On Thursday 16 March, the director of operations at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the West Bank, Scott Anderson, told EUROPE how Palestinian refugees there feel forgotten by the international community.
Over 774,000 Palestinians are refugees in the West Bank – in other words, Palestinians uprooted by the 1948 war and their descendants. Around 238,000 of these people live in camps.
The Palestinian refugees "do not trust their leaders or the international community; they feel a bit forgotten", Anderson stated. Underlining how difficult life is in the 19 camps, especially due to the 22% unemployment rate, Anderson spoke about the refugees' lack of "hope". "If you sit down and talk to them, what is at the core [of their concerns] is despair about the future", he said.
As well as the high unemployment rate, the number of demolitions recorded in 2016 is the highest since UNRWA started listing them in 2009. In all, 329 of the 1,094 structures belonging to refugees were demolished. "This has an extremely dramatic impact on people's lives. Some of them never recover", Anderson said.
UNRWA's work to help these Palestinian refugees in the West Bank is, therefore, significant: 50,000 children are educated in the 96 schools held by the office in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, 42 medical centres take care of 5,000 patients per day, and 36,000 people benefit from 'core food' aid. To make these missions effective, UNRWA employs 4,800 people. "Working in the West Bank is complicated. It is very politicised", Anderson stated.
"UNRWA is not politically involved. It provides services until there is a peace agreement. That's the first thing we want. Until this comes about, we will ask the EU and other donors to continue financing UNRWA – not extravagantly but to meet the basic needs of Palestinian refugees", he said.
This call is more valid than ever. The office in the West Bank and Gaza needs €25 million for 2017 (in other words, funding for three to four months' work). Anderson says that the international community recognises the importance of UNRWA in terms of stability, within a region that is itself unstable.
And if ever UNRWA had to stop its work through lack of funding, "I suppose there would be chaos in the West Bank", Anderson stated, underling the importance of the core food aid and indirect support that UNRWA brings local employees and their families. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)