In a city that witnesses an unfinished catastrophes, the benefits of an institution that was created to provide relief to refugees are fading, where a refugee is now facing a reality of targeted oppression. In its attempt to obliterate every glimmer of hope, the usurping entity is today seeking to end the existence of UNRWA, the last remaining international umbrella that protects refugees and their rights.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is on the verge of ending its operations in the occupied city of seizing and evacuating all its buildings, as the ban imposed by the entity on the agency comes into effect on Thursday, January 30, 2025.

 

The decision to ban UNRWA in occupied Al-Quds came after a vote in the occupation Knesset, where 92 members supported it, following repeated accusations by the entity’s government against the agency’s employees of collusion with the resistance during Al-Aqsa Flood, October 7, 2023

In Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, agency employees are preparing to vacate their offices, having started packing up their belongings days ago in preparation for their departure. The headquarters there is a major focal point for UNRWA’s work in the West Bank, overseeing services provided to refugees in 19 camps, in addition to housing the Commissioner-General’s office and a number of administrative offices that coordinate the agency’s work in the area.

 

For its part, UNRWA has repeatedly denied these allegations on its official page, stressing that the occupation has no legal basis to prevent it from continuing its work. It also warned against escalating the attack against the agency, noting that the hostile rhetoric promoted by the occupation puts its employees and facilities at risk wherever they are.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, also warned that closing the agency would severely hinder the provision of humanitarian aid in the occupied Palestinian territories.

UNRWA’s departure from occupied Jerusalem is not just an evacuation of buildings or the closure of offices, but another page added to the record of the ongoing Nakba, as the entity seeks to bury the memory and eliminate everything that symbolizes the right of return.

What is next? Would the ban on UNRWA constitute a prelude to liquidating the refugee issue? How would the Palestinian refugee confront this systematic targeting of his rights? And would the world stand up to these attempts, or will it collude with silence, as it has done repeatedly?!