The United Nations Office at Geneva
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UNOG RUSH NEWS UNRWA Presser 30SEP2024 Continuity
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very good afternoon.
Thank you for your patience and for joining us here at this
press conference at the UN office at Geneva with Mr Philip Lazzarini,
Commissioner General of Honora.
He's
here to brief you
and take your questions.
Uh, address the situation in the OPT.
Uh, we'll have a few opening remarks from Mr Lazzarini,
then over to you immediately.
And if you can identify yourself or if I I think I recognise most people here.
But if you could kindly identify yourself nevertheless, uh, Felipe, over to you.
I found the bottom.
Thank you so much. Um, good evening. Good afternoon. Good evening.
Sorry to be a little bit late. We had longer
member state
a longer member state briefing than expected.
I came to Geneva
after having spent a week
in
New York. A lot of discussion, obviously also in the Middle East in New York.
And some of them were very much related to.
And that's also one of the reasons why I wanted to share
the latest update briefing to the member state here also in Geneva.
So let me maybe start now.
I started by giving
an overview of, in fact, of our
few fields of operation describing Gaza that we are now one year
into almost one year into the war.
It's an endless nightmare. Gaza It has become unliveable.
Basically, people are confronted on a day to day basis with disease, deaths
or hunger.
We have mountain of garbage piling up
and sewage water leaking everywhere in the street,
which basically
families and kids are living
in the rubble
in
this
sewage water.
And there is absolutely
that explains why,
for example, polio could reappear so quickly because of this just appalling,
unsanitary living commission
condition.
I also
reminded because it's important to remind us because now the population is
trapped
in 10% of the territory
that they have been pin bones
over the last year.
Um and
basically
they were constantly in movement seeking safety which they never,
never really moved
found. We are also one year
into
this war
and we have still many hostages who remain
captive,
and the family are trapped in a terrible limbo.
I have highlighted also today
the plight of the Children which I believe are taking
bearing the brunt of this of this war in Gaza. One in two persons is below the age of
18.
They have gone through a deep traumatic,
constant traumatic experience and basically they are
losing faith for a better future.
Per SE,
we have today
more than 620,000
girls and boys living in the
urban
and being deeply traumatised.
I have asked
member states and partners
that we make
education a collective
priority beyond the life saving activities that we have
in the in the in the Gaza Strip.
And this is one of the reasons why
we have started
already a month ago and despite
the extraordinary complex environment in which we are
to bring back some of the Children in
the learning environment providing first cycle social support.
But after that, making sure that the practise of reading,
writing or basic arithmetic continue for these Children.
I say this also because
we should never forget that the only asset which has
never ever been taken away from the Palestinians is education.
They have been dispossessed over the last few decades about a number of things,
but never education, education, basically, whether their pride.
I was also flagging the situation in the
West Bank where basically we have a silent tragedy
unfolding.
What we see more and more is whenever there is a demo
operandi. Whenever there is a
security operation taking place
in the camps,
it ends up with large scale destruction of public infrastructure de facto
infecting, inflicting collective punishment
to the population
just to flag also in the West Bank. An interesting indicator
going back to what I said about education before because
of the movement restriction but because also of the financial collapse and
the difficulties also of the to maintain some of its services,
we have seen a surge of more than 4500 kids enrolling in our schools.
So we did not just have the kids of last year,
but we had 2500 kids at minimum,
coming from the private sector, home from the P, a school to our schools.
Of course, today we talk also about the situation in Lebanon.
We were all fearing the SP
the SP over is now taking place
just to let you know that
in Lebanon
as
U
we are providing shelter. We have, as of today, 3500 people
in shelter designated in nine different locations.
What we have done is that we have opened our shelter
not only for the Palestinian refugees but also
for the Syrian refugees and also for the Lebanese
fleeing from the south.
Now
I have also raised with the member states last week in New York
the constant attack the agency is under.
As you know, as of today, 223 staff have been
killed in
Gaza.
Two thirds of our installation
have been
damaged or destroyed.
And basically,
we can also feel that in the broader context of the occupied Palestinian territory,
our space
is also
shrinking. You have seen
the legislative effort also in the Knesset,
of the lawmakers
aiming at evicting UN W A
from its
premises in east terrorism, aiming at lifting
the privileges and immunities,
but also aiming at labelling the agency as a terrorist organisation
which I believe would be absolutely unconscionable
that a
UN member state
decided to label a UN agency mandated by the UN General Assembly,
a terrorist
organisation.
It would go
far beyond the
It would be a precedent which would
certainly weaken
and important our collective instrument from our multilateral system.
You heard me many times here.
I don't think that the aim behind this is any way related to
neutrality issues and neutrality issues. We can address them. We have.
We have had a total review
from former Minister of Foreign affairs
Kathrin
Corona
with a set of recommendations that we fully embraced. We had the
report which has also been shared with you, and we take any
new
substantiated allegations
very
seriously
and make sure that they are thorough investigation, not the real reason behind this
is to strip in fact the Palestinians from
the refugee statue,
but through this also
to unilaterally modify the parameters for a political solution in the region.
And I think
it's also somehow short sighted to believe
that eliminating the agency would resolve broader
issues related to the Palestinian refugees,
such as the right
to return since the right to return,
or for those deciding not to return.
The compensation system within a political solution
is enshrined
in a resolution
and which was adopted far before. The creation of
this is in Resolution 194
so
basically
and I will stop here.
I have
three messages for the member states.
One of them
is
to make sure that
the role of
UN
be protected in any type of transition
and I hope
if we finally reach this overdue ceasefire,
there will be a long period between a ceasefire and a possible day after
there is
no one except the state or a functioning administration
can provide education at scale to hundreds of 1000 girls and boys in the Gaza Strip.
Besides,
and I do believe it would be a mistake for
all of us
to
get rid
of a major major instrument support which would support
the success of any
transition.
The second is related to the funding because we had the funding event last week
and in New York
I was just reminding
that the shortfall between now and the end of the year is still $80
million
and
that the forecast for 2025 is very uncertain.
Look a little bit grim because a number of donors have indicated
that they will enter austerity budget as from 2025
and
last but not least,
a call to the member state
to push back on all the reputation attack on the agency and
the ongoing drafting of bills could be adopted in Jerusalem to make sure that
such a precedent is not taking place. So I think I will stop here. And
thank you for having come
late.
Thank you very much. Uh, Mr Lazzarini. OK, we'll take questions. We have a
number of hands up here and also online, so let's start the first,
Ok, Uh,
we'll start with Nina Larson of
Agen France. Press
a FP.
Yeah, uh, thank you very much for taking my question. Thank you.
so I had actually, I had a couple of questions for you.
Uh, mainly focused, I think on on Lebanon,
I was wondering if you could say what you think. Uh uh, a potential ground invasion.
What? That would ha. What impact that would have for the Palestinians. Um,
in
in Lebanon.
Um, and also, what impact you've seen so far of the the bombing or the the airstrikes.
Especially perhaps, on bourel
Barra
now, which is,
uh, in the
daiya area. Um, if you could say how many Palestinians you've seen, uh, displaced.
And my final question Sorry. As you mentioned the allegations against
Inara, and there was, uh, a person who was killed, uh, who was,
uh, said to be the head of of Hamas in Lebanon, who also apparently worked for
Una, um
uh, and headed the teachers association.
Um, if you could say, uh, uh, address that issue and also how that might impact
the arguments. Um uh, address or lobbed at inra.
Thank you.
Thank you. I cannot speculate on the ground evasion. How deep? How far
will it impact the camp or not? I have no idea. So basically we will
take it
as it might unfold. What I can say
is that for the time being
in the camp, it was really in the in the camp in the south,
it was relatively
safer
than in other places because
we have opened
shelters and people came to the shelters.
So there was a certain level of confidence in that
it's not the case for all the camps.
If you want more details, I have to go back to my colleague
in Beirut because the situation
evolves rapidly.
Before coming here, I had
the figures of 1500 people
in our shelters
and then
before entering, I was reminded that
it has significantly increased
between my last update. And now it's already 3500. So
just to tell you that things are evolving. But on the third question
the staff member that you are raising,
it's a staff member for which we have heard the first time an allegation in March
and the agency because we felt
that we had some substantiated allegation. I
have taken immediately the decision
to suspend the concerned staff member and
the staff member was under investigation.
So he was suspended, had no function, was not paid and was under investigation.
And we are still
an agency with
with a due process,
I
mean respecting due process and the principle of the rule of law.
So the investigation was still ongoing. But I can confirm
that indeed
there was an allegation. Indeed, a decision was immediately taken
to suspend
and to
conduct this
or
thank you very much. OK,
Baza.
Thank you.
I would like to continue
on the Lebanon issue. What I would like to ask is
you already mentioned that the funding gap situation is continue and
the next year is not looking
great as well. What I would like to ask
the escalation to Lebanon and increasing violence also in the West Bank.
How these situations affected capability of UN
R a responding on the different conflict
fronts.
While things are ongoing in Gaza,
are you adjusting your plans and strategies and
what you would be expecting from UNRWA?
Thank you.
We
we we have
two types of
activities
was primarily
a human development organisation.
We are primarily expected and mandated
to provide education
200,000 girls and boys across the region.
We are providing
the primary health services to the Palestinian refugees across the region. So
these are the primary area of focus that member
states and the resolution expect us to deliver.
There are situations of extreme
human
crisis
like the one we have seen unfolding under our eyes
in
Gaza.
Because of the footprint
of the agency,
we have been the backbone of the
response
in Gaza. I think the latest example
was the polio
where I know that some some some were wondering if we could not ask an agency
to do
everything instead of
on
the polio vaccination.
Pain has shown that no, in fact, if we want to be successful,
we have to partner and bring together our respective Cooper
advantage. And in this particular case,
we had the great
show
providing the vaccine. We had UNICEF
providing the cold chain
and
providing
the location where the cold chain vaccine can be, but also the staff to administer
to the people.
Now
the priorities in terms of funding,
I would say a crisis and we are always in a crisis
when it comes
to the core mandate the human development activities of the agency.
It's a decision which needs to be taken collectively with the member state.
The member states expect um
to have operating school in five fields of Operation Lebanon, Jordan, Syria,
West Bank and Gaza.
Now, if our core budget does not
cover any more, the core activities
and the reason is 10 for 10 years there have been no tension
because
our particularity also
is that
we are expected to provide
a service, a public like service public like government like service.
But we do not have the fiscal tool of a government,
so we completely depend on voluntary contribution
and that's where the tension starts.
So would we reach such a situation?
I would certainly have to go back to the member states and ask them
What do we want collectively to prioritise.
I will not be the one deciding
which Children will have access to our school or not.
Because of the lack of, uh, lack of the funding.
That kind of responsibility needs to be a shared responsibility.
Thank you very much. OK, we'll turn to this out of the room.
Uh, Jamie Keaton, Associated Press.
Hello, Mr
Lazzarini. Thank you for coming to see us again.
I have a few questions. The the first is going back to Nina's question.
The person that I think Nina was referring to is this, uh, gentleman named, uh,
Fatty Al
Sharif. Right.
who was found out to be a top commander for, uh, Hamas in Lebanon.
how can that happen?
That
a top commander of Hamas
is in
UNRWA.
I mean, I understand that you are paying close attention,
and rightly so to the suffering that many many Palestinians are facing right now.
And a lot of people have spoken out about that.
But you're the head of UN
R. That's your remit.
So how do you explain
that someone like that is in this organisation
and that,
I I'd like for you to explain if you could please tell us exactly what the allegation
that you received, um, was about him.
Um, And you mentioned about, um,
you know, disinformation and smear campaigns against
LRA
When we when when we learned that there was a a Hamas commander that's a member of
UN
R A.
Is that not some sort of sign that it's more than just disinformation that is being
cast against UN
R A
And last question
is, could you just please tell us what steps now? Given this example,
you are going to take
to ensure that there are not other
you know, Hamas militants that are in,
um, the organisation of run. Right, Even beyond what you've already done.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. Let's, uh,
they construct the question
a little bit
the first time I got
an allegation
about
a
staff
FTI
and
Shari
who
could be a member
of the political party, the Hamas
at that time.
the first decision I've taken is
let's suspend,
let's have an investigation.
Let's
look at
what the truth behind it.
It's an allegation
which surface
and I take it
very seriously, and I say
if it surface,
we need to look into it
and we there were
one or two
document
a tweet and so on where it sounded to appear. We keep hearing
so
our attention now
is really drawn.
First decision is taken. As we say. Each time you have an allegation,
you
follow
you thoroughly investigate
The specific allegation at the time was that he is
part of the local leadership Commander never appear.
I never heard the word commander before.
You ask me or before a statement coming out today. So
that was not
that that that that was not the
part of the allegations.
Sorry,
sec.
So that's
when we talk about the smear campaign because I have been twice to Lebanon
since this case raised.
And I think I briefed you here
and in my discussion
with the faction who wanted to put pressure
on the management
because we have taken decision
to investigate, to suspend
and possibly depending on the outcome to dismiss.
There have been pressure
and I went to Lebanon
and I have been very clear with
all the interlocutor
that we will not give in to any type of pressure.
We have due system process within the organisation.
We will go through this
and whether this person
is affiliated to this party or to this party or to this party,
we will treat exactly the same way.
I have even said at one point
if you want to make pressure,
you are welcome to take over the keys of honour
if need be.
But
it was a way to say that
there are clear red lines,
the this information part. I hardly come back
in social media.
The C
went there to reinstate completely wrong. I have never reinstated.
In the contrary is to reiterate
that the person is suspended and under investigation.
We keep hearing today the person has been
reinstated. We have taken absolutely no action.
On the contrary, we have taken serious action from
day one,
we are expected
as an agency. Like any other
administration inspectors of the rule of law
to
conduct an investigation.
We have our due processes
and at the end of the process you take a final decision.
So
this even in a situation like this one,
because
there is
a
large scale
campaign aimed at undermining
the agency.
We have 33,000 staff in the region.
Each time we have
an allegation
substantiated and I insist on this.
It's not enough just to Oh, I told you, have a list of five person take the list.
We do not have as a human development agency, a
police capacity,
intelligence services.
But what we do,
we share the names
we always share the names and the case you are
raising right now. Here
is certainly the case which was the best known
in Beirut,
where
all the embassy authorities faction everybody knew
that this person has been suspended.
This
person was
under investigation, meaning also
that if
it was
such of a common knowledge,
how come no one, No one
would have told us this.
So
I think what's obvious for you today was not obvious yesterday.
So,
so
sorry. Can I just follow up?
Just what are you going to do now?
I mean, there's There are many, many cases that have been raised. I don't know
what the bar is for substantiated allegations or not, but there's, you know,
some people are saying there's as many as 100 or more people that
need to be looked into. Are you going to do more?
Let's go
because it's interesting you mention
the 100
because there is a letter with 100 names which has been shared.
I received this letter.
I immediately answer. Say
we take it
very seriously.
Can you help us?
I will designate a person
to come to deal with this. Can you provide us
more information to take a decision? If yes or not,
we have the element for an investigation.
Never been responded. Never, ever.
So again, a list A list
is not proof of anything. A list. Draw your attention
and we start to ask questions.
OK, let's just make it, you know, because we have other questions is
really
brief to whom
you never got a response. From whom? What? The letter was sent by
Israel
to us.
I and I received them
a letter from the minister of Foreign Affairs
with a list of 100 plus name.
And
two or three days later
I respond saying this is serious.
Can we will in line with all the spirit of Kathrin Corona's
report,
we will fully investigate. We need support. We need help. We need
substance to allow a
proper investigation to take place.
Until
today
this has remained in French. I would say
so. Translated.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you very much. OK, we'll take, uh, in the second row. Um please.
Um my name is Satoko
Adachi from, uh,
Yomi
Shim
Bung, a Japanese newspaper.
You have been chosen as, um
Nobel Peace Prize this year by prio.
And
how how do you feel about,
um, becoming a symbol of Palestinian cause? And then also defender
of the, um the Palestinian refugee statue at the international stage,
at the same time facing a relentless attempt to dismantle UN W
by the Israeli authorities. Thank you.
Thank you for asking the question.
I
I believe that
in my function as Commissioner General,
I have to
offer my voice
to the Palestinian Palestinian refugees
to their plight.
They have so little and so few
in fact,
uh,
unwise in an organisation,
they which they have always considered
other lifeline.
And basically they see the attack on
Anwar
as
the entire world
completely crumbling in addi in addition of
what they are going through.
So yes, being a
in this function being
exposed to this function
because UN W
A
is also
in the middle of this storm
of seismic transformation taking place or shock taking place in the
region
impacting the Palestinian.
I have to say
I feel good because I have
the feeling that
what That what we have done
and have done
has been guided
by
our principle guided by the UN value guided by the charter guided by,
uh, IHL.
And, um,
as long it is guided by this,
um, whatever
the attack can be,
I feel that, uh,
I am on the right side of this story. But again,
I don't know this we will know later,
but I'm just trying to answer your question. Which,
to be honest, I'm not used to this type of question.
Thank you very much for for answering.
OK, we'll take, uh, two more in the room, and then we will go online.
Uh, let's start in the back. Musa
Almain
and
a
angle.
Ok,
Mercy.
Um
la
la
prem
question.
No,
no, no,
no.
That's all you need
in politic.
The participation will be politic.
She was
at, um uh an operate in
national
avoir
in
fox
politic
dog.
The
code
attitude.
We
have no
compatibility
in function politic.
Public.
Who? Ex
position,
for
example,
The
in
ale
po
la la
Legion
decision.
The
that
is
the
the
the
humanitarian
or
palestinia
the
Le
Pen.
Uh
um
uh um
uh uh.
Review
Masuku
with your indulgence, we'll take a couple of more questions, Uh,
with, uh, Jeremy of Radio France International.
And then we have, uh, Laurence here of Swiss News agency online.
E
in,
Um
um um
um
N,
uh,
las
agency.
Thanks for your patience.
New
York,
Uh,
de
de de
the
Palestinian
refugee
Palestinian.
OK, thank you very much, I. I lied.
Actually, if you have time for just one last question.
Uh, John Zaro
is Francois
Cat and the Lancet, and then we'll have to draw this press conference to an end.
John.
Yes. Uh, good afternoon, Mr Lazzarini.
I was wondering, sir, if you could give us a bit of a
breakdown, given the increase in the needs,
what would be the per capita distribution
outside of the dire situation in Gaza for
the Palestinian refugees that you are responsible for
in Lebanon, which I think is, uh, close to half a million
and more and nearly 600,000 in Syria.
Uh, Lebanon and Syria are in dire straits. Economically.
One is a war economy and the other one has imploded. Uh, after so many crises. So what?
And did you get any feedback from the member states?
If there will be any additional funding coming your way Thank you.
Thank you. Just going back to the funding of the member states
this year, we have been able to broaden the base of donor coming from the Middle East.
For example,
Iraq is a new donor
and Iraq will become a military donor of the agency with the intention
to join the advisory Commission.
We have also seen
that there have been a broad
solidarity from the global South
and countries who were not used to
contribute to the agencies started to symbolically,
sometimes even more than symbolically,
to contribute to the agency. And thirdly, we had an exceptional year.
When it comes to the private fundraising fundraising, more than $150
million
in one year have been raised, which the agency never ever experienced.
Before,
we had also some reassurances of countries we did not know
if they would keep the same level of contribution
in 25 would do so.
And basically,
during this conference, the one I had question Mark confirmed they would be,
they would continue to contribute to the agency, so that's for
the
funding part regarding
the priorities.
I think you are so right to flag Lebanon and Syria Lebanon first,
we are dealing with about 220,000
Palestinian refugees
maximum 250,000, so it's not half a million.
These figures were corrected a few years ago after a joint census undertaken by
and the
Lebanese Palestinian Centre and the Prime Minister's
office.
The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, as in Syria,
are almost completely dependent
on
UN.
One of the reasons in Lebanon has been also because of
the very limited access to the job market for the Palestinian refugees
and hence the higher level of dependency on the UN
knife.
So
doing priorities we have now
three.
I would even say four out of five
operation area which are now
in crisis or in conflict between Gaza,
the West Bank, Lebanon
and
Syria.
The only
one which is not
in a
crisis situation
but goes through
economic hardship, is Jordan.
Thank you very much, Mr Lazzarini.
I'm afraid we have to end the press conference uh, now,
I'd like to thank you very much on behalf of all of us here, uh,
for being here and for speaking,
speaking at this press conference. Uh, so thank you.
Also colleague for staying late for this important, uh, encounter.
Have a good evening, Mercy.