. Hundred of thousands of Jewish refugees from Europe went to Israel after 1948, and then hundreds of thousands more arrived from Arab lands when they were forced to flee after 1956 and 1967. The children and grandchildren of these refugees, born after their arrival, were never refugees themselves; they were from birth citizens of the new land, as their parents had become immediately upon their own arrival. In this process many nations and agencies have played wonderful roles, not least the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The exception to this refugee story is the Palestinians. In most of the Arab lands to which they fled or travelled after 1948 they were often treated badly, and refused citizenship (with Jordan the major exception) or even the right to work legally. And instead of coming under the protection of UNHCR, they had a special agency of their own, UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency. In the decades of its existence, it has not solved or even diminished the Palesinian refugee problem; instead it has presided over a massive increase in its size, for all the descendants of Palestinian refugees are considered to be refugees as well. Once there were 750,000; now there are five million people considered by UNRWA to be “Palestinian refugees.” And UNRWA is now the largest UN agency, with a staff of 30,000. UNHCR cares for the rest of the world with about 7,500 personnel.

The political background to this story is simple: only in the case of Israel was there a determined refusal to accept what had happened during and after World War II,".."

Similar but not as egregious anti-Israel Warping exist in the UN Human Rights apparatus where Palestinians alone have their own department (1 of just 7) that is on a par with say, All of East Asia (China, NK, Mynamar, etc, etc) in size.

 

[mbig]

How UNRWA creates dependency :: Middle East Forum
by Asaf Romirowsky and Jonathan Spyer
Washington Times
December 3, 2007 (UNRWA 5000 people bigger now)

[......]..UNRWA, in turn, is a central factor blocking a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue — which is one of the central factors preventing the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Understanding the way that UNRWA helps perpetuate the Palestinian refugee problem requires taking a closer look at the way that the agency functions. Doing so reveals the workings of a dysfunctional bureaucracy.

While Palestinian refugees benefit materially from UNRWA, the agency benefits in return from the refugees. The refugees are the organization's raison d'etre. And bureaucracies tend to dislike dissolving themselves. So, like any good bureaucracy, UNRWA has zero incentive to resolve the Palestinian refugee problem if it is to continue to exist. Ending the refugee problem would render UNRWA obsolete.

Instead, UNRWA finds a Hundred and One ways to Perpetuate Palestinian dependency. The interests of the refugees and UNRWA are fatally intertwined; UNRWA is staffed mainly by local Palestinians — more than 23,000 of them — with only about 100 international United Nations professionals. Tellingly, while the U.N. High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) avoid employing locals who are also recipients of agency services, UNRWA does not make this distinction. Terrorism does not exclude one from being a part of UNRWA. In fact, quite the opposite is true: UNRWA-overseen hospitals and clinics routinely employ members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Employing Palestinians for decade after decade and providing them with subsistence-level food aid and rudimentary education are a far cry from giving them usable skills and a positive attitude about creating their own independent economy and viable civic institutions.

In addition, the Palestinian agenda (and sympathy for the Palestinian cause) have infiltrated every aperture at Turtle Bay.[......]

Canada has stopped providing funding for UNRWA and the Netherlands is considering the same.

 

[Thunder]

once the Palestinian refugee issue is solved, by bringing millions back to the West Bank and perhaps 100,000 or so back to Israel, this agency can be disbanded.

 

[mbig]

once the Palestinian refugee issue is solved, by bringing millions back to the West Bank and perhaps 100,000 or so back to Israel, this agency can be disbanded.

That's not the point.
Millions will NOT 'return' to the West Bank.
Many will become citizens of wherever they Now reside if the UNRWA coddling is stopped and the refugee status (not actuality) will wind down and end.

I must again say you Cheapen every string you enter with your compulsive, last-wording, one-liners, which at the time of this posting are at the bottom of 6 of the last 7 strings in the section. Please try making Thoughtful posts instead of any posts/come-backs. The quality of discussion in this section, at least, suffers from your recent omnipresence/barrage posting.

 

[Thunder]

...I must again say you Cheapen every string you enter with your compulsive, last-wording, one-liners, which at the time of this posting are at the bottom of 6 of the last 7 strings in the section.....

excuse me???????????

is this some sort of sad way of avoiding the issues?

 

[mbig]

Summer Camps considered refugee agency work?
Real refugees are starving worldwide.
Marathons organized by UNRWA schools.
Maybe speak to the Saudis/Gulf States about funding them. The USA/EU can't afford all but dire need these days.
Gaza children run marathon to raise funds for UN summer camps - Haaretz | Israel News

Runners take part in a 10 km race, as part of the second annual Gaza Marathon,
organized by the UNRWA in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip March 1, 2012.
Reuters.


Meanwhile in ie, again Kenya, the world's largest refugee camp at 1/2 a Million

Somali boys fetch water from a puddle that formed after rain
at the sprawling Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya, October 2011.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news...n-Kenya-Marks-20th-Anniversary-139858473.html

Others in Africa are in even worse straights with no agencies/no pictures. UN is too busy demonizing Israel by pampering persecuted-Palestinians into the 4th generation of refugee-hood.

 

[JusticeForSome?]

Summer Camps considered refugee agency work?
Real refugees are starving worldwide.
Marathons organized by UNRWA schools.
Maybe speak to the Saudis/Gulf States about funding them. The USA/EU can't afford all but dire need these days.
Gaza children run marathon to raise funds for UN summer camps - Haaretz | Israel News

Runners take part in a 10 km race, as part of the second annual Gaza Marathon,
organized by the UNRWA in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip March 1, 2012.
Reuters.


Meanwhile in ie, again Kenya, the world's largest refugee camp at 1/2 a Million
View attachment 67123666
Somali boys fetch water from a puddle that formed after rain
at the sprawling Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya, October 2011.
World

Others in Africa are in even worse straights with no agencies/no pictures. UN is too busy demonizing Israel by pampering persecuted-Palestinians into the 4th generation of refugee-hood.

So your argument is essentially that since some people have it worse, we should ignore those who have it bad? If anything this means that more funds should come into the United Nations in order to assist and help refugees internationally; not to disband one simply because it receives the attention that it SHOULD. That's like saying well to hell with our war veterans with serious injuries let's not assist them because there's Africans starving ergo the veterans don't have it bad enough to require our assistance. The United Nations should be working to improve human rights and the refugee situation in Palestine, as it currently attempts to do; but I also agree that more funds should come in to assist refugees elsewhere. That doesn't mean you should disband the one refugee group that is actually remotely successful at promoting human rights.

 

[mbig]

So your argument is essentially that since some people have it worse, we should ignore those who have it bad?

That would be a huge understatement and ignoring the bulk of what I put up.
On that particular issue, however, the answer would be Yes.
Once your able to organize Marathons for summer camp.. perhaps it's time to worry about the rest of the planet's Starving (and real) refugees.

If anything this means that more funds should come into the United Nations in order to assist and help refugees internationally; not to disband one simply because it receives the attention that it SHOULD. That's like saying well to hell with our war veterans with serious injuries let's not assist them because there's Africans starving ergo the veterans don't have it bad enough to require our assistance. The United Nations should be working to improve human rights and the refugee situation in Palestine, as it currently attempts to do; but I also agree that more funds should come in to assist refugees elsewhere. That doesn't mean you should disband the one refugee group that is actually remotely successful at promoting human rights.

More funds are NOT forthcoming from even the wealthiest but troubled nations of Europe or from debt-ridden and economically troubled America.
The UN has to parse resources it has fairly and wisely, Not politically.
The UNRWA is a giant octopus including political advocacy.. while other Real refugees starve.
It promotes refugeeism/political victimhood and has inhibited peace by doing so.
See all the above material posted.

 

[mbig]

It's nice, I suppose, We're paying for some, if not a complete, version of Universal Health Care.. while Tens of millions of Americans have none.
The UNRWA is funded mostly by the USA (1), and EU/UK (2).

UNRWA increases its coverage of tertiary health care for Palestine refugees in Lebanon -UNRWA
18 April 2012
Beirut

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced today that following intensive fundraising efforts, the Agency was able to further increase its average coverage of tertiary health care services for Palestine refugees living in Lebanon from 40% to 50%. These changes will take effect on 1 May 2012. The Agency had already increased its coverage for tertiary health care from 30%to 40% in May 2011. Palestinian patients are eligible to benefit from this increase at all hospitals contracted by UNRWA for tertiary health care services. For surgical admissions, the coverage will increase to 50% of the Ministry of Health rate. In the case of medical admissions, the Agency’s coverage will be increased from USD 250 to USD 300 per day of hospitalisation. The maximum duration of coverage was also increased from 12 to 14 days
[.......]
Palestine refugees are now able to save between 10% and 60% on medications, depending on the type they purchase from a third-party provider identified by the Ministry of Public Health.
[.......]
Around 280,000 Palestine refugees living in Lebanon benefit from the Agency's Primary health care and hospitalisation services. As the main provider of health care services to Palestine refugees, UNRWA operates 28 health centres inside refugee camps and in Palestinian communities across Lebanon, providing free primary health care services, including medical consultations, and essential medications. - The Agency covers a large portion of secondary hospitalisation services, comprising 85% of total hospital admissions, through its contracts with 23 government, private, and Red Crescent hospitals. Tertiary care services, a more Sophisticated form of hospitalisation, are provided in 15 contracted hospitals and covered partially by the Agency.

What other 'refugees' get Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary care, as well as prescription drug benefits? And you don't have to be needy to qualify as a [Palestinian] refugee.
Real Refugees are starving worldwide.

 

[mbig]

My continuing commentary on the UN's largest agency/UNRWA and it's mission.
UNRWA has 30,000 employees for Palestinians 'Refugeees' Alone,
while the UN takes care of the Rest of the Planet's [real] refugees/UNHCR with 7500 employees.

Changing How UNRWA Works
by James G. Lindsay
Middle East Quarterly
Fall 2012, pp. 85-91
Reforming UNRWA :: Middle East Quarterly

[.......] One would think that an agency that frequently complains of insufficient funding from its donors would have already come to the conclusion that aid ought to only go to those in need. In fact, UNRWA began as a needs-based provider; upon inheriting registration rolls from its short-lived predecessor, the U.N. Relief for Palestine Refugees agency (UNRPR), it did not hesitate to remove large numbers of people who were not actually in need of relief.[4] Those early efforts were soon thwarted by opposition from the refugees and host countries."..."
[.......]
Some might question whether scarce international aid should be used to fund relatively Sophisticated programs for Palestinians—not just education and health care but also microfinance, urban planning, and so forth—rather than, say, food for starving Africans in places like Sudan. That moral question aside, why should Western taxpayers fund services to those who can afford to contribute at least a portion of the cost? Palestinians who are able to pay for at least part of their children's education and their family's health care should be required to do so, just as taxpayers everywhere else in the world do. In other words, all UNRWA services, not just welfare, should be provided based on need not merely on a politicized status."
[.......]
Additionally, UNRWA presently provides aid to a number of persons and their descendants—who admittedly never met the UNRWA definition of a refugee—the so-called "economic" refugees
[.......]
UNRWA, of course, does NOT use the UNHCR criteria and does not engage in the sort of analysis required by the "Procedural Standards for Refugee Status Determination." As a practical matter, with a Fourth generation of refugees now in existence, the UNRWA policy can lead to some strange outcomes.
For instance, a man who fled in 1948 from what is now Israel and was registered as a refugee (first generation refugee) could have had a male child with a Non-refugee; that child (a Second generation refugee) could have himself grown up and had a male child with a non-refugee and then that male child (a Third generation refugee) could have had a male child (a Fourth generation refugee) with a non-refugee. Although such a Fourth generation refugee would have only 1/8 "refugee blood" and even though he, his parents, and his grandparents may have never set foot in what is now Israel, for UNRWA they all remain refugees entitled to repatriation to their "homes" there.

Using the UNHCR criteria would, for instance, make it nearly impossible for UNRWA to find a "relationship of social, emotional or economic dependency" for the great-grandson of a refugee who was born after the death of his refugee great-grandfather. UNRWA's wholesale acceptance of all descendants via the male line is far from UNHCR's careful consideration of each case and appears designed to create refugees where there are none.
[.......]

 

[CJ 2.0]

So the piece of s*** UNRWA which found rockets in its school actually gave them to Hamas.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/un-agency-handed-rockets-back-to-hamas-israel-says/

Discuss.

 

[ido_]

More rockets discovered in another school

UNWRA finds rockets in Gaza school for second time | i24news - See beyond

 

[CaptainCourtesy]

Moderator's Warning:

Moved to "Israel/Palestine/Hamas political debate and discussion specific to the current military activity" sub-forum.