UNRWA Under Threat of Liquidation: The Battle for Refugee Rights and the Protection of the Right of Return

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is facing the most severe crisis in its history since its establishment after the 1948 Nakba. The crisis currently afflicting the agency is no longer merely a transient financial deficit or surmountable operational difficulties; rather, it has become part of a broader political battle targeting its role and legal symbolism, as the living international witness to the ongoing and unresolved issue of Palestinian refugees in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions.UNRWA was established by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 302 to provide relief and essential services to millions of Palestinian refugees until a just solution to their plight is found. Since then, the agency has become more than just a humanitarian institution, as its existence has been directly linked to international recognition of the refugee issue and the rights affirmed by international legitimacy, foremost among them the right of return and compensation as stipulated in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194. Therefore, targeting UNRWA today cannot be separated from an attempt to undermine the legal and political basis of the refugee issue itself.What is happening against UNRWA comes in the context of a highly critical Palestinian moment, where the Palestinian issue as a whole is subjected to unprecedented pressures aimed at reshaping it in a way that bypasses the historical rights of the Palestinian people, and at its heart, the right of return. The attack on the agency coincides with a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, with escalating settlement policies in the West Bank, and with attempts to impose new political realities that seek to liquidate the essence of the Palestinian issue and transform it from a cause of a people uprooted from their land into merely a manageable or containable humanitarian crisis.In this context, the crisis facing UNRWA takes on a complex character. On the one hand, the agency suffers from a serious financial deficit due to the reduction or freezing of contributions from a number of donor countries under clear political pressure, which threatens the continuity of its vital services for millions of refugees who depend on it for education, healthcare, and food aid. On the other hand, incitement and questioning campaigns led by the Israeli occupation authorities, with the support of political circles in the United States, are escalating in a clear attempt to delegitimize the agency and undermine its UN mandate.This campaign has gone beyond political pressure to take on a direct field character, represented by the closure of UNRWA offices in Jerusalem and attempts to disrupt its work in the Gaza Strip, in a move that reflects an organized effort to end the agency's role or replace it with alternative arrangements that strip the refugee issue of its political and legal content. The very existence of UNRWA reminds the world that the refugee issue has not yet been resolved, and that millions of Palestinians still live in camps awaiting the implementation of their right to return to their homes from which they were displaced in 1948.The gravity of these developments is compounded by the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip as a result of the ongoing war, where UNRWA has become the backbone of relief and humanitarian work. At a time when the population's needs for food, medicine, shelter, and education are increasing, the agency itself is subjected to suffocating financial and administrative pressures, which have even affected its employees, with hundreds of workers being dismissed and a portion of their salaries deducted, threatening the agency's ability to continue performing its essential tasks.Weakening UNRWA or reducing its role will not be merely an administrative or financial measure, but will have profound repercussions on the lives and future of Palestinian refugees. Millions who depend on the agency's services may suddenly find themselves without schools, clinics, or food aid, threatening to exacerbate poverty and unemployment and to deteriorate social conditions within the camps in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria.More dangerously, undermining UNRWA's role could be used as a political entry point to try to bypass the refugee issue itself, by proposing alternatives or formulas that seek to end the refugee status without addressing its political and legal roots. The absence or weakening of the agency could be interpreted as a decline in international recognition of Palestinian refugees and their rights affirmed by the United Nations.For this reason, the battle currently raging around UNRWA is not just a financial or administrative battle, but a battle over the political and legal memory of the Palestinian issue. The agency represents, in its essence, a continuous international recognition that the refugee issue has not yet been resolved, and that the international community still bears a moral and legal responsibility towards millions of Palestinians who were displaced from their land.Hence, the importance of broad political and diplomatic action to protect the agency and ensure the continuation of its work, including mobilizing international support to secure the necessary funding for it, and emphasizing adherence to its UN mandate until a just and comprehensive solution to the refugee issue is reached in accordance with international references. Popular and official efforts also gain special importance in defending UNRWA and rejecting any attempts to reduce its services or replace them with alternative mechanisms that diminish refugee rights.Defending UNRWA is, in essence, defending the cause of Palestinian refugees and their historical and legal right to return to their homes. The agency is not just a relief institution, but an international witness to one of the greatest tragedies of the twentieth century, whose chapters are still open today. Therefore, preserving its role and continuing its work are an essential part of the battle to protect Palestinian national rights and prevent the obliteration of the refugee issue or its transformation into merely a humanitarian matter that can be bypassed.Until a just solution based on the implementation of the right of return is achieved, UNRWA's existence will remain a political, legal, and humanitarian necessity, and an international witness that the Palestinian refugee issue has not and will not be forgotten by the passage of time.