BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee

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Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (2006-2007)
reintegrating (resettling) refugees into the economic life of the region. 32 Plagued by high overhead costs and lack of
regional co-operation, and in the face of strong opposition among refugees to de facto resettlement, in the late 1950s
UNRWA refocused its humanitarian operations on delivering basic education, health, relief and social services. 33 These
three areas comprise the bulk of international assistance programmes for eligible Palestinian refugees.
At the beginning of the Oslo process in 1993, UNRWA began to examine how to prepare for eventually handing
over its installations and programmes to Palestinians in the 1967-occupied Palestinian territory. A 1995 report by the
Agency noted, “for the first time since [UNRWA] was established, it is possible to see on the horizon the end of the
Agency’s mission.” 34 More than a decade later, however, UNRWA continues to provide education, health and social
services to more than four million refugees.
Beginning in 2002, and coinciding with Israel’s military campaign against the Palestinian Authority in the occupied West
Bank and the Gaza Strip, the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
launched an international campaign calling for the dismantlement of UNRWA and its integration into UNHCR. This
campaign includes editorials and press articles discrediting UNRWA’s position as an impartial humanitarian agency,
and lobbying the US Congress to decrease or discontinue funding for UNRWA operations. 35
In 2004, a large UNRWA donor-initiated conference took place to enhance the level of engagement of UNRWA
with the international community, and to increase support for the needs of refugees. 36 Participants to the conference
recommended that UNRWA adopt a rights-based approach to its assistance programmes and operations. UNRWA
was requested to apply the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to give special consideration to the protection
needs of vulnerable groups, in particular children, women, and elderly and disabled persons. 37 UNRWA was also asked
to improve its planning, data collection, analytical capacity and the quality of its services, as well as follow-up with
donors and host authorities. 38 In 2005, UNRWA incorporated gender-neutral registration guidelines and undertook
to provide services to refugee women married to non-refugees, a category previously ineligible for services. (For more
on registration, see Chapter Two.)
3.1.6 Non-Governmental and Charitable Organizations
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have also played a key role in providing assistance to Palestinian refugees.
Major international non-governmental aid agencies in 1948 included the American Friends Service Committee, as
well as the International Committee of the Red Cross in co-operation with the League of Red Crescent Societies.
Most NGOs, however, soon transferred responsibilities to the authorities of the host countries and/or UNRWA. 44
Oxfam Solidarity-BADIL emergency project for home rehabilitation in West Bank refugee camps.
2006. © BADIL.
Until the beginning of the 1990s,
NGOs played a limited role and
many Palestinian refugee communities
did not received aid from such organizations.
In Lebanon, for example,
NGOs were barred from operating in
the camps between 1959 and 1969,
during which time camps were placed
under military surveillance. Moreover,
Lebanese law barred NGOs from
providing services to non-Lebanese,
including Palestinian refugees. In Israel,
internally displaced Palestinians
were subject to military rule until
1967, and few non-governmental
organizations existed that provided
or advocated for IDPs.