Daily Times

Pakistan has reaffirmed its dedication to the Palestinian cause at the 2023 pledging conference for UNRWA, the financially-troubled UN agency that assists Palestinian refugees, by renewing its commitment to financial and political support.

“We have been UNRWA’s reliable and time-tested partner, and our commitment to extend financial and political support to UNRWA remains unfettered,” Ambassador Aamir Khan, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the pledging event for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) held at UN headquarters in New York on Friday.

“This commitment is a natural corollary of Pakistan’s strong affiliation with the Palestinian cause,” the Pakistani envoy said. Chronic underfunding over the past decade, and resultant severe austerity measures, mean UNRWA is already operating with a $75 million shortfall, putting its lifesaving programmes across the Middle East at risk, according to the UN. “As I address you today, I do not have the funds to keep our schools, health centres and other services running as of September,” Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said at the start of the meeting. UNRWA was established in 1949 as a temporary agency to provide aid to Palestinians following mass displacement from the land that became Israel, making it one of the first UN humanitarian operations.

Today, nearly six million people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, depend on its services, which are almost entirely funded by voluntary contributions. Nearly a third of registered Palestine refugees live in camps. Lazzararini said an additional $75 million is urgently needed to provide food for over a million people in Gaza. Another $30 million is required to maintain cash and food assistance to 600,000 people in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

“While enduring countless hardships,” the Pakistani envoy said, the Palestinian families, including in occupied Palestinian territories, remain heavily reliant on UNRWA’s emergency food assistance programme,” as also the more than half a million students enrolled in the agency’s schools. Ambassador Aamir Khan expressed Pakistan’s grave concern over the movement and access restrictions imposed on Palestinian refugees and UNRWA’s staff within the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, and urged Israel, the occupying power, to meet its obligations under international law.

He commended UNRWA’s support in infrastructure, relief, microfinance and social services especially the digital transformation strategy which aims to enhance the overall quality of its services for Palestinian refugees. “We would also like to underline that UNRWA’s work is critical not only for the Palestinian refugees, but also for regional peace and stability. Adequate and sustained financing for the agency is, therefore, an indispensable international responsibility for the promotion of peace and security.”

The humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees, he said, cannot be mortgaged to political expedience and partisan interests, and called for stepping up efforts to support UNRWA in overcoming the huge funding gap. The Pakistani envoy appreciated UNRWA’s Commissioner-General for his continued efforts to maintain and scale up traditional donor support, ramp up the funding from non-traditional donors, including through partnerships with public and private entities and adopt innovative funding strategies such as digital fundraising to overcome the funding gap.

In his concluding remarks, Ambassador Aamir Khan reaffirmed Pakistan’s “unwavering support” for the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and their quest for peace and freedom. “Pakistan continues to raise its voice for a two-State solution, as envisaged in relevant UN resolutions. We believe that a viable, independent and contiguous State of Palestine, established on the basis of internationally agreed parameters, the pre-1967 borders and with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital is a pre-requisite for durable peace.”