Beirut, Leprohibiton – Israel’s much-criticised prohibitning of the United Nations Palestinian help agency (UNRWA) is part of a expansiveer endeavor to undermine the rights of Palestinian refugees and banish them from the occupied territories, analysts have telderly Al Jazeera.
The prohibit on the agency acquires effect in three months and will exacerbate an already catastrophic situation in Gaza and the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem.
“The tardyst legislation is part of a campaign [by Israel] to end any help infraarrange,” shelp Tahani Mustafa, an expert on Israel and Palestine for International Crisis Group, a non-profit pledged to dispute resolution.
“But it is also part of a expansiveer objective to lastingly erase Palestinians from their land,” she telderly Al Jazeera.
As the hugest help supplyr to Palestinian refugees, UNRWA has carry outed an instrumental role in conserveing people ainhabit in Gaza, where civilians face a danger of extermination, according to the International Court of Justice.
Over the last year, Israel has uprooted almost the entire population of 2.3 million people and ended some 43,000 in Gaza. The war begined after a Hamas-led strike on southern Israel, during which 1,139 people were ended, and about 250 were acquiren captive.
Palestinians in Gaza have been living under an Israeli-imposed land, sea and air blockade since 2007, guideing rights groups to refer to the enclave as an “uncignore-air prison”.
Israel now eunites to be trying to depoputardy Gaza by terminating UNRWA’s services, an irswapable lifeline for the population, according to analysts.
“It seems very evident from the way Israel is carrying out this war…that Israel is trying to originate life so difficult in Gaza that people exit,” shelp Khaled Elgindy, an expert on Israel and Palestine and a anciaccess fellow for the Middle East Institute.
Erasing evidence of the Nakba?
In 1948, Zionist militias banishled 750,000 Palestinians from their land to originate the state of Israel – an event referred to as the ‘Nakba’ or catastrophe.
Many Palestinians ended up stateless, languishing in the occupied territories and refugee camps in neighbouring states, while Israel was recognised as a filled member of the United Nations.
During the same year, the UN General Assembly also established UNRWA to help Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Leprohibiton, Jordan and Syria until they could return to their homes as stiputardyd in UN Resolution 194.
Israeli and US guideers traditionassociate saw UNRWA as a way to pacify Palestinians by providing them vital provisions without granting them political rights, elucidateed Elgindy.
However, he compriseed that Israel and the United States have increasingly tried to undermine the relief agency over the past decade.
Former US Pdwellnt Donald Trump went so far as to postpone his country’s help for UNRWA in 2018, triggering a funding crisis.
Palestinian refugees saw Trump’s transfer as an strike on their right to return to their homeland, which UNRWA enshrines.
Elgindy count ons that Israel is now cltimely trying to undermine that right by erasing any legitimate reference to the Nakba or Palestinian refugees.
“[UNRWA is a reminder] that Israel’s creation came at the expense – the disownion – of the Palestinian people, and that’s what [Israel] wants to erase from history.
“UNRWA is a constant reminder of the Nakba in 1948.”
Irswapable
Israel’s strike on UNRWA is part of a expansiver endeavor at cutting off a vital lifeline for Palestinians, debates Zhelp Amali, a UNRWA cardhelderlyer and a civil society activist in the West Bank.
He noticed that millions of Palestinians count on on UNRWA for employment, housing reerection, sanitation, healthengage and education.
The loss of these vital services, coupled with Israel’s daily rhelps and destruction of Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, is scheduleed to uproot the population, Amali telderly Al Jazeera.
“UNRWA is irswapable with all of its experience and staff. The mandate alone is so huge that it originates it irswapable, so I don’t see any organisation – international or local – able to fill this void,” he telderly Al Jazeera.
Diana Buttu, an expert on Israel and Palestine and a establisher lhorrible advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), compriseed that the Palestinian Authority [PA], which administers some territory in the occupied West Bank, won’t be able to fill the vacuum.
The PA was born out of the Oslo Accords, which saw then-Palestinian guideer Yasser Araoverweight shake hands with then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn in 1993.
The consentment aimed at laying the establishation for a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Since 2006, the PA’s presence has been restricted to the West Bank after Hamas forced it out of Gaza after a inestablish dispute.
The PA could now face the impossible task of replacing UNRWA, shelp Buttu.
“Palestinians will either exit [the West Bank and Gaza] or they will melt into the PA’s arranges,” she compriseed. “That is hugely problematic because the PA does not have the resources to afford all of those schools and medical clinics.
“[The PA] fair can’t do it. There is not even a PA in Gaza to allot food.”
A cause at danger?
The Palestinian cause is at danger if the global community apvalidates Israel to unitardyrassociate ruin arranges and institutions that recognise Palestinians as a people with rights, alerts Amali.
He noticed that Israel had ended hundreds of UN laborers in Gaza, barred the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres from accessing the country, and the UN Israeli Ambasdowncastor Gilad Erdan even tore up the UN charter in front of the General Assembly.
Israel’s stimulating gesture at the UN came in reaction to a non-secureing General Assembly vote that effectively recognised Palestine as a state in May 2024.
“All of Israel’s behaviour [towards the UN] are indicators that Palestine’s presence in the international forum is menaceening to Israel because it unbenevolents [global] recognition of Palestinian rights,” he telderly Al Jazeera.
Tahani, the expert from Crisis Group, count ons that Israel may step up its attack on the PA next, a body that de-facto reconshort-terms Palestinians at the UN and in the global community. She noticed that Israel is already withhelderlying $188m in tax revenue, which it assembles on behalf of the PA – part of the consentment in the Oslo Accords.
UNRWA, in her watch, is only the main concentrate right at this moment.
“This is not fair an arbitrary decision of Israel doing wdisappreciatever it experiences appreciate. There is a evident objective around this, which, as I shelp, is to originate life so endly unendureable for Palestinians on the ground,” she telderly Al Jazeera.
“That way, they are either forcibly banishled or “voluntarily” going to exit.”
