UNRWA: A Bastion of Palestinian Existence under Attack

Palestinians face multiple anti-existential threats: genocide, forced displacement, and systematic erasure of identity and culture. UNRWA delivers vital education, healthcare, and aid to millions of refugees under siege and occupation. Despite bombed facilities, staff losses, and constant obstruction, UNRWA sustains Palestinian life and dignity amid attempts at physical and cultural annihilation.

In early 2025, Israel passed laws banning UNRWA operations within Israeli-controlled territory, including East Jerusalem and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. These laws criminalize contact with UNRWA, aiming to dismantle the agency and erase Palestinian refugee identity and rights. Unlike UNHCR, which supports refugees worldwide but excludes Palestinians, UNRWA is dedicated solely to Palestinian refugees and their descendants, providing essential services that sustain identity and community across generations. The Israeli ban is a clear attempt to erase Palestinian refugeehood and accelerate dispossession. 

UNRWA itself faces an existential threat. Its mandate, funding, and operations are under siege due to funding shortfalls, attacks on facilities and staff, and political isolation imposed by Israeli laws and allied international policies. Without urgent support, UNRWA may be forced to reduce or cease critical services. This endangers not just humanitarian relief but the fragile thread that sustains Palestinian memory, identity, and rights. 

UNRWA’s work reveals the lived reality beneath relentless occupation: denied rights, forced displacement, and precarious shelters. Its persistence embodies Palestinian steadfastness, asserting that Palestinian life, identity, and memory will endure despite efforts at erasure.

UNRWA is far more than an aid agency; it is a vital guardian of Palestinian existence and dignity; a bulwark against the machinery of disappearance that seeks to silence Palestinians and rewrite their history. Supporting UNRWA is, therefore, an affirmation of Palestinian survival and resistance, ensuring the Palestinian story continues to be told by its rightful owners.