Donors to grant $160 million to Palestinian refugees 

Informing reporters about the outcome of Thursday’s donor conference, Philippe Lazzarini said the pledges, once turned into cash, will allow the United Nations Relief and Work Agency knew UNRWA to carry out its operations until September. But “I don’t know if we’ll have the money to pay our salaries after September,” he said.
“We are in early warning mode,” Lazzarini said. “Right now, I am drawing attention to the fact that we are in a danger zone and we need to avoid a situation where UNRWA is pushed to cross the turning point because if we cross the turning point it means that 28,000 teachers, health workers, nurses, doctors, engineers, cannot be paid “.
UNRWA was established to provide education, health care, food, and other services to the 700,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced to leave their homes during the war surrounding the Israeli establishment in 1948.
There are now 5.7 million Palestinian refugees, including their children and grandchildren, who live mostly in camps that have been turned into built-up but often impoverished residential areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, as well as in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. But UNRWA only helps the more than 500,000 in school and nearly 2 million who have health benefits.

Lazzarini said the funding shortage of more than $ 100 million for 2022 is roughly the same that UNRWA has faced every year for nearly a decade, but while revenues have stagnated, costs have risen.
In past years, UNRWA has been able to absorb the deficit through austerity and cost control measures, he said, but today that is not possible because there is very little left to cut without cutting services.

“Today we have some classes with up to 50 children,” said the UNRWA Commissioner-General. “We have a double shift in our schools. We have doctors who cannot spend more than three minutes on medical consultations. So, if we go further, it will force the agency to cut services. ”
Lazzarini said UNRWA’s problem is that “we have to provide government-like services to one of the poorest communities in the region, but we are funded like an NGO because we are completely dependent on voluntary contributions.”

Financing of the agency’s services today was put at risk due to “de-prioritization, or perhaps increased indifference, or because of domestic politics,” he said.
Lazzarini said that solving UNRWA’s chronic financial problem requires a “political will” that matches support for the agency’s work in favor of Palestinian refugees.
He said UNRWA has a very strong donor base in Europe and last year the Biden administration resumed funding that was cut by the Trump administration but said the Arab world’s overall contribution fell to less than 3% of the agency’s revenue.

Donors have also faced financial hardship stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and there is now a big effort to help Ukraine in its war with Russia, he said.
“We will know more at the end of the year how much it will have an impact on the agency,” Lazzarini said.
Some donors have already warned UNRWA “that we may not have the traditional top-up at the end of the year, which would be dramatic” for the agency, he said.

Ahead of Thursday’s donor conference, Israeli UN Ambassador Erdan calls on countries to freeze contributions until all UNRWA teachers he supports support terrorism and the murder of Jews are fired.

Lazzarini said UNRWA received a letter from the Israeli UN Mission on Friday that it had not read, but said all allegations will be investigated and whether there is a violation of UN values ​​and misconduct. “we will take measures in line with United Nations policies”.