UNRWA Crisis

https://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766867
This is just one of many items that reported on the UN concern about UNRWA not being able to continue to offer its services to the Palestinian refugees due to lack of funds. So I was inspired to send this open letter to Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary general of the UN and to post it on my blog: Reflectionsfrompalestine.blogspot.com

Mr. Ban Ki-moon

UN Secretary General

New York

Dear Sir: 

May I remind you that when UNRWA was established in December 1949,  it was established as a temporary relief agency for the Palestinian refugees who,  in 1948, were driven out of their homes at gun point, or out of  fear for their lives, when the state of Israel was established on Palestinian land .

A year earlier, and in December 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 194 to allow all Palestinian refugees to go back to their homes.  The failure of the UN to implement that resolution, or insist on it before it accepted Israel as a member state, is the root cause of the crisis that UNRWA is facing at the moment. 

Year after year the UN dealt with the Palestinian refugees as a humanitarian problem, whereby  ignoring the implementation of  their political rights completely.  Had the UN lived up to its responsibility and enforced the 194 resolution, it would not have depleted its resources by providing handouts to those Palestinians whose property and land were taken from them by force.

Until a political solution to this grave injustice is implemented, and the refugees are allowed to go back to their land, and exercise their right to self-determination,  then the UN, the USA and its allies, who have vetoed every resolution in favor of the rights of the Palestinian refugees, should be fully responsible to finance UNRWA to continue its services.

Samia Nasir Khoury