MUNICH: The United States is still not clear about how it sees the future role of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, its chief said on Friday, warning that jettisoning it would create a black hole similar to Iraq after 2003.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has accused UNRWA staff of having links with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, allegations UNRWA has vigorously disputed.
Washington was long UNRWA’s biggest donor, but froze funding in January 2024 after Israel accused about a dozen UNRWA staff of taking part in the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war in Gaza.
“There is no definitive answer, because the interest of the US is also to be successful in this process and if you get rid of an agency like ours before you have an alternative, you are also creating a huge black hole,” UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini told Reuters on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
“Remember what happened in Iraq in 2003 when the entire administration had been dismantled (following the US-led invasion). There was no alternative and people were left without any services,” he said in an interview.
UNRWA has functioned for decades as the main international agency providing for the welfare of millions of Palestinian descendants of those who fled or were driven from homes during the war around Israel’s 1948 founding.
Lazzarini, who leaves his post at the end of March, said UNRWA did not foresee any more cuts in the immediate term and it continued to offer public health and education services that no one else was really providing.
He urged Gulf Arab countries to increase their support because their contribution did not match their strong expression of solidarity with Palestinian refugees.
Israel accuses UNRWA of bias, and the Israeli parliament passed a law in October 2024 banning the agency from operating in the country and prohibiting officials from having contact with it. (Reporting by John Irish; editing by Mark Heinrich)
