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Wednesday, July 29, 2015
PRESS RELEASE: UN Agency for Palestine Refugees Holds Emergency Session of Donors and Hosts to Discuss the Agency's Dire Financial Situation

[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: With millions of REAL refugees from Syria and
millions of REAL refugees from Iraq joining millions of other REAL refugees
straining the world's aid resources the time has come to apply to
Palestinians the same international definition of "refugees". That is to
say - that you had a parent, grandparent or great grandparent who lived for
some period of time before 1948 in what is now Israel that doesn't make you
a refugee. ]

PRESS RELEASE

UN Agency for Palestine Refugees Holds Emergency Session of Donors and Hosts
to Discuss the Agency's Dire Financial Situation

26 July 2015
Jerusalem

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, is holding an
extraordinary session of its Advisory Commission today, to discuss the
Agency’s most severe financial crisis ever. The Commission will review the
growing risk that UNRWA may have to delay the start of the academic year
in some 700 schools for half a million students across the Middle East
unless the deficit of $101 million can be fully funded before the school
year is due to start. The session is taking place in Jordan and brings
together UNRWA’s leading donors and host governments.

“ I am alarmed that our current funding crisis may force us to consider a
delay in the start of the school year. Such a decision would generate much
anxiety and despair for hundreds of thousands of boys and girls, deeply
dedicated to their studies. Education lies at the very heart of the identity
and dignity of Palestine refugees and of what UNRWA stands for. Our schools
also provide a measure of stability in a very unstable region. Possible
delays in opening the school year would also have grave implications for
host governments”.

The extraordinary Advisory Commission session will be discussing a special
report to be sent by the Commissioner-General to the UN Secretary General,
Mr Ban Ki-moon, and on to all 193 members of the United Nations. The report
sets out the implications of UNRWA’s USD 101 million deficit for 2015, the
measures the Agency has taken to reduce costs and the strenuous efforts to
seek the necessary funds. It also outlines urgent steps that could be taken
to put UNRWA on a firm financial footing going forward.

As things currently stand, UNRWA has enough money to maintain its services
essential to protect public health which include immunizations for children,
primary health care, relief and sanitation and some emergency programmes
through to the end of 2015, but the funding is insufficient to guarantee the
stable provision of its education services from September onwards.

The Agency calls on all donors, partners and UN member states to actively
step forward with critical funding to allow the school year to begin without
interruption and to preserve the historic investment in human development of
Palestine refugees, recognized as one the most successful processes of its
kind in the Middle-East. Ensuring the continued provision of education is a
matter of dignity, rights and regional stability.

– Ends –

Background information



UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions, and financial
support has not kept pace with an increased demand for services caused by
growing numbers of registered refugees and deepening poverty. As a result,
the UNRWA General Fund, which supports core essential services and most
staffing costs, operates with a large deficit. UNRWA emergency programmes
and key projects, also operating with large deficits, are funded through
separate funding portals.



UNRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949
and mandated to provide assistance and protection to some 5 million
registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in
Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip achieve their full
human development potential, pending a just solution to their plight. UNRWA
services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp
infrastructure and improvement, and microfinance.



For more information, please contact:
Christopher Gunness
UNRWA Spokesperson
Mobile: +972 (0)54 240 2659
Office: +972 (0)2 589 0267
c.gunness@unrwa.org

Sami Mshasha
UNRWA Arabic Spokesperson
Mobile: +972 (0)54 216 8295
Office: +972 (0)2 589 0724
s.mshasha@unrwa.org

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