Ramallah – Together – The Department of Refugee Affairs of the Palestine Liberation Organization welcomed the results and recommendations included in the final report of the Independent Review Group regarding UNRWA’s commitment to the humanitarian principle of neutrality, and praised the transparency shown by the head and members of the group during their work on verifying the Israeli allegations against UNRWA.
Dr. said. Abu Holi, in his statement, said that the Independent Review Group’s report exposed the Israeli lies and allegations against UNRWA employees, pointing out that the report indicated that Israel (which rejected the report’s findings) did not provide a single piece of evidence for its allegations that UNRWA employees had participated in the events of last October 7.
Dr. explained. Abu Houli said that the Palestine Liberation Organization will conduct contacts with UNRWA to determine the next steps to address the challenges of neutrality mentioned in the report in coordination with the host cou
ntries, calling at the same time on donor countries to fund UNRWA’s work plan to fully implement the recommendations of the Independent Review Group to enhance its operations, consolidate neutrality, and support its mandate. Completely and enabling it to exercise its full mandate without diminishing or excluding any of its five regions of operations.
He stressed the Palestine Liberation Organization’s support for the reform steps led by the UNRWA administration in its administrative structure, strengthening the work of the Ethics Office and the Office of Services and Internal Oversight, and supplying them with employees to improve their performance, and to strengthen internal controls, accountability, and employee awareness in the field of permitted political practices, as well as its steps to establish standards of neutrality as part of the system. Internationalism.
Dr. demanded. Abu Holi urges the donor countries whose funding is still suspended to resume it and move forward to support UNRWA in order to p
rovide emergency relief to Palestinian refugees to alleviate their human suffering and enable it to carry out its basic tasks and work programs in education, health, relief and protection according to its mandate and the mandate granted to it by Resolution 302.
He urged the countries that disbursed their funding in two phases and conditioned the second phase of their funding on the issuance of the final report of the independent review group, and to verify that UNRWA is moving forward by taking measures to strengthen internal controls, accountability and impartiality in its work, to accelerate the disbursement of the second phase funds allocated to UNRWA, and to call on it to increase its financial contributions to enable UNRWA to Continuing its services, which represent the lifeline for 5.9 million Palestinian refugees, especially in the Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to an ongoing brutal war and starvation for seven months, pointing out that delaying the disbursement of the second batch of its fundin
g to UNRWA will negatively affect its work and its ability to respond to the urgent needs of the Palestinians in its areas of operations and will have Disastrous repercussions in the Gaza Strip due to the war of subjugation and genocide committed by the Israeli occupation government
He continued: “Donor countries must not be led by Israeli allegations without verifying them, and there are no justifications for them to continue to suspend their funding.”
He stressed the importance of taking action at the United Nations level to hold Israel accountable for its violations and crimes committed by directly targeting UNRWA schools, its health centers, and its relief and administrative headquarters, imposing operational restrictions on the work of its programs and targeting and employees, and obliging it to respect the facilities, mandate, and immunity of UNRWA in occupied Jerusalem, providing protection for it, and facilitating the movements of workers. Pointing out that the Israeli occupation government promoted
its allegations against UNRWA, which the review group’s report later confirmed as correct, to justify their targeting of UNRWA headquarters and shelters for displaced persons.
Dr. confirmed. Abu Holi said that UNRWA constitutes the living embodiment of international responsibility towards Palestinian refugees until a political solution to their issue is found in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions, especially Resolution 194, and its role cannot be dispensed with or terminated, and that the PLO will confront all attempts aimed at ending its role, and the time has come to secure sufficient and sustainable funding for UNRWA.
It is noteworthy that the Secretary-General of the United Nations received the final report yesterday from the Independent Review Group on UNRWA, and the report concluded that UNRWA has put in place a large number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure its commitment to humanitarian principles and neutrality, in addition to that it has a more developed approach to neutrali
ty than United Nations entities. Or other similar NGOs, they operate in a complex, sensitive, thorny and complicated environment.
The 48-page report, which included 50 recommendations, stated that UNRWA cannot be replaced or dispensed with for the human and economic development of the Palestinians, and that many see it as a humanitarian lifeline, revealing that Israel failed to provide evidence to support its accusations against this UN body.
In its final report, the Independent Review Group identified measures to help UNRWA deal with the challenges facing its neutrality, in important areas that require immediate improvements: engagement with donors, governance, internal management and oversight structures, staff neutrality and behaviour, facilities neutrality, education, and Staff unions, and strengthening partnership with United Nations agencies.
Source: Maan News Agency