“Without UNRWA and the right of return, there is no more Palestine”

Rami Abou Jamous writes his diary for Orient XXI. This founder of GazaPress, an office that provided assistance and translation to Western journalists, had to leave his apartment in Gaza City in October 2023 with his wife Sabah, her children, and their two-and-a-half-year-old son Walid, under pressure from the Israeli army. Having since taken refuge in Rafah, Rami and his family had to return to their internal exile, stuck like so many families in this miserable and overcrowded enclave. For this diary, he received two awards at the Bayeux Prize for war correspondents, in the written press category and the Ouest-France prize. This space has been dedicated to him since February 28, 2024.

The image shows a group of people sitting on rubble in a conflict zone. In the foreground, a man with a bandaged head expresses great sadness or despair, while nearby, several women in dark clothes look towards the camera, some with a concerned expression. A small boy sits a little further away, seemingly lost in thought. The environment is chaotic, with ruins and debris around, suggesting significant damage caused by recent events. The general atmosphere is heavy, reflecting the pain and resilience of those present.

The Knesset passed a law that bans UNRWA from working in Gaza in particular, and in Palestine in general. I can say that this vote marks the transition from humanitarian genocide to political genocide. The goal is to finish off the Palestinian as a human being.

The Israelis are massacring Palestinians with the aim of turning them all into refugees. The second Nakba is underway. Today, they want to erase us politically and legally. UNRWA is the right of return, it is the recognition by the United Nations of the injustice suffered by the Palestinians in 1948, when they were massacred and expelled from their hometowns—in Haifa, in Jaffa, in northern Palestine—to Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank, and also to Gaza.

UNRWA is the only UN agency created specifically for the Palestinians, and for them alone. The Israelis are waging war on this institution because they know very well what it means politically. This is the political aspect of the genocide. They want to erase all traces of the crime and the injustice, to minimize the Palestinian question to make it a purely humanitarian problem. They are talking about replacing UNRWA with another agency, which would be more accommodating.

UNRWA embodies the political recognition of the right of return. Before the war, it was helping 1.7 million people in Gaza, refugees and their descendants, who make up 75% of the population of Gaza. Today, it is helping all Gazans. We are all refugees. UNRWA is education, schools, health services, clinics, employment services. It employs about 13,000 people in Gaza. UNRWA is water, it is food, infrastructure, cleanliness, cleaning, it is everything. It is life for Palestinians, especially those who have refugee status.

They have been waging war on the law for a long time

The Israelis are not only committing massacres, they are also destroying the history of the Palestinians in Gaza. They have bombed and razed with explosives museums, archaeological sites, universities. Even the ancient hammam, which is over a thousand years old. They no longer want any historical trace of the connection between this land and the Palestinians. Now they want to erase their political existence. UNRWA is the symbol of the political presence of the Palestinians, and the affirmation that the occupier is stealing everything, not only the land, but our heritage, our history, our culture, and even our art of embroidery and our gastronomy, by presenting falafel or hummus as “Israeli dishes”.

But not only that. They are preparing another law to ban diplomatic representations set up in Jerusalem. We know well that these delegations, officially called “consulates,” have been acting as embassies to the Palestinians since 1948, even for countries that do not officially recognize the State of Palestine. If I want to obtain a visa for France, I have to go through the consulate in Jerusalem, not the embassy in Tel Aviv. The embassies in Israel are all in Tel Aviv, because Jerusalem is not recognized by the international community as the capital of the State of Israel. With the notable exception of the United States, Trump having moved its embassy to Jerusalem.

Netanyahu and his far-right government know very well what the law means, and they have been waging war on it for a long time. Several times, they have tried to end UNRWA, in vain so far. This time, they passed a law, almost unanimously.

But the Israelis have begun to undermine these delegations, and diplomatic ties with Palestine in general. The Spanish consulate has been banned from providing any services to the Palestinians since Madrid recognized the Palestinian state. Norway having done the same, and not having a consulate in Jerusalem, Israel has withdrawn the diplomatic status of the eight diplomats in its Tel Aviv embassy responsible for relations with the Palestinians. And now, it will no longer be possible to create a new consulate in Jerusalem, a law adopted on October 30, 2024 by the Knesset.

THIS FEELING OF NOT BEING HUMAN

Always the weapon of collective punishment. UNRWA is being punished because it is alleged that 12 of its employees participated in October 7, accusations that Israel has not proven. Twelve people out of thirteen thousand employees. They are looking for any pretext to eliminate even the word "right." To implement the political genocide of the Palestinians. The humanitarian genocide is still ongoing. Everyone sees it, everyone sees these massacres, these “Israelisms”, these butcheries. And no one reacts. We don’t even dare to use the word “genocide”. While in the former Yugoslavia and Burma, the UN has recognized genocides. But in Palestine, we don’t talk about genocide because the perpetrators are the Israelis. Why would the international community move, when it doesn’t say a word in front of the images of children decapitated, torn to pieces, buried under the ruins of their homes hit by two-ton bombs? What is happening today in Jabaliya, in the north of the Gaza Strip, is the equivalent of the siege of Massada for the Jews. This blockade imposed on the Jews by the Romans is exactly what the Israelis are doing in the North. Jabaliya is the Palestinians’ Massada. A hermetic siege. No more food, not even a glass of water. No care, no first aiders. Nothing at all.

It’s non-life. Entire families are massacred in the bombing of their building. Twenty people, thirty people. Those who don’t die under the bombs die of hunger. I can’t stand this oppression, this humiliation. We are exterminated by a merciless war machine. And this feeling that everyone is watching us, and that no one is moving… This feeling of not being human. Why do we suffer all this under the eyes of this world that claims to represent democracy, freedom, human rights? This world that only has these words on its lips: human rights, women’s rights, children’s rights and even animal rights.

This feeling that we are not worth much, that we are cheap, as the English say. That we only deserve to die under the eyes of the world. Yet the world has become very small. With social networks, where everything that happens is shared 24 hours a day, seven days a week, nothing can be hidden. Everyone can see a little boy saying goodbye to his father. A father carrying his child without a head, or in a bag, because he only found scattered remains. That is why I believe that the Israelis will succeed in this political genocide at the same time as the humanitarian genocide. Banning the only international organization that embodies the right of return, no one is fooled: that means the extinction of the right of return. Thus there will be no more relationship between the Palestinians and their territory, no more relationship between the Palestinians and Palestine. There will be nothing called Palestine.

But the Israelis have begun to undermine these delegations, and diplomatic ties with Palestine in general. The Spanish consulate has been banned from providing any services to the Palestinians since Madrid recognized the Palestinian state. Norway having done the same, and not having a consulate in Jerusalem, Israel has withdrawn the diplomatic status of the eight diplomats in its Tel Aviv embassy responsible for relations with the Palestinians. And now, it will no longer be possible to create a new consulate in Jerusalem, a law adopted on October 30, 2024 by the Knesset.

THIS FEELING OF NOT BEING HUMAN

Always the weapon of collective punishment. UNRWA is being punished because it is alleged that 12 of its employees participated in October 7, accusations that Israel has not proven. Twelve people out of thirteen thousand employees. They are looking for any pretext to eliminate even the word "right." To implement the political genocide of the Palestinians. The humanitarian genocide is still ongoing. Everyone sees it, everyone sees these massacres, these “Israelisms”, these butcheries. And no one reacts. We don’t even dare to use the word “genocide”. While in the former Yugoslavia and Burma, the UN has recognized genocides. But in Palestine, we don’t talk about genocide because the perpetrators are the Israelis. Why would the international community move, when it doesn’t say a word in front of the images of children decapitated, torn to pieces, buried under the ruins of their homes hit by two-ton bombs? What is happening today in Jabaliya, in the north of the Gaza Strip, is the equivalent of the siege of Massada for the Jews. This blockade imposed on the Jews by the Romans is exactly what the Israelis are doing in the North. Jabaliya is the Palestinians’ Massada. A hermetic siege. No more food, not even a glass of water. No care, no first aiders. Nothing at all.

It’s non-life. Entire families are massacred in the bombing of their building. Twenty people, thirty people. Those who don’t die under the bombs die of hunger. I can’t stand this oppression, this humiliation. We are exterminated by a merciless war machine. And this feeling that everyone is watching us, and that no one is moving… This feeling of not being human. Why do we suffer all this under the eyes of this world that claims to represent democracy, freedom, human rights? This world that only has these words on its lips: human rights, women’s rights, children’s rights and even animal rights.

This feeling that we are not worth much, that we are cheap, as the English say. That we only deserve to die under the eyes of the world. Yet the world has become very small. With social networks, where everything that happens is shared 24 hours a day, seven days a week, nothing can be hidden. Everyone can see a little boy saying goodbye to his father. A father carrying his child without a head, or in a bag, because he only found scattered remains. That is why I believe that the Israelis will succeed in this political genocide at the same time as the humanitarian genocide. Banning the only international organization that embodies the right of return, no one is fooled: that means the extinction of the right of return. Thus there will be no more relationship between the Palestinians and their territory, no more relationship between the Palestinians and Palestine. There will be nothing called Palestine.

SOURCE: ORIENT XXI