AMMAN — “We are standing at a crossroads,
on the verge of a disaster,” UNRWA Commissioner-General
Philippe Lazzarini was
quoted as telling the Swedish online magazine OmVärlden on Monday by AmmanNet.
اضافة اعلان
According to Lazzarini, the
situation is now worse than it has ever been.
“We are on the verge of collapse, no doubt about
this, we are now in a position where we cannot afford the increased costs,” he
added.
Lazzarini said
that part of the frustration among
Palestinian refugees is directed at UNRWA,
whose premises have been vandalized in Lebanon, where the economic situation is
extremely difficult, and where there are daily protests outside the UNRWA
offices.
“People are in dire need of help and turn to us,
however, because of our financial situation, we cannot meet their demands, so
they turn their anger at us. We may have to temporarily close many of our
centers for security reasons,” Lazzarini said.
He added that
UNRWA is funded through individual
grants from various countries; the annual budget amounts to just over $1.6 billion,
with half going to meeting basic support. The European Union, the US, the
United Kingdom and Sweden are major donors.
Lazzarini added that in Israel and several other
states, there are voices questioning UNRWA’s presence, and critics say
financial support for Palestinian refugees threatens to contribute to
perpetuating the Palestinian refugee issue for generations.
He said he sees
the conflict in
Palestine and Israel as one of the longest in our recent
history, but finds it difficult to see that UNRWA contributes to the crisis.
“The solution could not be to pretend that there are no
problems, in the absence of a political settlement as I see it, there is no
alternative to the service we provide, if someone else is going to play our
part, one has to ask who will do it,” said Lazzarini.
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