25 June 2025
Virtual
Excellencies,
Members of the Advisory Commission,
I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude to Spain for the strong commitment it has shown as Chair of the Advisory Commission at a time of unprecedented challenges for UNRWA.
I am also grateful to the Vice Chairs, Brazil and Jordan, for their steadfast support; and to Lebanon and Australia for their important contributions as Chair and Vice Chair of the Sub-Commission.
The fact that this meeting must be held virtually reflects the dangerous escalation taking place in the Middle East.
Principled political engagement by Member States is urgently needed, including by the members of this Advisory Commission in relation to the future of Palestine Refugees.
Excellencies,
We are at a tipping point in the occupied Palestinian territory, which threatens to permanently shift the long-established parameters for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict.
We are witnessing the implementation of a project, decades in the making, to separate Palestinians from Palestine.
In Gaza, two million people are being starved, while food and medical supplies sit across the border.
It is obscene.
A so-called “aid mechanism” has been created to replace the principled international aid operation led by the United Nations, of which UNRWA is a critical part.
The new mechanism is an abomination that costs lives.
It humiliates and degrades desperate people, concentrating them in ghetto-like hubs, from which they can be more easily displaced.
This is the grotesque culmination of 20 months of inaction and impunity, during which more than 55,000 people have been reported killed – mostly women and children.
***
The occupied West Bank is now under lockdown.
Additional restrictions on the movement of people and goods, are intensifying the impact of brutal military operations by the Israeli Security Forces, and rampant violence by Israeli settlers.
In the north, Palestinians have been displaced from camps at levels not seen since 1967.
Public infrastructure is systematically destroyed so Palestinians cannot return, and the demography of camps is permanently altered.
Annexation is well underway.
The Israeli authorities are also depriving Palestinians of the most basic rights, including the right to education.
A painful example is the forced closure of UNRWA schools in occupied East Jerusalem, weeks before the end of the school year and without any alternative for nearly 550 girls and boys.
Denying children an education is not only inhumane, it is illegal.
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For Palestine Refugees outside the occupied Palestinian territory – in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan – it is a time of profound anxiety and uncertainty.
In the past year, many have suffered the impact of war, sweeping political changes, and economic hardship.
These are not new experiences for this long marginalized and deeply vulnerable population.
What is new is the existential crisis engulfing the United Nations agency on which they have relied for generations, at every stage of their lives.
Members of the Advisory Commission,
So great is the desire to undermine the viability of a Palestinian State, and to strip Palestinians from their refugee status, that dismantling UNRWA has become an objective of the war in Gaza.
The Agency is crumbling under the weight of relentless political attacks.
Israeli legislation against UNRWA took effect in January, prohibiting our operations in what Israel considers its sovereign territory – including occupied East Jerusalem – and prohibiting contact between Israeli authorities and the Agency.
The legislation has effectively expelled international UNRWA staff from the occupied Palestinian territory.
However, our services continue.
Here, I must pay tribute to our local staff, whose courage and determination – amid arrests, harassment and intimidation – have allowed the Agency to provide essential services, including education and healthcare, to Palestine Refugees.
But many of our colleagues have paid the ultimate price.
Nearly 320 UNRWA personnel have been killed in Gaza, many with their families.
One staff member was summarily executed while on duty for the United Nations and found near the infamous mass grave of Palestinian paramedics.
I continue to call for accountability for these and other international crimes.
In Gaza, UNRWA still provides more than 15,000 health consultations each day.
We also play a critical role in managing shelters, providing clean water, and removing waste.
To support our local staff, we have in place 24-hour remote management and critical incident reporting systems, backed by international staff.
This helps to ensure effective coordination and accountability.
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The goal of ending UNRWA’s operations also underpins the fierce disinformation campaign spearheaded by Israel.
This campaign targets lawmakers and the public in countries that support UNRWA, strangling our funding for critical services to Palestine Refugees.
To tackle disinformation, we must continue to insist that independent, international media enter and report from Gaza.
This is a vital complement to the extraordinary efforts of Palestinian journalists and others who have reported daily, especially through social media, about the atrocities taking place.
Excellencies,
The political attacks against UNRWA are based on allegations that the Agency is colluding with or infiltrated by Hamas.
UNRWA takes allegations of neutrality breaches extremely seriously.
Our policy on Outside and Political Activities makes clear that while personal views and convictions are inviolable – in accordance with human rights – staff are prohibited from participating in activities or being a member of any militant or armed group.
We do not operate in a zero-risk environment, but we take a zero-tolerance approach to any proven breaches.
The Independent Review of UNRWA’s neutrality conducted last year found that the Agency has a more robust approach to neutrality than comparable entities.
Out of the 50 recommendations arising from this review, 20 recommendations will be fully implemented by the end of this month.
The remining 30 are all underway.
Implementing the recommendations of the Colonna Report remains a priority.
We will be sharing a report next month on this remarkable progress.
***
I know that many of you are particularly interested in progress made on recommendations related to neutrality in education.
In all UNRWA schools, we use textbooks from host governments.
This is best practice in refugee education globally, and allows students to pursue further education and employment more easily.
In the occupied West Bank, this means using textbooks from the Palestinian Authority.
The Grade 5 Arabic textbook includes a portrait of Dalal al Mughrabi, a Palestinian militant, that does not align with United Nations values.
We raised our concerns with the Ministry of Education multiple times.
Last December, I wrote to President Abbas informing him that UNRWA would no longer teach the Grade 5 Arabic textbook in our schools.
The books have been withdrawn and replaced with self-learning materials developed by the Agency.
***
UNRWA continues to work tirelessly to ensure staff integrity by conducting human resource background checks.
Staff are also screened against United Nations sanctions lists.
Through our partnerships with banks, checks against additional sanctions lists are performed as part of the salary distribution process.
For the past 15 years, UNRWA has consistently shared staff lists with host countries and Israel.
We now do so on a quarterly basis.
***
I must stress that UNRWA – like comparable United Nations entities – does not have police, military or intelligence capabilities.
We rely on Member States when such capacities are needed.
We have repeatedly asked the Government of Israel for evidence to support its claims that UNRWA staff are involved in militant activity.
Last month, I wrote to the Foreign Minister of Israel, once again, requesting information and evidence to substantiate these allegations.
In my letter, I also noted that the Government of Israel has not pursued any prosecutions within its criminal justice system, which would also require the presentation of credible evidence.
I explained that if the Government had shared evidence with UNRWA or pursued criminal prosecutions at the domestic level, the Agency could have acted within its regulatory framework to dismiss staff against whom criminal culpability had been established, in accordance with recognized principles of due process.
We have not received a response.
I must reiterate here that allegations are not evidence.
Repeating allegations in letters or on social media does not constitute due process.
The absence of evidence, and of legal process, raises the possibility that the accusations made against UNRWA personnel are unfounded.
Excellencies,
The relentless political attacks on UNRWA have compounded the Agency’s dire financial situation.
Donor funding received between January and May this year for the Programme Budget represents only 56 percent of the funding received during the same period last year.
Cost control and austerity measures introduced in 2024 remain in place and will save more than USD 150 million this year.
However, these measures are further eroding the quality of services and negatively affecting staff well-being.
The Agency is managing its cashflow on a weekly basis, resorting to internal measures such as delaying payments to vendors to enable the payment of salaries.
The projected shortfall for the 2025 Programme Budget is approximately USD 200 million.
UNRWA cannot carry a large deficit into 2026 – unlike in previous years.
Due to the loss of two major donors, the United States and Sweden, there is no projected income to cover such a deficit in the first quarter of 2026.
If all pledged funds are received on time and in full, UNRWA will be able to continue operations through the end of August.
However, without additional funding, I will then have to take unprecedented decisions affecting our operations across the region.
Palestine Refugees, including our staff, will be impacted most severely.
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In response to the very real possibility of the Agency imploding in the face of extraordinary adversity, Secretary-General Guterres has requested a strategic assessment of the impact and exercise of UNRWA’s mandate.
The strategic assessment will propose how the rights of Palestine Refugees may be protected amid the immense political, financial and operational pressures on the Agency.
This will require Member States, especially AdCom members, to take bold, decisive, and long overdue action.
While the results of the strategic assessment are not yet public, we will have the opportunity to discuss this exercise in more detail tomorrow.
Members of the Advisory Commission,
Excellencies,
It is abundantly clear that UNRWA will not survive outside a genuine, timebound political process.
The Agency has engaged closely in the constructive political consultations of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two State Solution.
Only within such a process can the Agency finally transition its government-like services to empowered and prepared public institutions serving Palestinians.
In the absence of an orderly transition, the sudden loss or reduction of UNRWA’s services will only deepen suffering and despair across the occupied Palestinian territory.
It might spark unrest in neighboring countries.
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Last November, I noted that what is at stake is not just UNRWA as an institution.
It is the collective future of Palestine Refugees.
This is even more true today.
Our actions must be guided by what will protect and serve Palestine Refugees best.
This is the primary consideration that must guide every deliberation going forward.
Your constructive engagement, as members of the Advisory Commission, is vital, and I trust that the senior management team and I may continue to rely on your support in the critical weeks and months ahead.
Thank you.
Background Information:
UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The United Nations General Assembly established UNRWA in 1949 with a mandate to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to registered Palestine refugees in the Agency’s area of operations pending a just and lasting solution to their plight.
UNRWA operates in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, The Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Tens of thousands of Palestine refugees who lost their homes and livelihoods due to the 1948 conflict continue to be displaced and in need of support, nearly 75 years on.
UNRWA helps Palestine Refugees achieve their full potential in human development through quality services it provides in education, health care, relief and social services, protection, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance, and emergency assistance. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions.
Your support is crucial to help us provide emergency aid
to displaced families in Gaza
For more information, please contact:
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