Page 38 - Issue 62

Ramadan Vol.1 Issue 62 December 2023 ELITE

Kareem

As this article was being written, the agency After Oslo, with the increasing significance of
has not run out of funds yet, as the UNRWA the Palestinian refugee question and the threat
Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini it poses to Israel’s imperial ambitions, the
claimed would happen by Mars. However, the organization’s budget increased with only $1.7
implications would be catastrophic and would million throughout the 1990s.

hurt the Palestinian cause the most on the long Arab governments should take up their role
run. Of course, the direct impact on the as the main sponsor of the cause and increase
humanitarian situation in Gaza would be their aid for UNRWA, let alone to stand up
severe and would worsen the circumstances against Israel. Without consistency of aid,
furthermore, but there is a bigger picture as which will only happen if the gulf states take
UNRWA represents the hope of the right of the western donors’ place, the conditions of
return for 1948’s refugees and their our brothers and sisters in Gaza would
descendants, which is the core of Israel case deteriorate furthermore, and the promise of a
against the organization. Ironically, Israel Palestinian state and the return of Palestinians
argues that Palestinians have to accept the to their land would be farther to reach. So far,
reality and that the descendants have no right they have been dealing with the cause as if it is
in the land while Israel itself is based on a not their responsibility, considering it a western
millennia-old ties to the land. responsibility, and missing the point that after
But cutting aid would not only reduce the Palestine, they will be next. The 7th of October
Palestinian refugee question as an international could have been a reviver of the cause and
refugee, it would also deinternationalize and could have put us back on the track of the two-
deinstitutionalize the Palestinian cause. Aid state solution, but the chance has been missed.
from the US and other western allies was not Instead, the last months have proved to Israel

out of good will or pure intentions. It was that whatever it does, the Arabs will never take
provided out of interest in preserving the status action, nor will the international community.
quo and as a function in working towards a There are no red lines. In fact, there are no
two-state solution. Cutting aid represents a lines at all.
change in the west’s policy toward the cause.
Rather than preserving the status quo or
supporting the two-state solution, the new plan
is to eliminate the cause.
This was first most evident when Trump, a
strong advocate of <The Deal of The
Century=, decided to cut funding UNRWA in
2018; his decision was only reversed when
Biden had come to office. This time they are
hiding behind the 7th of October as an excuse

to implement their plans. Though they have
failed to eliminate the cause immediately by
force migrating Palestinians to Sinai, they can
still kill the cause slowly on the long-run, and
cutting aid for the only organization
representing their historical rights is one
38 measure to do so.
This approach goes even further back to the
post-Oslo period. Before Oslo UNRWA had
an average increase in income of $12.3 million.