15 policy challenges for new head of UNRWA
The appearance of Swiss diplomat Phillipe Lazzarini as the new head of UNRWA provides a window of opportunity for UNRWA donor nations, which oversee UNRWA policy to demand a reform of UNRWA.
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, on July 26, 2018. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90
Special attention has to be made to the UNRWA schools, which for the past 20 years have used the new Palestinian Authority curriculum to indoctrinate Palestinian Arab children to conquer all of Palestine by force of arms, a goal hardly appropriate to a UN agency.
Here are 15 policy challenges which the new UNRWA commissioner will now have to grapple with.
1. UNRWA textbooks which do not jive with UN Values of peaceful reconciliation. UNRWA has introduced a new schoolbook which features Dalal el Mugrabi, whose terror squad commandeered a bus and murdered 38 passengers, including 13 children, as a role model for UNRWA pupils. In the new UNRWA text, Dalal is portrayed in full terror garb, followed by a lesson plan which presents her life story for adulation and emulation. In another new text, UNRWA pupils are taught to chant and sing a poem which encourages children to “exterminate the usurpers” after the Arabs return to Palestine it back. The new UNRWA commissioner could confiscate such textbooks.
2. UNRWA contracts for exclusive use of school books of the Palestinian Authority, in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and Gaza. UNRWA, like all UN agencies, is supposed to run schools based on the UN slogan “Peace Begins Here”. PA education, however, runs schools based on the ideology of the Palestine Liberation Organization: Conquest of Palestine by force of arms. The new UNRWA commissioner can cancel the UNRWA-PA contract
3. UNRWA schools are adorned with posters and murals of “martyrs” who died while murdering Jews. The new UNRWA commissioner can order the removal of all violent images in UNRWA facilities
4. El Kutla youth clubs in UNRWA schools inspire pupils with the mantra of the armed struggle from a young age. The new UNRWA commissioner can order El Kutla clubs in to cease and desist from violent incitement.
5. Military parades frequent UNRWA premises. The new UNRWA commissioner can order an end to military parades in any UNRWA facility.
6. Hamas terror groups present candidates to run teachers and workers unions of UNRWA. The new UNRWA commissioner can demand that any UNRWA employee who runs on a “Hamas ticket” be barred from the payroll. Even the UN defines Hamas as a terrorist organization.
7. Nakba events are scheduled again for this May 15, the day when the PLO mourns the defeat of the Arab armies which invaded Israel. These rallies call for violence. The new UNRWA commissioner can issue a directive to refrain from any call to violence at the Nakba ceremonies in UNRWA
8. Popular Singer Mohammad Assaf from Gaza, claiming to be “UNRWA Youth Ambassador”, whips up crowds to violence. The new UNRWA Commissioner can issue a policy statement, that UNRWA dissociates itself from Assaf and his message
9. Memorial Events UNRWA schools for Arabs killed in the act of murder occur in UNRWA schools. The new UNRWA commissioner can cancel such ceremonies.
10.No Transparency. With a flow of $1.2 billion in donations from 67 nations and 32 Ngo’s, much of which arrives in cash, the new UNRWA commissioner must make sure that all funds and equipment are used for humanitarian needs, and not stolen, transferred to the hands of terror groups or sold on the open market. The time has come for a new UNRWA commissioner to put an end to cash payments, which makes donor transparency nearly impossible.
11. Export of UNRWA school texts. Using the diplomatic pouch of donor nations, UNRWA exports school books which promote the right of return and the replacement of Israel with Palestine. The New UNRWA commissioner can put an end to this
12. Obfuscation of UNRWA financial situation. Following the US funding cutback of $365 million in August 2018, UNRWA announced that all US funding had been replaced by increase of funds from Germany, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Norway. Ever since the US cutback, however, UNRWA issues statements which attribute the UNRWA financial difficulties to the US cutback. At no time has UNRWA ever specified how it spends its budget. The new UNRWA commissioner could immediately publicize an accounting of expenditures.
13. UNRWA non-recognition of Israel on the map. UNRWA distributes world and regional maps which obliterate Israel and replacing all Israel locations with Arab names. Should Israel, a UN member in good standing, not appear on a map issued by a UN agency? The new UNRWA commissioner can now make it his business sure that all maps show Israel.
14. Fake News: Jews cause Coronavirus. For the past few months, official PA sources have swamped the public domain with statements that Israel spreads the Corona Virus. The new UNRWA commissioner can make sure that the PA personnel who dominate the UNRWA payroll will never repeat any such statement.
15. Arms training summer camps. For the past twenty years, thousands of UNRWA students, age 9 to 16, have participated in summer camps which feature arms training with live weapons. With summer now approaching, the new UNRWA commissioner can act to curb arms training of “child soldiers”, which flies in the face of UN resolutions that protect the health and well-being of children.
Will Australia, the 16th leading donor which funds UNRWA without any conditions, demand that the new UNRWA commissioner act on these fifteen policy challenges?
*This is donor chart of the leading UNRWA donors:
https://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/2019_top_20_donors_overall_ranking.pdf
**David Bedein, head of Israel Resource News Agency at the Center for Near East Policy Research , at Beit Agron in Jerusalem, has provided news coverage of UNRWA since December, 1987, assisted by a team of Jewish and Arab journalists, producing 24 short films shot on location, along with two books and hundreds of news articles.
