The UN Agency Keeping the Israel-Palestine Conflict Alive

For more than seven decades, a United Nations agency created as a temporary humanitarian organisation has become a permanent fixture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But what if the institution established to help Palestinian refugees has also helped perpetuate the very problem it was supposed to resolve?

Unlike refugees elsewhere in the world, Palestinians are served by a separate UN agency: UNRWA. Its unique system has allowed refugee registration to pass from generation to generation, leaving millions of descendants of the original refugees registered under its mandate.

In this episode, I examine the history of UNRWA, the political consequences of its refugee system, the controversies surrounding its staff and educational institutions, and the allegations of links to Hamas that have raised serious questions about its operations.

I also explore how international aid, originally intended to alleviate suffering, can become entangled in a political system that preserves the conflict rather than bringing it closer to resolution.

The question is not whether Palestinians deserve humanitarian assistance. It is whether the international community has spent decades financing an institution whose structure may be helping to ensure that the conflict never ends.

Read my essays and subscribe to the publication at chicomuya.com.