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American Diplomat Offers UNRWA Exit Plan

(Times of Israel) Dave Harden - UNRWA supports 5 million registered Palestinian refugees and their descendants, of whom about 30,000 are first-generation refugees. Assistance from UNRWA in health, education, and social services is life-saving to the most vulnerable. But after 70 years, the structure and incentives have ossified to create welfare dependency. Most Palestinians would prefer the dignity of a state, a job, and the potential of a real future than food basket deliveries, generation after generation. UNRWA subsidizes dysfunctionality and an unsustainable status quo. UNRWA's exit plan could include: Arrange a multi-year timetable for the Palestinian Authority to take over financing health and education for up to a million people in the West Bank. Assist Jordan to gradually take over social welfare benefits for two million people. Shift refugee operations in Syria and Lebanon from UNRWA to the UN High Commission for Refugees, which is already operating in both countries. Disrupting UNRWA's organizational model is essential if the Middle East wants to see a different future. The writer, managing director of the Georgetown Strategy Group, was an American diplomat who led the U.S. assistance mission to the West Bank and Gaza for more than a decade.
2018-08-17 00:00:00
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