An entire generation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip would “be denied the right to education” if the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) collapses in the enclave under new Israeli legislation, the head of the agency has warned.
The Israeli parliament last week adopted two controversial bills banning UNRWA from operating on Israeli territory, closing its offices in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza.
UNRWA’s chief Philippe Lazzarini said that implementation of the legislation, which is due to take effect in late January, “will have catastrophic consequences”.
“Glaringly absent from discussions about Gaza without UNRWA, is education,” Lazzarini told a UN General Assembly committee on Wednesday.
“In the absence of a capable public administration or state, only UNRWA can deliver education to more than 660,000 girls and boys across Gaza. In the absence of UNRWA, an entire generation will be denied the right to education,” he said, warning that this would sow “the seeds for marginalisation and extremism”.
He again pushed UN member states to act to prevent the implementation of the Israeli legislation.
The UN agency provides education, healthcare and other basic services to Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation and their descendants, who now number nearly six million people. Refugee families make up the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million population.
Aid groups have warned that Israel’s ban on UNRWA could create further obstacles to addressing a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Israel has said other UN agencies and aid groups can fill the gap, but those organisations have insisted UNRWA is essential.
Israel’s ally the United States has described the role of UNRWA in Gaza as “indispensable.” US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Tuesday that it was of urgent importance that Israel pause implementation of the law.
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