Salute the Heroes, Part III: UNWRA Workers
By Jonathan Kuttab
As people around the world celebrated Christmas yesterday and continue throughout the Christmastide season, we think of all the people in Gaza and Palestine who are in no position to celebrate. War is hell. But, for some it can bring out courage and sacrifice, and people are accustomed to acknowledging and saluting their heroes. I would also like to celebrate heroes, and for me the true heroes are not the fighters, however brave they may be, but the civilians and noncombatants who nonetheless carry out their sacred duties under extremely difficult conditions.
The United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) was established to provide essential humanitarian services to Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Nakba. They provide education, health clinics, and social services to over 5 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza. In Gaza, where two-thirds of the population are refugees from what is now Israel, UNRWA is the main source of employment as well as basic services for the beleaguered population. It needs to raise funds for its operations from different countries and chronically appears to operate in crisis mode, as its services, initially expected to be temporary pending the refugees’ imminent return, have been required now for over 75 years.
UNRWA gets attacked from all sides, trying to balance its mandate to provide basic services, pending the return, with the desires of many that it ceases to exist and for Palestinians to settle permanently outside Palestine and give up any desire to return. UNRWA has received international awards for the dedicated humanitarian work of its staff, both foreign and local, yet it is an easy target for Israel and supporters of Israel who claim UNRWA identifies too closely with the people it is supposed to serve. The US Congress perennially threatens to cut off its funding. However, Israel is generally pleased to allow UNRWA to carry the burden of caring for the minimal needs of the refugees—which under international law should be the responsibility of Israel as occupying power—while it simultaneously continues to attack UNRWA as a hostile organization.
With the relentless attacks on Palestinian governmental institutions since October 7 (which are run by Hamas), in Gaza UNRWA has become the sole institution and source of services for most Gazans. Their schools became a refuge for people forced to leave their homes by Israeli orders. As 1.9 million Palestinians became homeless, many crowded into UNRWA schools and installations, which did not escape bombardment, but were relatively safer than open spaces. Their supply of water, food, and space has been overwhelmed by the sheer number of those seeking UNRWA services or shelter within their various locations.
As of December 2, over 1 million people have been sheltering in 99 UNRWA premises in the Middle, Khan Younis, and Rafah areas. Out of a total of 156 installations, 85 installations have been damaged and 130 UNRWA employees killed. The number has increased since then.
UNRWA employees have been without salaries and many have had their own homes destroyed, and yet they work tirelessly to try and address the needs of the refugees, particularly those sheltering in their facilities. Just to provide water, bathrooms, toilet paper, a bare minimum of food, and mattresses to sleep on is a huge logistical task, especially since the Israelis have only allowed a limited number of aid trucks into Gaza. The Commissioner General of UNRWA stated that this situation is a catastrophe that can only be described as “hell on earth,” with “repeated disregard for international humanitarian law, and a disgraceful manipulation and conditioning of humanitarian aid.”
In the absence of governmental authority, under constant bombardment, and with extremely limited resources, UNRWA continues to be the one stable element in the lives of the majority of the population. I salute UNRWA and all its brave workers for their sacrificial service under impossible conditions.
Thank You!
All of us at FOSNA wish to extend a huge thank you to everyone who lifted up the people of Palestine in your prayers, sermons, songs, and collective actions as communities of faith and conscious, preaching against apartheid and standing against genocide, this Advent season. It has been inspiring to read, hear, and watch submissions come in from across the US.
If you have anything you would like to share for our growing Preach Palestine library, please feel free to message friends@fosna.org.
The Advent season may be over, but the crisis in Palestine goes on and our country remains very much complicit in the genocide of Gaza. So, continue to preach, teach, pray, sing songs of lament and solidarity, and take action until justice is done. Living between the first and second Advents, may the tension that things are not as they should be spur us daily to action until we can say in confidence, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
With two more weeks of Christmastide, please see: Suggested Actions To Take this Christmas Season for resources on faith-based direct actions in response to the genocide in Gaza.
Hatred Will Vanish: 2023 Christmas Appeal
This Christmas season, we are asking for your support. Partner with the critical work of FOSNA in the US and help amplify and support the essential witness of Sabeel, Jerusalem. The importance of our work is greater than it has ever been. With your support, Palestinian Christians can continue to practice steadfastness (Sumud) in the face of the ongoing atrocities and genocide! Your support tells them that the world sees them, hears them, and loves them.
May we all come to embrace the true message of Christmas!
Weekly
Sabeel Prayer Service. Join Sabeel every Thursday (6pm Palestine) for online Bible Study, discussion, and prayer. Examine scripture in light of the ongoing realities confronting the Palestinian Church and the pursuit of Palestinian liberation.
Wave of Prayer. Subscribe to receive Sabeel's Wave of Prayer, enabling friends of Sabeel around the world to pray over issues of critical concern to the Holy Land on a weekly basis.
Kumi Now! December 24 to 30: Week 52 - Christians in the Holy Land
Palestinians in the occupied territory face increasingly difficult circumstances due to the Israeli occupation. This has led many Palestinian Christians to emigrate, leading to a diminished Christian presence in the Holy Land. This week, as the World Council of Churches publishes the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle for Palestine and Israel, the Kumi Community is focusing on this problem. Here’s what you need to know and what you can do so that together we can rise up.