Experts, specialists and intellectuals in the field of the refugee issue unanimously agreed that the justifications for the agency’s financial deficit are political blackmail and pressure on the Palestinian people to give up their legitimate national rights, most notably the right of return.
During a political symposium held by the People’s Committee for Refugees in Bureij Camp, entitled “Palestinian Refugees between Challenges and Reductions” at the committee’s headquarters in the camp, the researchers expressed their rejection of these reductions, considering them a real catastrophe befalling the refugees, especially those residing in the Gaza Strip, and warning of what they described as the undesirable consequences of such. Crises and the resulting decrease in support and services provided to refugees, which would affect the entire region and create a state of instability there.
The holding of this symposium comes based on strong recommendations from Dr. Ahmed Abu Houli, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Head of the Refugee Affairs Department, as well as a continuation of its political efforts to highlight the refugee issue, spread awareness and deliver messages to all segments of society about the refugee issue and UNRWA’s reductions.
Janet Abu Shawish opened the symposium, which was attended by Dr. Maysoon Al-Shanbari, a lecturer at Al-Azhar University, Comrade Abdel Razzaq Al-Khatib, a member of the Arab Liberation Front’s leadership and its secretary in the camp, and Comrade Bassam Al-Far “Abu Al-Walid,” a member of the Central Committee of the Arab Liberation Front, and an elite group of camp residents. ,, along with a number of the camp’s youth, university students, academics and intellectuals, to stand a minute of silence and recite Al-Fatiha for the soul of the late fighter Fouad Al-Majdoub “Abu Osama”, a member of the Popular Committee for Refugees in Al-Bureij Camp, who died this month as a result of a severe heart attack, and for the souls of the martyrs of our Palestinian people.
The symposium began with Dr. Maysoon Al-Shanbari’s talk about the Palestinian narrative and the Nakba of Palestine, through which she addressed the massacres and massacres committed by the Israeli forces against Palestinian refugees and ethnic cleansing, and the face of history changed with the destruction of Palestinian villages and cities that the occupation tried to erase from history, but thanks to national and cultural awareness and national belonging, the refugees are still there. They adhere to their right to return, and to their past history, and will not forget their villages and cities from which they were forcibly displaced.
She noted that the writers were able, over the years, to depict the events of the Nakba and what Palestine has become since the Nakba and before it, using the history and oral narrations of the elderly over the past decades with professionalism and creativity, so that they are passed on from generation to generation, and to drop the Israeli saying, “The old die and the young forget,” until the young became They are more aware and adhere to their stolen rights and follow the path of adults.
In the second axis of the symposium, Professor Abdul Razzaq Al-Khatib, a member of the leadership of the Arab Liberation Front, spoke about the Palestinian refugees in the Arab countries and their individual rights guaranteed by international agreements and human rights laws, and their collective rights imposed by Arab nationalism, which was guaranteed to them by being part of the Arab nation, and bound by ties of kinship and religion. History and common heritage.
Al-Khatib noted that the Arab revolutions and the events that began in the Arab countries in the twentieth century affected refugees and their rights apart from legal texts, and that internal conflicts, wars, or even political disputes between countries usually leave their effects on the population and nationals of other countries. But in the Palestinian case, the effects are disastrous, as the Palestinians do not have a state or homeland that will embrace them when they are subjected to displacement or deportation, and what makes the matter worse is the refusal to receive them by other countries, whether Arab or foreign, as in the case of Iraqi refugees.
He added that Palestinian refugees often face additional forced deportation from host Arab countries, referring to the Casablanca Protocol for Palestinians, which is considered a set of rights not provided by the 1951 Treaty for the refugees concerned with its provisions, and which includes in its second article provisions similar to those contained in Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Rights. Human rights related to the right of return and departure also guarantee refugees freedom of movement in countries joining the League of Arab States, which most Arab countries ignore.
In the third axis, Dr. Fawzi Awad, Chairman of the People’s Committee for Refugees, spoke about the agency’s reductions and said, “Between these challenges, between the Palestinian narrative and the Zionist claims, and between the truth and our reality, there is an entity authorized in accordance with the resolutions of international legitimacy, which is Resolution 302 to establish UNRWA, issued in 1949, and implemented in May 1950, provided that UNRWA provides the right to education, the right to movement, the right to travel, and the right to treatment to the Palestinian refugees until their cause finds a just solution for the Palestinian refugees in accordance with Resolution 194.
Dr. said. Awad said, “We as Palestinians are currently facing challenges from UNRWA due to the financial deficit, and these challenges are not new to us as Palestinians, as the reductions came with the establishment of UNRWA and the definition of the refugee, which is considered an incomplete definition, as he put it, as the definition indicated that the Palestinian refugee is everyone who resides in Palestine.” His historical history began in June/July 1946 and he left in the 1948 war and lost his source of livelihood. He noted that refugees who were traveling before 1946 for education or treatment were excluded, and refugees who immigrated after 1948 were excluded, and therefore it is considered incomplete.
He noted that UNRWA did not recognize all Palestinian camps except in the five areas of operations (Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon), stressing that there were refugee camps and gatherings in Egypt and the West Bank that were not recognized, and UNRWA also divided the refugees between funded and unfunded. This is considered discrimination among refugees, and all of this comes within the series of reductions that began with the establishment of UNRWA.
Narrated by Dr. During his talk, Awad spoke about a large number of reductions, including the maternity clinic at UNRWA, which was cancelled, and receiving free water service in the camp previously, and now it has become paid for, and a large part of it is contaminated, and the stationery that was distributed to students, and reducing the number of employees compared to previous times, and even the service Health and environment in the camp have become evaded by the UNRWA.
In the same context, Ayman Abu Shawish, head of the People’s Committee for Refugees in Nuseirat, confirmed during his intervention that these seminars held by the popular committees to always and constantly inform the people of the camp about UNRWA’s reductions and the latest developments, and to share with them the opinion and decision to come up with recommendations to be implemented on the ground are considered positive and important, stressing that the focus must be Also on the side of mobilizing the masses in sit-ins to address the real danger that UNRWA is trying to pass on to the refugees by stopping some services, and evading its responsibilities through its senior employees, indicating that the refugee issue is not the issue of the Popular Committees for Refugees, but rather the issue of every Palestinian refugee, and that there are ongoing activities On a weekly and monthly basis on the issue of cuts and others, and that our steadfast people are still confronting these challenges forcefully, demanding their legitimate rights.
At its conclusion, the symposium concluded that the Popular Committees for Refugees affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization will spare no effort in defending the rights of refugees by all peaceful means, and will remain a safety valve for the refugees until they return, and UNRWA stops its artificial reductions, and that under no circumstances can UNRWA end its services unless With the end of the last Palestinian refugee case in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions.
The symposium's recommendations also included that everyone urge the Palestinian people to actively participate in all activities that will be implemented by the popular committees in order to pressure UNRWA to retract its decisions.
At the conclusion of the symposium, Dr. Fawzi Awad, Chairman of the Popular Committee for Refugees, thanked the participants for responding to the invitation, stressing that the Popular Committee for Refugees continues to strongly confront UNRWA’s decisions to stop reducing the services provided to Palestinian refugees who have been living in difficult living conditions for more than 70 years
Source: Maan News Agency