Sculpture of a key over a gate to the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem symbolises the refugees' right to return to the homes that they fled in 1967. Richard Gray/Empics Entertainment. All rights reserved. Another month, another unprecedented UN report on Palestinian affairs placing the responsibility on all UN member states for the worsening trajectory in the multi-faceted Palestinian/Israeli drama. Decades of US brokered talks between “the two parties” have produced only failure, acknowledged as such by all but a handful of politicians who surely know better. It is time for a new narrative, with new actors taking responsibilities which have been evaded for too long. In the febrile atmosphere of today’s Middle East the world cannot afford a new flashpoint.
Unlike the now notorious ESCWA report “Israeli Practices towards Palestinians and the Question of Apartheid”, withdrawn under pressure from the US and Israel, but widely circulated on the internet, and the subject of days of headlines, the latest report, from the UN Secretary General himself, has been too little noticed. Mr Guterres’ report cites UNRWA’s role in the "mitigation of extremism, its stabilising influence and its contribution to peace and security”.
Last week Secretary General Antonio Guterres gave a highly unusual glowing accolade to UNRWA, the cash-strapped UN agency for 5.3 million Palestinian refugees, describing it as “indispensable”. UNRWA’s chronic and deepening funding crisis nearly brought its schools and medical care across the region to a standstill in 2015. Half a million Palestinian refugee children’s education – in camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan – was at risk with incalculable impact on already fragile social fabric.
