UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl announced that the schoolyear for thousands of Palestine refugee girls and boys will open on time in the West Bank Occupied Jerusalem Gaza Jordan Lebanon and Syria.
The announcement was made at an extraordinary session of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Advisory Commission held in Amman Jordan on Thursday
Krähenbühl emphasized that students and teachers will be returning to schools on time “because it is crucial to protect the fundamental right to education for Palestine refugee girls and boys and the community’s unwavering attachment to learning and the development of skills.”
He added that schools will open taking into account the fact that host countries have repeatedly drawn attention to the serious risks to regional stability if this were not the case.
The Commissioner-General also underlined the ongoing severe risks facing the Agency: “While announcing today the opening of the school year I wish to be clear that UNRWA is by no stretch of the imagination out of the woods.”
Krähenbühl paid tribute “to all our partners both hosts and the donors who stepped forward at this time of challenge either by advancing transfers of expected donations or by making new pledges and payments. This tribute includes the Secretary-General of the United Nations whose investment has been critical and outstanding.”
Sometimer earlier UNRWA had expressed concern that it may not be able to start the school year on time due to its unprecedented financial crisis which was exacerbated this year and reached a critical level after the United States the largest donor to UNRWA decided to slash most of its aid to the refugee agency a step the Palestinians fear is intended to dismantle the Agency as a prelude to ending the Palestinian refugee issue at pressure from Israel.
UNRWA had also ended this month contracts of hundreds of its Palestinian employees in the blockaded Gaza Strip in an effort to reduce expenses prompting the employees to close UNRWA offices in Gaza to protest the measure. The UN agency expects to do more layoffs in the future to avoid total financial breakdown.
