UNRWA’s ‘Success Record’

Since its founding in 1948, Israel has been subjected to false accusations and unfair resolutions by the United Nations. With this partiality and discrimination, the world organization is demonstrably violating its own charter principles and counteracting its peacemaking mission. Reference https://www.frieden-freiheit-fairness.com/en/book/chapter/staged-middle-east-conflict

With the “moral” support of the terrorists since October 7th, 2023, the limit is reached. The entire West and generally all honest countries should insist on a profound reform of the world organization. The unfair tribalistic bullying can be stopped, among other things, by requiring resolutions to refer to Charter articles much more precisely in the future. However, this needs the solution of an ignored conflict of validity in anticipation – that between the claim to sovereignty (Article 2 of the Charter) and the right to self-determination (Article 1 of the Charter).

Further reform topics should concern the democratic legitimacy of representatives to the UN and the prevention of corruption. The tens of thousands of NGOs that work closely with the UN, other “charitable” organizations, international corporations and the IMF also need critical attention and control. Specifically, much stricter requirements are necessary for the recognition of tax-exempt “charitable” status. Otherwise, NGOs in particular risk degenerating into instruments of arbitrary power used by ultra-rich sponsors.

If fundamental reforms prove unfeasible, a new world platform should be considered, while the UN can be starved by canceling funds. This also applies in particular to the sub-organization UNRWA, whose involvement in the massacres of October 7th represents only the tip of a disingenuous policy. The damage literally affects everyone involved – the Palestinians, Israel and all Western states: the refugees don´t have sufficient opportunities for free self-development to improve their living conditions, Israel is subjected to constant incitement and for the rest of the West there is nothing left but growing costs and refugee flows.

The UN’s counterproductive interference began with the establishment of around 50 refugee camps in 1948/1949 by its subsidiary UNRWA. The latter took responsibility that correctly lay with six Arab countries. These had attacked Israel the day after its founding – and thus caused the refugee movement lamented as the “Nakba”. The responsibility included accepting and integrating the (approximately 700,000) war refugees into their vast territories.

Although the Arab countries have expelled almost all Jews – over 800,000 in total – they refuse to integrate their compatriots from Palestine to this day.

But even without the Arab states’ willingness to cooperate, the Palestinians could have been led to much better living conditions. The Gaza Strip has less than half the population of Singapore and is about half the size of that city-state – one of the richest, best organized, least corrupt, safest and most democratic countries in the world. What advantage does Singapore have over the Gaza Strip? Resources? A better geographical location? Only minimal. Both are close to an important international sea route. The Gaza Strip is neither too overpopulated nor it lacks the resources to be able to stand on its own feet.

As a result of 75 years of UNRWA work, Palestinian refugees have been “successfully” trained in Antisemitism and to hate Israel, but not to achieve even modest prosperity on their own. The well-known practice of Hamas (elected in 2006) of pouring all available resources into weapons kept the Gaza Strip as a miserable business location with lacking infrastructure. The attractiveness for investments also suffers from the need for extensive security controls by Israel.

All of this represents the exact opposite of a correct development policy which is guided by the principle “helping people to help themselves” and thus makes assistance superfluous within a reasonable period of time. Instead of leading the refugees to a free, independent life and the ability of providing their own expanding prosperity, the camp life offered by UNRWA alienated them from any self-responsibility – even under demographic aspects. Thus, it provided conditions for the number of recognized refugees to grow from over 700,000 in 1948 to around 6 million today. After 75 years of counterproductive administration, it is up to UNRWA and the entire UN to place this responsibility back in Arab hands, either at the level of the Arab states involved or directly at the level of individual refugees.

The Gaza Strip and all of UNRWA’s other places of operation prove to be model examples of a “modern” development policy practiced worldwide under the management of the UN and tens of thousands of NGOs. In particular, large parts of the Islamic world and Africa are kept backward according to this pattern – with increasing dependence on Western aid, increasing violence, exorbitant demographic growth and the tendency towards mass migration. The big winners of this anti-development are autocrats, violent extremists, corrupt “democrats” and huge international corporations.