(National Post-Canada) Raymond J. de Souza - Why is UNRWA running hundreds of schools in the Palestinian Authority, which was established 30 years ago with the Oslo Accords? Why does UNRWA provide medical and social services more than 70 years after it was established in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War? The principal problem with UNRWA is that it is doing things that the Palestinians ought to be doing for themselves. No self-respecting people would want their health system to be run by the Red Cross years after a natural disaster. UNRWA in Gaza is like the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency still running New Orleans years after Hurricane Katrina. The entire premise of UNRWA is that the Palestinians alone have been uniquely incapable of organizing their own affairs. Palestinians can be found all over the world succeeding in professions, achieving academic distinction, unleashing entrepreneurial energy. Yet at home a massive UN bureaucracy is supposedly needed to provide basic services. UNRWA has deployed untold billions over generations to entrench a welfare mentality that denies Palestinians the opportunity to exercise their own agency, creativity and freedom. All this suits the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza just fine, for it absolves them of their basic responsibilities. The PA and Hamas would long ago have been overthrown, or been forced to change, if they failed to deliver basic services. But they are propped up from outside. UNRWA's existence means that Palestinians are not considered fully human, capable of providing for themselves.
2024-02-06 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive