New York
Madam Chair,
Excellencies,
This is a critical moment for UNRWA, our 33,000 staff members, and the millions of Palestine Refugees we serve.
The risk of the Agency’s collapse threatens the lives and futures of individuals and communities, the stability of the region, and the integrity of our multilateral system.
In open defiance of the United Nations Charter, the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council, and the binding orders of the International Court of Justice, the State of Israel is working to unilaterally shift the long-established parameters for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Last month, the Israeli parliament passed legislation that could end UNRWA’s operations in the occupied Palestinian territory in less than three months.
This would fulfill an explicitly stated objective of the war in Gaza.
Madam Chair,
Unique among United Nations agencies, UNRWA is mandated to directly provide public-like services, including education for more than half a million children and primary healthcare.
The Agency provides human development services for Palestine Refugees in the absence of a Palestinian state.
During conflicts, UNRWA also provides humanitarian assistance to all those in need.
Yet today, UNRWA is a casualty of the war in Gaza.
At least 243 UNRWA personnel have been killed.
Others have been detained and report being tortured.
More than two-thirds of UNRWA premises have been damaged or destroyed.
Palestinian armed groups, including Hamas, and Israeli forces have allegedly used our premises for military purposes.
I have strongly, repeatedly and publicly condemned this alleged use of our premises.
I continue to call for accountability for the attacks on UN personnel, premises and operations through an independent investigation into these violations.
Excellencies,
In addition to the attacks within the occupied Palestinian territory, the Agency has also been subjected to a fierce, global disinformation campaign.
Intense lobbying by the Government of Israel and affiliated groups has targeted parliaments and governments in top donor countries.
The attacks against UNRWA are justified by allegations that the Agency is colluding with or infiltrated by Hamas.
UNRWA takes allegations of neutrality breaches extremely seriously.
While we do not operate in a zero-risk environment, we take a zero-tolerance approach to any proven breaches.
The Independent Review of UNRWA’s neutrality found that the Agency has a more robust neutrality framework than any comparable entity.
We are making every effort to implement the recommendations of the review.
I must emphasize that UNRWA – like comparable United Nations entities – does not have police, military or intelligence capabilities.
We rely on Member States when such capacities are needed.
For over 15 years, UNRWA has shared annually the names of its staff with the Government of Israel.
We now share these names on a quarterly basis.
This includes the names of staff about whom the government never previously raised concerns, but now include in lists alleging armed militancy.
We have repeatedly asked the Government of Israel for evidence, and proposed how sensitive evidence might be shared.
We have not received a response.
UNRWA cannot address allegations for which it has no evidence.
Yet, these allegations continue to be used to undermine the Agency.
Madam Chair,
UNRWA is a soft target for warring parties that view its presence and activities as a threat.
Hamas has repeatedly and publicly accused UNRWA, especially its senior management, of colluding with the Israeli occupation.
For many years, Hamas has strongly opposed UNRWA’s education programme, challenging our commitment to gender equality and neutrality.
Hamas has even disapproved of the Agency’s Summer Fun Weeks programme, which brings girls and boys together for art, games, music and sports.
Let me state the obvious – UNRWA is not a party to this conflict.
It is a United Nations agency.
It is the mechanism through which the United Nations is tasked – by the General Assembly – to assist Palestine Refugees.
All parties to the conflict must allow UNRWA to fulfill its mandate.
If the Agency cannot operate in the occupied Palestinian territory, the responsibility for providing services to Palestinians – and for bearing the cost of these services – will lie not with the United Nations, but with Israel as the occupying power.
Excellencies,
A year ago, I described to you the horror that I personally witnessed in Gaza a month into the war.
I did not know then how much worse it would get.
A year later, more than 43,000 people are reported killed. Nearly 70% are women and children.
Thousands more lie unaccounted for under the rubble or have succumbed to disease.
Nearly the entire population has been displaced, repeatedly.
Hostages taken from Israel remain in terrifying captivity, and I continue to call for their immediate and unconditional release.
North Gaza is under siege and Palestinians are being burned and buried alive by airstrikes.
Hunger is widespread and famine has likely already taken hold.
Israeli officials state that people will not be allowed to return there.
Across Gaza, 660,000 children who should be in school are learning nothing more than how to survive.
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The stakes are also high in the occupied West Bank.
Settler violence and military incursions by the Israeli Security Forces are a daily reality.
Public infrastructure is destroyed systematically during military operations, inflicting collective punishment on Palestinians.
Illegal settlement activity is expanding aggressively, in total impunity.
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Meanwhile, war has spilled into Lebanon.
Nearly a million people have been displaced.
And as in Gaza, UNRWA is supporting the humanitarian response.
We have opened shelters hosting thousands of displaced people.
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Nearly half a million people – among them 5,000 Palestine Refugees – have fled from Lebanon to Syria, which is struggling to recover from war, an economic crisis, and devastating earthquakes.
Funding for Syria has dried up.
UNRWA has had to cut back on critical cash and food assistance.
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Jordan is not immune to growing regional instability.
Many Palestine Refugees there are highly vulnerable to social and economic shocks.
In this time of profound crisis and uncertainty, Palestine Refugees across the region are turning to UNRWA.
And the Agency has never been in greater peril.
Madam Chair,
The implementation of the Knesset legislation will have catastrophic consequences.
In Gaza, dismantling UNRWA will collapse the United Nations humanitarian response, which relies heavily on the Agency’s infrastructure.
Glaringly absent from discussions about Gaza without UNRWA, is education.
Palestinians value education highly – it is the only asset from which they have not, until now, been dispossessed.
In the absence of a capable public administration or state, only UNRWA can deliver education to more than 660,000 girls and boys across Gaza.
In the absence of UNRWA, an entire generation will be denied the right to education.
Their future will be sacrificed, sowing the seeds for marginalization and extremism.
Before the war, UNRWA addressed 70 to 80 percent of primary healthcare needs in Gaza.
We still provide 16,000 medical consultations each day.
In the West Bank, UNRWA’s collapse would deprive at least 50,00 children of education, and half a million Palestine Refugees of primary healthcare.
Dismantling UNRWA will not terminate the refugee status of Palestinians – this status exists independently of the Agency – but it will severely harm their lives and future.
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The Knesset legislation strikes a terrible blow to our staff.
17,000 staff in the occupied Palestinian territory fear that they will lose their employment.
They also fear further attacks, legitimized by these laws.
It is a valid fear.
Just last week, a female staff member in the West Bank was detained, intimidated and harassed by Israeli Security Forces.
They accused her of working for a terrorist organization, seized her UNRWA laptop, and used it to access internal information.
A total violation of United Nations privileges and immunities.
Despite everything they have been through, my staff is afraid that the worst is yet to come.
Excellencies,
I will conclude by reiterating three requests I made to Member States last week, and making an additional request:
First, I ask that Member States act to prevent the implementation of the legislation against UNRWA.
Changes to UNRWA’s mandate are the prerogative of the General Assembly, not individual Member States.
Second, I ask that Member States ensure that any plan for a political transition delineates UNRWA’s role.
The Agency must progressively conclude its mandate within the framework of a political solution, and, in the occupied Palestinian territory, hand over its services to an empowered Palestinian administration.
Third, I ask that Member States maintain funding to UNRWA, and do not withhold or divert funds on the assumption that the Agency can no longer operate.
The cost of providing critical services, including education and healthcare, during a transition will be immense.
My final request concerns the future of our multilateral system and the United Nations – of which UNRWA is an integral part.
I ask that Member States utilize all the legal and political tools at their disposal to ensure that the international rules-based order is upheld.
The United Nations and its staff are in an increasingly untenable position – if the legal and political framework within which we operate does not hold, we cannot stay and deliver.
I urge you to consider seriously what that would mean for our collective future.
Thank you.