Israel Matzav: UNRWA's audacious lies

UNRWA's audacious lies

Faced with a cutoff in aid from Canada that may be a prelude to other Western countries taking a closer look at it, UNRWA has a page on its website entitled "Have you misUNderstood?" The bald-faced lies on this page are simply beyond belief. Let's look at three of them:

But doesn't UNRWA perpetuate the refugee problem and encourage aid dependency?

No. UNRWA promotes self-sufficiency by equipping refugees with skills and resources to make the best of the economic opportunities open to them.

If the 'refugees' were truly self-sufficient, UNRWA would not still be servicing them more than 60 years after the fact. Indeed, nowhere else in the UN refugee system are there people who have claimed to be 'refugees' for so long.

As to aid dependency, the facts speak for themselves: The 'Palestinians' are,, and for a long time have been, the world's largest per capita recipients of foreign aid. In fact, particularly in Gaza, they don't do much else other than collect aid checks. Is UNRWA responsible for that dependency? It's not solely responsible, but it is definitely a significant cog in the wheel. The facts speak for themselves.

But doesn’t UNRWA encourage extremism and hatred in its schools?

No. UNRWA teaches a human rights and tolerance curriculum in every one of its 689 schools in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

I would have thought that a 'human rights and tolerance curriculum' would include reference to the Holocaust, particularly for a 'people' who spend many of their waking hours plotting how to murder Jews. But recall what happened last summer when the idea of teaching the Holocaust at UNRWA schools came up.

Hamas is accusing UNRWA of trying to teach about the Holocaust in its Gaza Strip schools. Hamas refers to the Holocaust as "a lie invented by the Zionists." And UNRWA - which ought to be teaching the Holocaust in the schools - denies that it would do anything so horrible. Because UNRWA is there to serve the 'Palestinians' and perpetuate their victimhood status.

If you look at UNRWA's 'human rights and tolerance curriculum' you will find no mention of Jews or Israel. After all, Jews aren't human. We're just the sons of apes and pigs.

But I thought that UNRWA was anti-Israel.

Actually, all of UNRWA’s activities, whether in education, health, relief or development, aim to alleviate poverty and desperation among Israel’s Palestinian neighbours. By improving quality of life for Palestine refugees, UNRWA encourages stability along Israel’s borders. As a UN agency, UNRWA works to spread the core values of the international community; respect for human rights, cooperation and peacebuilding, and protection of the most vulnerable members of society. UNRWA’s work benefits everyone who shares these values, and who wishes for peace and prosperity in the region.

If that's the case, then why has UNRWA been complicit in attempts by Arab political leaders to deny the 'Palestinian refugees' permanent homes?

Intensive discussion of the refugee issue started in the aftermath of the 1967 war at ministerial level in Israel. It was Yigal Allon (a prominent Labor Party leader and Cabinet member) who, in July 1967, was the first to suggest a "solution" to the refugee problem by resettling Gaza Strip refugees in the West Bank and Al-Arish (Zaru, 1991). In fact, the Galilee Document of the late 1960s, titled "Rehabilitation of Refugees and Development in the West Bank and Gaza Strip," was the first to suggest the allocation of funds for a four-year plan for development and rehabilitation of refugees. The basis of this plan was to effect changes in the living conditions of the refugees (by setting up new housing projects outside the camps and the renovation of camps), as well as the integration of refugees within the nearby towns, to be under municipal responsibility (Davar, August 16, 1973; Karawan, 1973).

The first concrete steps were taken in May 1970 when Shimon Peres set up a secret trust fund (Trust Fund for the Economic Development and Rehabilitation of Refugees) for this purpose. Peres hoped that, through the resettlement of Gaza refugees, the military government could replace UNRWA's work (The Jerusalem Post, September 22, 1971). The trust was secret because, in Peres' words, "the chance of success is in inverse proportion to the amount of publicity" (The Observer, August 1, 1971). The funds were spent without revealing the ultimate political goal of resettlement (ibid.).

The only sources available on the resettlement of refugees in the Gaza Strip are those of UNRWA, according to which two types of resettlement took place: the first involved the Israeli authorities offering the refugees housing units; and the second involved plots of land.

The first project to be established within the context of the first type was the "Canada Camp" before 1973. This project is a unique case because it was left in Egypt after the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 as part of the original Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt. In June 1985, the Egyptian government and the Israeli authorities agreed on a gradual return to the Gaza Strip of the refugees stranded in the Canada Camp project.

The other housing projects were:

1. The Shuqeiri Project in Khan Yunis, which commenced in March 1973; by June 1989 it had 135 families (848 persons) in 128 houses.

2. The Brazilian project in Rafah, started in April 1973; in June 1989 it had 436 families (2,820) persons in 422 houses.

3. The Sheikh Radwan project in Gaza City, commenced in March 1974; it had 790 families (5,029 persons) in 806 houses.

4. AI-Amal project in Khan Yunis, commenced in May 1979; it had 802 families (4,853 persons) in 842 houses.

In all, by June 1989, the number of houses reached 2,686, housing 3,054 families or 18,920 persons.

The second type of project involved the allocation of plots of land which started in September 1974. The initial size of each plot was 250 sq. m., subsequently reduced to 125 sq. m. In 1977, the Israeli authorities justified this reduction to shortage of land suitable for building purposes. However, this justification has to be examined against the authorities' policy to pave the way for future projected expansion of Jewish settlements in the Strip (UNRWA, 1989). In all, 6,642 plots of land were allocated, of which 250 were under construction. The project involved 5,428 houses and 6,905 families (ibid.).

The 'Palestinians' viewed the effort at finding them permanent housing as a way of making them forget their 'keys' to their 'homes' in Israel, and as such put a stop to this building by the end of the 1980's - when they started the 'first intifada.'

The Israeli strategy for the refugee resettlement schemes in the Gaza Strip reflects a belief that most political problems can be reduced to social and economic problems. Hence, the Israeli authorities' shock at the relo¬cated refugees' role in the Intifada. In some instances, confrontations with the Israeli forces exceeded those in the camps, even though the Sheikh Radwan resettlement scheme was called Kfar Shalom (the Village of Peace) for the calm that had reigned there prior to the Intifada.

The resettled refugees' involvement in the national struggle on an equal footing with camp refugees proved that refugees in resettlement projects were not isolated from the residents of other camps (author's sample survey), despite the fact that the infrastructure of resettlement projects has been set up with a counter-insurgency in mind. For example, wide roads, in contrast to the narrow alleys in refugee camps, were meant to facilitate control by military forces, in addition to the careful screening of refugees prior to admission into the schemes.

And of course, they ignore what may be the most serious accusation of all against them: UNRWA employs terrorists.

Liars, liars, pants on fire.

Israel Matzav: UNRWA's audacious lies