Diplomats pledge support, funding for UN Palestinian relief agency

UNITED NATIONS — Dozens of diplomats praised the work of the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees, while pledging more than $110 million Tuesday to keep the organization afloat.

One by one, ambassadors expressed their concern for the financial state of the UN Relief and Works Agency one year after the group’s largest donor — the United States — completely dropped its funding, from $360 million annually to zero.

This year, the agency is seeking a budget of $1.2 billion, equal to its operating budget last year, to fund a host of services for more than 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

“We must persevere and on the occasion of this pledging conference, I humbly call on all of you to sustain the positive dynamic we created in 2018 and early this year,” said UNRWA's Commissioner General Pierre Krähenbühl.

He added: “In financial terms, we launched global appeals for US $1.2 billion for all UNRWA operations in 2019. This is the exact amount we mobilized in 2018. In other words, if every donor could maintain its level of contribution of last year we could cover our financial needs.”

He said the agency cut its spending by $92 million last year and, through pledges from the international community, overcame a budget shortfall of $446 million.

Last year’s conference raised $40 million, but he said this year he has received pledges exceeding $110 million.

At the start of the conference Tuesday, said UN General Assembly President María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, the agency was $211 million short of its funding goal.

“This is not a matter of charity,” she said at the opening of the meeting in Manhattan. “This is about responsibility, about upholding human dignity and human rights. This is about keeping the promise we made through the 2030 agenda — to leave no one behind.”

UNRWA provides housing and medical, educational and social services through more than 700 schools and 144 primary-health care clinics, as well as emergency services to 1.5 million refugees, mainly in Gaza, the West Bank and Syria, Krähenbühl said.

It was created in 1949 by a mandate from the UN General Assembly after hundreds of thousands of Palestinians scattered throughout the Middle East when Israel was founded. 

“For nearly seven decades, UNRWA has faithfully and effectively fulfilled its mandate to assist Palestine refugees until a just and lasting solution is found,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “It is tragic that a political solution has not yet been reached that satisfies the needs and aspirations of both Palestinians and Israelis.”

He added: “In the meantime, the continued work of UNRWA should be viewed not only as our common responsibility, but as our common success. . . . So today, given what is at stake at the human level, at the political and security level, and at the multilateral level, we must rise to the challenge and empower UNRWA to continue its important and impressive work.”