The head of the UN Palestinian refugee relief agency (UNRWA) is calling for Lebanon to grant Palestinians equal rights, and is warning that fewer funds are available to help the refugees.
Speaking at the American University of Beirut (AUB)’s Issam Fares Institute Thursday, Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi lamented the agency’s growing funding shortage. “Just like refugees bear responsibilities towards their host states, they should never be left on their own,” Grandi told an audience of over 200 people, noting that UNRWA aimed at “making refugees a stable force in Lebanon.”
Refugees should be regarded as an opportunity for their host country and not as a burden, he insisted.
Grandi said he admired those in Lebanon who had sought a debate in Parliament on the rights and living conditions of Palestinian refugees and assured he was aware how difficult the task was.
On Tuesday, the Progressive Socialist Party introduced a bill in Parliament which would grant property ownership and social security benefits to Palestinians, and ease restrictions on their right to work. Currently Palestinians are barred from working in all but the most menial jobs.
But Grandi expressed apprehension with regard to serious funding shortfalls for UNRWA. “Financial figures are moving in the wrong direction,” he said, while insisting that UN services were already down to the bare minimum. He saw no possibility to further reduce the agency’s budgets and said any change in funding should be carefully discussed with governments.
Dwindling international funding was a long-term consequence of the 2007 financial crisis, Grandi said. He appealed to European governments to negotiate and tackle a coming $100 million deficit in UNRWA’s budget.
He also expressed gratitude to “generous Arab donors,” noting Saudi Arabia’s recent donation of $25 million toward the reconstruction of Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, and Kuwait’s $34 million donation as Israel’s war on Gaza was waged in 2008.
Grandi was on a two-day visit to Lebanon to meet with Prime Minister Saad Hariri to promote cooperation on the funding decrease and the reconstruction of the northern Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, which was destroyed in fighting between the Lebanese Army and the Fatah al-Islam group in 2007.
Grandi described UNRWA’s various activities in the Arab world, focusing on efforts in the Occupied Palestinian territories, as UN officials were facing increasing difficulties and harassment from Israel. “We have to negotiate convoy for convoy with the Israelis,” he said, whereas “we need to import large quantities of goods to answer the basic needs of the population and support UN activities.”
He said a UN warehouse set ablaze by Israeli warplanes during the assault on Gaza in December 2009 was an example of the difficulties UNRWA is facing in reconstruction. “We are caught in a vicious circle as Israeli armed forces destroy facilities and the blockade thereafter baffles reconstruction attempts.”
He also reproached Israel for naming its reparation actions “payments,” thereby avoiding official recognition of responsibility for destruction. Regarding UNRWA’s relationship with Israel, Grandi stuck to the official, neutral UN position: “We fully acknowledge Israel’s right to [territorial] integrity and self-defense and condemn all rocket launches from Gaza territory onto Israel,” he said, while insisting that those attacks did not justify restrictions imposed by Tel Aviv on UN movements in the Palestinian Territories.