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Tuesday, October 29, 2024

True Facts About UNRWA And UNESCO

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

      UN building in New York:  An image from UNRWA's digitized archive was projected on the UN Headquarters building in New York to mark the end of the UN's International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.  Palestinians have received their needs from UNRWA ever since 1948, and their number keep on growing as each generation appears. 

Israeli parliament votes to ban UNRWA from Israel within 90 days 
    

While it has received praise and recognition for its work by various governments, public figures, and independent monitors, UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) has also been subject to criticism and controversy related to its operations, role in the Gaza Strip, relationship with Hamas, and textbook content.   The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees

Most recently, the agency faced allegations by the Israeli government that twelve of its employees were involved in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, leading to lay-offs, an investigation, and the temporary suspension of funding by numerous donors. As of May 2024, several major donors have since resumed funding as the investigation remains ongoing.  Lawmakers also voted to declare UN relief agency a terror group, banning any direct interaction with Israeli state.

UNESCO, or the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, is a specialized agency of the United Nations that works to promote peace and security through international cooperation in education, science, culture, and communication.                                

Trucks carrying aid wait to exit, on the Palestinian side of the border with Egypt, as the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group,  Hamas continues, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, October 21. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

UNESCO was founded in 1945 as the successor to the League of NationsInternational Committee on Intellectual Cooperation. UNESCO's founding mission, which was shaped by the events of World War II, is to advance peacesustainable development and human rights by facilitating collaboration and dialogue among nations. It pursues this objective through five major programme areas: education, natural sciencessocial/human sciences, culture and communication/information. UNESCO sponsors projects that improve literacy, provide technical training and education, advance science, protect independent media and press freedom, preserve regional and cultural history, and promote cultural diversity. The organization prominently helps establish and secure World Heritage Sites of cultural and natural importance.

Everything they have been doing is slanted in the Palestinian favor.  What they have been dishing out is anti-Semitism to the children and adults.  Palestinians are  people on the dole of the UN for the longest time.  

 UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fled  during the the 1948 War, when Jews declared Israel a state, and subsequent conflicts, as well as their descendants, including legally adopted children. As of 2019, more than 5.6 million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA as refugees.  As of 2024, approximately 5.9 million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA as refugees. 

UNRWA was established in 1949 by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to provide relief to all refugees resulting from the 1948 conflict; this initially included Jewish and Arab Palestine refugees inside the State of Israel until the Israeli government took over this responsibility in 1952.   As a subsidiary body of the UNGA, UNRWA's mandate is subject to periodic renewal every three years; it has consistently been extended since its founding, most recently until 30 June 2026.

UNRWA employs over 30,000 people, most of them Palestinian refugees, and a small number of international staff. Originally intended to provide employment and direct relief, its mandate has broadened to include providing education, health care, and social services to its target population. 

UNRWA operates in five areas: JordanLebanonSyria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalemaid for Palestinian refugees outside these five areas is provided by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), established in 1950 as the main agency to aid all other refugees worldwide.

 UNRWA is the only UN agency dedicated to helping refugees from a specific region or conflict, and that has been the Palestinians.  UNRWA has developed its own working definition of "refugee" to allow it to provide humanitarian assistance. Its definition does not cover final status.   Palestine refugees are "persons whose regular place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict."

On 8 December 1949, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 302(IV), which established the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The resolution was adopted and passed unopposed, supported by Israel and the Arab states, with only the Soviet bloc and South Africa abstaining.

Historically, most of the agency's funds came from the United States ($7 billion in total) and the European Commission; in 2019, close to 60 percent of its total pledge of $1.00 billion came from EU countries, with Germany being the largest individual donor. The next largest donors were the EU, United Kingdom, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates, followed by Saudi Arabia, France, Japan, Qatar, and the Netherlands. UNRWA also establishes partnerships with nongovernmental donors, including nonprofit "national committees" based in donor countries.

It's either naivety or plain lying to believe the following:  "Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime. Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another. We demand of our staff, whatever their political persuasion is, that they behave in accordance with UN standards and norms for neutrality." This is on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNRWA.  

Resource:

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2024/10/knessets-new-law-long-time-coming.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNRWA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO


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