UNRWA head says ban will have “catastrophic consequences”
Israel’s ban on UN agency UNRWA will have “catastrophic consequences” that threaten regional stability, the head of UNRWA warned on November 13th according to the Arab News.
Philippe Lazzarini in a plea to the UN General Assembly urged member states to take action to stop Israel from banning the organisation.
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Israel’s parliament voted last month to cut ties with UNRWA and ban it from operating in Israel. The law, which will also limit the agency’s ability to work within the West Bank and Gaza where millions rely on its services, its expected to be implemented within three months.
The situation in Gaza is already dire, and this week Israel was accused by a number of aid agencies of ignoring a supposed ultimatum by the US to alleviate the suffering in Gaza. The US has however decided not to implement any restrictions on Israel.
Lazzarini claimed the decision to ban UNRWA would not only cause the humanitarian response in Gaza to collapse but would also deal a blow to the international order under which UN agencies must operate.
“The risk of the agency’s collapse threatens the lives and futures of individuals and communities, the stability of the region, and the integrity of our multilateral system,” Lazzarini said.
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He added that UNRWA had become another casualty of the war in Gaza, in which Israeli forces have killed 43,000 people, of whom around 70% are women and children according to UN statistics
“The implementation of the Knesset (Israeli parliament) legislation will have catastrophic consequences,” Lazzarini said. “In Gaza, dismantling UNRWA will collapse the United Nations’ humanitarian response, which relies heavily on the agency’s infrastructure.”
He highlighted the devastating effects the ban would have on education in Gaza, where “in the absence of a capable public administration or state, only UNRWA can deliver education to more than 660,000 girls and boys.”
“The United Nations and its staff are in an increasingly untenable position; if the legal and political framework within which we operate does not hold, we cannot stay and deliver,” he said.
Arab News, The Guardian
