BoP exclusion of UNRWA Gaza role attempts to undermine UN mandate & Palestinian refugee rights
A damaged sign is pictured at the headquarters of UNRWA, following an Israeli raid in Gaza City. 12 July 2024
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor writes on 2 July 2026:
The Board of Peace’s announcement of its intention to end the role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip is extremely concerning.
It signifies a highly serious and unlawful overreach of the UN General Assembly’s mandate, which established UNRWA in 1949, and an effort to weaken the Agency’s international role in representing the ongoing responsibility towards Palestinian refugees. This move could lead to its elimination under the guise of reconstruction and stability efforts.
The Board of Peace announced on its official X account that “UNRWA has no place in the new Gaza” and that they are “turning the page on the complex of perpetual aid dependency and conflict.” This statement overlooks the reality that Gaza residents’ reliance on aid is not a dependency culture but a consequence of occupation, siege, starvation, and widespread destruction of their means of survival.
Discussing “turning the page” on conflict by excluding UNRWA essentially ignores that the core issues, such as displacement, occupation, and the denial of the right of return and self-determination, still persist. Removing the UN’s role as a witness to the refugee situation does not resolve the conflict; instead, it worsens the underlying causes and solidifies injustice.
The Board reposted a video featuring a comment by Jeff Bartos, the U.S. Representative for UN Management and Reform. He framed the issue as a choice between funding UNRWA, which he described in an inflammatory and misleading way as a source of “incitement, terrorism, and stagnation,” or supporting the Board of Peace, which he said provides Gaza residents with “a path to peace, prosperity, and real durable change.”
This framing is based on a false and harmful binary, transforming the funding of humanitarian aid for refugees and civilians from an international duty into a tool to delegitimise UNRWA and distort its core mandate. It overlooks that peace cannot be achieved by removing a UN mandate central to the Palestinian refugee issue, but by ending settler colonialism and dismantling related control and repression associated with it, such as the unlawful military occupation, apartheid, and siege, while also ensuring accountability and protecting the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights.