UNRWA
Once it was clear there would be no early solution, the United Nations established its Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA, at the close of 1949 to provide essential services to the refugee population. It has remained in operation ever since. Its first task was to provide food aid, and help refugees move from tented to cinderblock shelters. Throughout the region permanent camps sprang up, although some refugees were still under canvas in the late 1950s.
UNRWA's most important contribution has been in the fields of health and education. Except in moments of crisis, UNRWA's operation has been hampered by an inadequate budget, since it is dependent on voluntary contributions from UN member states which have proved unwilling either to ensure implementation of UNGAR 194 or, alternatively, to provide for adequate refugee services.
Apart from its budgetary constraints, the UNRWA operation has been problematic in other ways. Directed by an international cadre, the Palestine refugees have effectively been denied any real control over the relief of their own predicament. It is a modest measure of UNRWA's own recognition of this dilemma that since about 1990 it has made serious efforts to encourage refugee communities to develop themselves economically and socially.
The other serious problem relates to UNRWA's purpose. Was it truly there for humanitarian or pragmatic purposes ? As one US Assistant Secretary of State informed US Congress in 1950:
"The political loss of the Middle East would be a major disaster...the political strategic position of the Soviet Union would be immeasurably strengthened by the attainment of its objectives in the Near East...Against this background, our solicitude for the Palestine refugees, partly [sic] based on humanitarian consideration, has additional justification. As long as the refugee problem remains unsolved...the refugees will continue to serve as a focal point for exploitation by communist disruptive elements which neither we nor the Near Eastern governments can afford to ignore" (George McGhee to US Congress, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, 81st congress, 2nd session, Hearings on Palestine Refugees, 16 February 1950, p.9).
However, nowhere in the charter or the practice of UNRWA is there any pretension that the agency seeks to return Palestinians to their homes. Therein lies the crucial political difference between UNRWA and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR): the former does not concern itself with returning refugees to their land, the latter does. However, the UNHCR has legal leeway to omit Palestinians from its agenda. In fact, a special paragraph in the International Agreement on Refugees that fomented UNHCR, specifically paragraph D, under the definition of the term 'refugee', stipulates that "this agreement shall not apply to persons currently receiving aid or protection from other agencies of the UN". The paragraph adds nevertheless that should such aid or protection be discontinued before the final status of beneficiaries is settled conclusively according to UN resolutions, they would certainly benefit from the articles of the 1951 Refugee Agreement.
See UNRWA in figures
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