UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini today (13 Nov) said the objective of the campaign to delegitimize the agency “is to strip the Palestinian from the refugee statue,” and “to undermine and to bury once for all the two-state solution.”

Talking to journalists in New York after briefing the General Assembly’s Fourth Committee, Lazzarini said, “we are experiencing the darkest moment for the agency in 75 years,” stressing that UNRWA staff, premises, and operation, have been under “attack.”

He said, “in addition of that, there have been intense and aggressive campaign of disinformation reaching out of a donor capital to delegitimize the agency. And the latest development has been the adoption of the Knesset bill.”

Lazzarini said, “UNRWA is a casualty of this war. Let's do no mistake. The intention to undermine the agency are politically motivated. They have nothing to do with breaches of neutrality.”

He said, “if you get rid of an agency like ours, what will happen once we have a cease fire? What will bring back the hundreds of thousands of girls and boys currently living into rubble, into a learning environment? Only a functioning state can provide this education. I know that when it comes to primary health, the same questions are being asked.”

The Commissioner-General vowed that UNRWA will continue operating “until the day we cannot operate anymore.”

He said, “our determination is not to give in to our mandate to deliver services, and we will deliver such services until we are forced to stop these services. When will it be? I hope never. Now, what will happen after the 90 days, I do not have a straight answer. I think very few of us know. If we have a no contact policy in a place like Gaza, that means we will not be able to deconflict or coordinate any of our movement. So, it will make our operation extraordinarily challenging.”

Asked about the right of return of Palestinian Refugees, Lazzarini said it is “a political right which needs to be addressed in a political solution. So UNRWA as an agency has absolutely nothing to do with this question.”

On 28 October, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, voted in favour of legislation targeting UNRWA, which could effectively bring its operations in the occupied Palestinian territories to a halt.

243 staff have been killed so far in Gaza since the beginning of the war.

Palestinian Ambassador, Riyad Mansour, Israeli Ambassador, Danny Danon, and Lebanese Ambassador, delivered speeches at UNSC Moot.

UN Security Council members urged increased humanitarian aid for Gaza, as the death toll surpasses 43,000 and displacement reaches catastrophic levels.



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