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UNRWA, the Palestine Refugees, and World Politics: 1949–1969

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

David P. Forsythe
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Extract

It has been suggested that the United Nations may perform any of three general functions in its field operations: peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peaceservicing. The first two functions are more widely recognized than the third, and it is to the third that this article is directed with specific application to the Middle East. Peacekeeping, the termination or containment of violence, has been extensively discussed; in the Middle East such agencies as the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF), the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), and the Mixed Armistice Commissions are regarded as peacekeeping units of the parent organization. Increasingly a separate functional category for analysis termed peacemaking has been employed referring to efforts to remove or mollify the substantive issues causing violence. In the Middle East missions such as the Conciliation Commission for Palestine (CCP), its special representatives, and the representatives of the secretary-general such as Gunnar Jarring are generally labeled peacemakers rather than peacekeepers.

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Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , Winter 1971 , pp. 26 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1971

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References

1 See my article, “United Nations Intervention in Conflict Situations Revisited: A Framework for Analysis,” International Organization, winter 1969 (Vol. 23, No. 1), pp. 115–139CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In the present essay I prefer the term “peaceservicing” to that of “peacebuilding” as a less normative, more descriptive label for the third function.

2 UN Document A/5214 reprinted in General Assembly Official Records (17th session), Supplement No. 14, p. 5.

3 “Palestine Refugees,” UN Monthly Chronicle, 11 1966 (Vol. 3, No. 10), p. 39Google Scholar.

4 See General Assembly Resolution 212 (III), November 19, 1948, and UN Document A/1060 reprinted in General Assembly Official Records, Ad Hoc Political Committee(4th session), Annex, Vol. 2, pp. 14–44.

5 A leading American student of the issue now places the figure around 700,000. See Peretz, Don, “Arab Palestine: Phoenix or Phantom,” Foreign Affairs, 01 1970 (Vol. 48, No. 2), pp. 322–333CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The first UN survey, conducted by the OGP in the summer of 1949, placed the figure at 711,000. UN Document A/AC.25/3, p. 2. According to a UN expert on Palestine refugees in conversation with this author a later check confirmed that CCP figure as “essentially correct but too low by several thousand.” A second official UN survey in the fall of 1949 placed the figure at nearly 750,000. See UN Document A/1106 reprinted in General Assembly Official Records, Ad Hoc Political Committee (4th session), Annex, Vol. 1, p. 19. The final report of the mission said 726,000. See UN Document A/AC.25/6, par: 1, p. 23. Israel has consistently claimed that the original number is well below published figures. For a discussion of this point see Khouri, Fred J., The Arab-Israeli Dilemma (Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press, 1968), p. 390Google Scholar, footnote 25, and Peretz, Don, Israel and the Palestine Arabs (Washington: Middle East Institute, 1958), p. 30Google Scholar, footnote 2. UNRWA has reevaluated its own figures but has kept its conclusions confidential.

6 UN Document A/7213 reprinted in General Assembly Official Records (23rd session), Supplement No. 13, p. 1; and UN Document A/7614 reprinted in General Assembly Official Records (24th session), Supplement No. 14, pp. 6, 13–14. Despite some criticism UNRWA has used for a working definition of a Palestinian refugee one who lived in Palestine for two years prior to the 1948 war and who as result of that war lost his home and means of livelihood. Thus the number of refugees does not reflect the number of Palestinians who left what is now Israeli territory. UNRWA is also aiding some 350,000 non-Palestinian refugees from the 1967 war.

7 For a new look at these policies see my forthcoming book, United Nations Peacemaking: The Conciliation Commission for Palestine and Other Subsidiary Organs, published for the Middle East Institute and the Princeton Center of International Studies. Cf., Khouri, as well as the earlier standard works such as Peretz, , and Gabbay, Rony E., A Political Study of the Arab-Jewish Conflict: The Arab Refugee Problem; A Case Study (Etudes d'histoire économique, politique et sociale, 29) (Geneva: E. Droz, 1959)inter aliaGoogle Scholar.

8 Subsequent statements of fact in this article which are not general knowledge and not otherwise footnoted are drawn from my research, based in part on interviews with many of the individuals involved.

9 UN Document A/1106, p. 19. Italics added.

10 UN Document A/AC.31/L.48 and Rev.i reprinted in General Assembly Official Records (4th session), Annex, Vol. 1, pp. 53–56, proposed by France, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

11 Ibid., pp. 56–57. See also the comments of the Egyptian representative in the General Assembly Official Records, Ad Hoc Political Committee (4th session), 52nd meeting, 11 30, 1949, pp. 313–314, and 54th meeting, December 2, 1949, p. 316Google Scholar.

12 UN Document A/7614, p. 12.

13 Ibid., p. 10. At the time of writing 308,038 children over one year of age were waiting for rations. Of these over 23,000 had been aided on an emergency basis. By contrast, over 72,000 names had been removed from UNRWA's lists in the preceding twelve months. Ibid., pp. 14–15.

14 UN Press Release PM/2319 quoted in “Issues before the Seventh General Assembly,” International Conciliation, 10 1952 (No. 484), p. 457Google Scholar.

15 UN Document A/1905, General Assembly Official Records (6th session), Supplement No. 16, p. 6. For a description of the early works programs see “Refugee Relief Works Starting in Near East,” United Nations Bulletin, 07 1, 1950 (Vol. 9, No. 1), pp. 35–36Google Scholar.

16 “Relief Works Project Aims to Solve Middle East Refugee Problem,” United Nations Bulletin (Vol. 8, No. 10), pp. 443–444Google Scholar. Italics added.

17 Quoted in United Nations Bulletin, Vol. 9, No. 1, p. 35.

18 Peretz, p. 13.

19 See the discussion of Arab cooperation with this UNRWA role in ibid., pp. 14–15, and in Khouri, p. 130. See also League of Arab States resolutions 462 and 600 regarding the league's stand on the Blandford plan and subsequent negotiations in Khalil, Muhammad, ed., The Arab States and The Arab League: A Documentary Record, Vol. 2: International Affairs (Beirut: Khayats, 1962), pp. 170–172Google Scholar.

20 See “Finding Work for Palestine Refugees,” United Nations Review, 10 1957 (Vol. 4, No. 4), p. 46Google Scholar.

21 UN Document A/2978 reprinted in General Assembly Official Records(10th session), Supplement No. 15, p. 1.

22 United Nations Review, Vol. 4, No. 4, p. 46.

23 Peretz, p. 22. See further Peretz, Don, “Development of the Jordan Valley Waters,” Middle East Journal, Autumn 1955 (Vol. 9, No. 4), pp. 397–412Google Scholar; Stevens, Georgiana G., “The Jordan River Valley,” International Conciliation, 01 1956 (No. 506)Google Scholar; Doherty, Kathryn B., “Jordan Water Conflict,” International Conciliation, 05 1965(No. 553)Google Scholar; Clapp, Gordon R., “An Approach to Economic Development in the Middle East,” International Conciliation, 04 1950(No. 460)Google Scholar.

24 UN Document A/5214, General Assembly Official Records (12th session), Supplement No. 14, p. 5.

25 UN Document A/7614, p. 10.

26 Education becomes die largest item in the budget if medical aid is considered apart from direct relief in keeping with UNRWA terminology and practice; see ibid., table A, p. 51.

12 International Conciliation, No. 484, p. 457; “How the UN Helps the Palestine Refugees,” United Nations Review, 12 1955 (Vol. 2, No. 6), p. 13Google Scholar; UN Document A/7614, p. 29.

28 See United Nations Review, 10 1954 (Vol. 1, No. 4), p. 55Google Scholar, and United Nations Review, 1957 (Vol. 2, No. 9), pp. 4–5Google Scholar. See also “Calls for Expanded Vocational Training Program for Palestine Refugees,” United Nations Review, 11 1960 (Vol. 7, No. 5), p. 7Google Scholar; cf., United Nations Review, 04 1960 (Vol. 6, No. 10), p. 29Google Scholar, and United Nations Review, 11 1961 (Vol. 8, No. 11), P. 3Google Scholar.

29 UN Document A/7213, pp. 8–11.

30 “Issues before the Fifteenth General Assembly,” International Conciliation, 09 1960 (No. 529). P. 165Google Scholar.

31 UN Document A/6713 reprinted in General Assembly Official Records (22nd session), Supplement No. 13, p. 19. The agency had estimated that at the end of the 1964–1965 school year, of 1,090 graduates of vocational and technical training schools, 273 had secured jobs in the United Arab Republic and Western Europe and 90 percent of the rest had found jobs in other nations. UN Document A/6313 reprinted in General Assembly Official Records (21st session), Supplement No. 13, p. 25.

32 UN Document A/7614, p. 36.

33 Peretz, pp. 27–28. See also International Conciliation, No. 529, p. 165. Up to 1960 the development bank had assisted about 400 refugees in Jordan to establish themselves abroad.

34 UN Document A/7614, p. 11.

35 A case in point is represented by the article by Davis, John H., “The Plight and Tragedy of the Younger Generation of Palestine Refugees,” United Nations Review, 04 1960 (Vol. 6, No. 10), pp. 22–27. One thesis of the article is that the Arab governments could not do more for the refugees because of the lack of jobs available in Middle Eastern economies. The position of the Arab governments regarding the Blandford plan and other plans for economic development, such as the secretary-general's 1959 report (UN Document A/4121) which would have provided additional labor needs, is not considered in the articleGoogle Scholar.

36 United States weariness of this apparently unending financial obligation is reflected in the comment of a United States delegate at the fourteenth session of the General Assembly: “The continuation of UNRWA was not the proper way to handle the [refugee] question.” General Assembly Official Records, Special Political Committee (13th session), 102nd meeting, 11 10, 1958, p. 67Google Scholar; quoted in “Issues before the Fourteenth General Assembly,” International Conciliation, September 1959 (No. 524), p. 147.

37 For example, in 1960 the movement to create a UN custodian for refugee property in Israel seemed to have much support despite United States opposition. A United States spokesman finally said in a last effort to defeat the proposal, “If other Members see virtue in actions that may tend to prolong the refugee dilemma, we trust that those Members will be prepared to assume an increased responsibility of that burden.” General Assembly Official Records (15th session, part 2), 993rd plenary meeting, 04 21, 1961, p. 447Google Scholar.

38 See the report of UNRWA's director in 1956 to the effect that the Arab governments were trying to influence the staff and daily operations of the agency. “The Palestine Refugee Problem,” United Nations Review, 05 1957 (Vol. 3, No. 11), pp. 68–69Google Scholar. There have been constant UNRWA complaints that the Arab host governments taxed the agency's operation, restricted the movement of its personnel, and in other ways abridged the privileges and immunities of international civil servants. See UN Document A/7614 for recent variations of the argument which can be found a decade earlier reported in “Issues before the Eleventh General Assembly,” International Conciliation, 09 1958 (No. 519), pp. 173–175Google Scholar.

39 UN Document A/7614, pp. 3–4. UNRWA was particularly critical of Israel's detention of UNRWA personnel for long periods without trial.

40 General Assembly Official Records, Ad Hoc Political Committee (4th session), 51st meeting, 11 30, 1949, pp. 310–311Google Scholar.

41 UN Document A/7614, Annex I, table 20, p. 84.

42 See the New York Times, July 27, 1967, p. 4, for a dear indication of this policy.

43 This thesis is eloquently developed in Laqueur, Walter, “Russia Enters the Middle East,” Foreign Affairs, 01 1969 (Vol. 47, No. 2), pp. 296–308Google Scholar.

44 New York Times, July 14, 1967, p. 20; August 15, 1967, p. 15.

45 See my forthcoming book.

46 UN Document A/7213, p. 15.

47 The director's frequent suggestions that UNRWA be funded from the regular budget rather than from voluntary contributions had never met with support. See UN Document A/7613, General Assembly Official Records (22nd session), Supplement No. 13, p. 4Google Scholar, for one of many comments on this possibility.

48 For an analysis of early UNRWA programs in terms of economic considerations see, in general, the writing of Peretz. Cf., UN Document A/4121.

49 Sharabi, Hisham, Palestine Guerrillas: Their Credibility and Effectiveness (Supplementary Papers) (Washington: Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, 1970), pp. 21Google Scholar and 23. Such statements of fact in this source are “derived either directly from guerrilla sources, or from interviews, or from personal observations on the scene … ” (p. 21, footnote 1). Cf., the Christian Science Monitor: December 24, 1968, p. D-1; November 14, 1969, p. 1; November 22, 1969, pp. 1, 3. See also the New York Times, February 18, 1969, p. 5; March 2, 1969, p. iv-3; March 14, 1969, p. 1. And see Friendly, Alfred Sr, “The Fedayeen,” Atlantic Monthly, 09 1969 (Vol. 224, No. 3), pp. 12–20Google Scholar.

50 UN Document A/7614, p. I. Cf., the UN Monthly Chronicle, 12 1969 (Vol. 6. No. 11). p. 72Google Scholar.

51 This has been a consistent theme of UNRWA's annual reports and has been verified by New York Times and Christian Science Monitor surveys.

52 The Christian Science Monitor, November 22, 1969, pp. 1, 3; New York Times, March 14, 1969, p. 8. See also Atlas, April 1969 (Vol. 17, No. 4), p. 20, in which Yasir Arafat, head of Al Fatah, is quoted as saying, “The Palestinian people have made their own decision and this springs from the gun … imperialism understands only this language…” Cf., the statements of doctrine by Al Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Sharabi, pp. 48–56.

53 Labouisse, Henry quoted in “The Palestine Refugee Poblem,” United Nations Review, 05 1957 (Vol. 3, No. 11), p. 32.Google Scholar

54 Space does not permit extended discussion of a theme related to this essay—viz., that Jordan and Lebanon have an interest in increasing UNRWA's independence in order to curtail commando activity and prevent civil war in those two states. If state security continues to be given priority over anti-Zionist policies, these states have reasons to cooperate with increased authority for UNRWA.