We address you from the narrow alleys of the Palestinian refugee camps across the diaspora, and from beneath the rubble left by the Israeli war machine in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, where millions of Palestinian refugees continue to struggle for survival. We call upon you to uphold your humanitarian, moral, and legal responsibilities in confronting the severe financial crisis facing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a crisis resulting from the systematic Israeli-American campaign targeting the Agency.
Supporting UNRWA is not merely a financial contribution; it is a moral commitment and an affirmation of the values of justice and human dignity. Every reduction in funding has an immediate impact on a Palestinian child›s right to education, a patient›s access to healthcare, and a refugee family›s ability to secure the minimum necessities of life.
We urge you to keep in mind the future of more than half a million Palestinian students and to remember that millions of refugees depend on UNRWA for education, healthcare, relief assistance, and essential services. Protecting these rights is not an act of charity, but a legal, moral, and humanitarian obligation toward a people who continue to endure the consequences of the longest unresolved refugee crisis in modern history.
Distinguished Representatives of States and International Organizations,
As the UNRWA Pledging Conference convenes in New York on 30 June, the UNRWA Affairs Department of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine affirms that this conference is no longer merely an annual occasion to renew financial pledges. Rather, it has become a genuine test of the international community›s commitment to its legal, political, and moral responsibilities toward Palestinian refugees and their inalienable rights.
The threat confronting UNRWA today has gone far beyond a conventional financial crisis. It has evolved into a comprehensive political project aimed at undermining the Agency and its internationally mandated legal status through financial strangulation, political pressure, disinformation campaigns, the targeting of its staff, and the promotion of misleading initiatives and suspicious alternatives designed to dismantle UNRWA and eliminate its role as the international witness to the Nakba of the Palestinian people and as the embodiment of the international community›s responsibility toward the refugee question until the implementation of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194.
The continuation of the Agency›s financial deficit, the imposition of austerity measures affecting staff and services under the pretext of adapting to financial realities, the arbitrary dismissal of employees, and the reduction of education, healthcare, and relief services are not merely administrative measures. They are the direct consequences of a systematic policy intended to weaken UNRWA and push it toward institutional collapse, paving the way for alternative arrangements that would undermine the essence of its political mandate.
The UNRWA Affairs Department of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine therefore calls upon the participating states to move beyond statements of support and solidarity and translate their positions into concrete action by:
Providing full, sustainable, and multi-year funding that guarantees the Agency›s operational stability, free from political conditionality and pressure.
Rejecting any proposals or initiatives aimed at transferring UNRWA›s mandate or delegating its responsibilities and services to any other body.
Protecting UNRWA›s mandate as established under United Nations General Assembly Resolution 302 and reaffirming its continuation until a just solution to the Palestinian refugee question is achieved in accordance with Resolution 194.
Ending political pressure targeting the Agency and its personnel, and rejecting the use of unsubstantiated allegations as a pretext for penalizing staff members or undermining the institution.
We warn that any further failure to provide the necessary funding, or any reluctance to confront efforts aimed at dismantling UNRWA, will be interpreted as implicit approval of the liquidation of one of the most important legal and political witnesses to the Palestinian refugee question. Such a failure would place the international community before a historic responsibility for the humanitarian and political consequences that would inevitably follow.
Do not become partners in attempts to dismantle UNRWA and eliminate its services. Instead, stand as defenders of justice and humanity by reaffirming your commitment to protecting UNRWA as a humanitarian and relief institution and as a fundamental pillar of the Palestinian refugee cause. Defending UNRWA is a defense of international legitimacy and the right of return; it is far more than a defense of humanitarian services alone.