UNRWA | The American Task Force on Palestine

Two Palestinians killed in Lebanon refugee camp
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
June 18, 2012 - 12:00am

The Lebanese army shot dead two Palestinians in a refugee camp near the northern city of Tripoli on Monday after confrontations broke out during the funeral of man killed in the camp on Friday, residents said. The army said in a statement the soldiers used tear gas and rubber bullets before opening fire on a crowd that attacked an army post inside the Nahr al-Bared camp. It said three soldiers had been wounded by stones and petrol bombs thrown at them. Medical sources said 20 other people had been injured in the clashes.

Why the world shouldn't support UNRWA
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Israel Harel - (Opinion) June 14, 2012 - 12:00am

Five million Palestinians define themselves as refugees. They insist on festering away in camps, at the international community's expense, while holding fast to their main dream: returning to the towns and villages from which their ancestors fled or were expelled. Their ambition to realize this dream - which is a major stumbling block to ever ending the conflict - is made possible by the unending aid they have received for more than 60 years now from the UN Relief and Works Agency.

Israeli MK, AIPAC behind Senate bid to cut total number of Palestinian refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - June 12, 2012 - 12:00am

Capitol Hill in Washington was rocked late last month when the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment requiring the State Department, for the first time, to do a "count" of Palestinian refugees. The amendment required the State Department to specify how many of the five million Palestinians who receive aid from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency are refugees who were personally displaced from their homes in 1948, and how many are descendants of those refugees.

Britain gives $155 million to Palestinian refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
June 12, 2012 - 12:00am

Britain on Tuesday announced a 100 million pound ($155 million) aid package to support Palestinian refugees in the Middle East for the next three years. The British embassy in Amman said International Development Minister Alan Duncan made the announcement after a visit to the Baqaa Palestinian refugee camp near the Jordanian capital.

Palestinians: US refugee bill may delay peace
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In The Jerusalem Post - June 5, 2012 - 12:00am

Palestinian advocates are warning that a new US Senate amendment dictating a reporting requirement on the issue of Palestinian refugees could set back efforts to reach a peace deal. The amendment to a bill, recently approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee, mandates that the secretary of state must report how many of the Palestinians serviced by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency fled or left homes in Israel during the War of Independence and how many are only their descendants.

U.N.'s Much-Reviled But Helpful Agency
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan J. Brown - (Opinion) May 28, 2012 - 12:00am

On a recent Sunday morning, I paid a visit to a women’s community center in Zeitun, an outlying neighborhood in Gaza City that is run by United Nations Relief and Works Agency. It was packed. Behind one curtain, several middle school girls were getting an English lesson to supplement their formal instruction. In another room, women in their 20s were learning how to write a résumé and cover letter. Behind another door was a group of mothers getting assistance on how to help their children with homework.

Hopelessness of a two-state solution leads to fresh ideas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Alan Philps - (Opinion) April 27, 2012 - 12:00am

No one is paying much attention to the Palestine issue these days. Coverage in the global media is perfunctory. What used to be a major issue in US-Israeli relations is now relegated to a sideshow by Iran and the Obama administration's focus on getting re-elected without any new Middle Eastern entanglements. As Filippo Grandi, the Commissioner General of UNRWA, the United Nations agency that provides services for Palestinian refugees, put it last week in London: "Over the past seven years I have never seen all the avenues for political progress closed as they are now."

Palestinians’ situation declining
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
April 25, 2012 - 12:00am

BEIRUT: The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Shahed) announced in its annual report Tuesday that the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is getting worse by the year, as their rights diminish in number and value daily. According to the report, “the [poor] housing conditions in camps have not been addressed, and there is no local or international initiative on the horizon to improve them.” It described the camps as “a breeding ground for disease, home collapses, and a well of social problems.”

UNRWA inaugurates Dutch-funded housing project for 1,300 Gazans
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) on Tuesday inaugurated a housing project, funded by the Netherlands, to reside 1,300 Palestinian homeless in southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. The UNRWA said in a press statement that the houses, funded by a 7.2-million-U.S. dollar donation from the Dutch government, will provide shelter to 1,300 Palestinians in western Khan Younis refugee camp.

Don't Shut the Switch
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) March 19, 2012 - 12:00am

One of the items not transferred to the Palestinian Authority with its creation in 1994 was electricity generation. With the exception of the Jericho area, the PA is not permitted to generate any of its own electricity. In fact, even the PA’s creation of distribution companies in the West Bank is not in accord with the agreement. In terms of electricity for the Palestinians, the Israeli Civil Administration is fully in charge.

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