Date: 9th December ,2025
As they approach their enforcement at the end of the current January, Dr. Abu Holi warns of the serious repercussions resulting from the Israeli occupation government's implementation of two laws against UNRWA.
- Protecting UNRWA is a collective and international responsibility of donors and member states of the United Nations.
- Calling on the United Nations to stand firmly to prevent the implementation of Israeli laws targeting UNRWA.
Dr. Ahmed Abu Houli, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and head of the Refugee Affairs Department, warned of the serious repercussions and risks resulting from the Israeli occupation government’s implementation of two laws targeting UNRWA, as they approach their enforcement at the end of January. These laws prohibit UNRWA’s work in Israel, and thus in the occupied Palestinian territories, revoke the 1967 bilateral agreement, and cut off communications with UNRWA. This will have severe impacts on Palestinian refugees, their political rights, and regional stability.
Dr. Abu Holi emphasized that implementing these Israeli laws could undermine UNRWA’s mandate in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and terminate its presence entirely in occupied East Jerusalem, pointing out that this would negatively affect the region’s security and stability, depriving millions of Palestinian refugees of essential services such as education, healthcare, relief, and life-saving emergency services, which are crucial income sources for them. It would also lead to the collapse of humanitarian work in the devastated Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli war since 15 months, and whose residents, according to UN reports, face genocide, famine, and systematic forced displacement.
He called on the Member States of the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to take effective actions to pressure the Israeli occupation government to prevent the implementation of the two laws passed by the Israeli Knesset last October against UNRWA. He urged them to firmly oppose Israeli plans aimed to eliminate or undermine UNRWA’s mandate, considering its role in protecting Palestinian refugees’ rights and its embodiment of international commitment to them until a political solution is found in accordance with Resolution 194. He also stressed the need to compel the occupying power to respect UNRWA’s mandate, the immunity of its facilities, and secure their protection.
Dr. Abu Holi stated that , “Protecting UNRWA and its mandate is a collective, international responsibility borne by the member states of the UN General Assembly, who must take effective measures to suppress Israel’s disregard for international humanitarian law, the UN Charter, and its resolutions, forcing it not to implement laws targeting UNRWA. Donor countries must also increase their financial contributions and secure a financial safety net to cover UNRWA’s 2025 budget, as reports indicate that 2025 will be a challenging year due to chronic financial difficulties aggravated by the ongoing US funding cut and Sweden’s announcement to halt its funding, in addition to the doubling of refugees’ needs for its services.”
Dr. Abu Holi added “The UN General Assembly’s majority adoption of a resolution supporting UNRWA’s mandate last December during an emergency special session under Resolution 377, used exceptionally under the ‘Uniting for Peace’ agenda item, after the Security Council failed last November to adopt a draft resolution urging Israel to respect UNRWA’s mandate, is insufficient without binding measures to compel Israel to implement it. This necessitates taking deterrent steps to oblige Israel not to tamper UNRWA’s mandate, respect its diplomatic immunity, and prevent the implementation of its laws.”
He emphasized that the services provided by UNRWA in its five areas of operation to 5.9 million Palestinian refugees, in addition to emergency humanitarian aid for 1.9 million displaced Palestinians forced from their homes in war-torn Gaza, cannot be dispensed with or prevented by illegitimate local laws that violate international humanitarian law, the UN Charter, and its resolutions.
He stressed that UNRWA’s role, as mandated by Resolution 302, in its five areas of operation is irreplaceable by any other organization or international body, firmly rejecting any attempt to substitute this role by the occupying power.
Dr. Abu Houli explained that the conspiracy against UNRWA falls within the framework of liquidating the Palestinian refugee issue, abolishing the right of return, and redefining who qualifies as a refugee from Israel’s point of view .
He confirmed that official Palestinian action on both political and diplomatic levels continues intensively to prevent the passage of the Israeli laws, to protect our people and their inalienable rights to return and establish their independent state. He called on diplomatic missions in Palestine to make solidarity visits to UNRWA headquarters in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, to express their governments’ rejection of the Israeli laws targeting UNRWA and to warn of the repercussions of confiscating UNRWA’s headquarters in Jerusalem.
He added that Palestinian refugees are in dire need of UNRWA and its services at this critical stage, noting that UNRWA’s role is a contributing factor that everyone works for. Dr. Abu Holi stressed the continuity of UNRWA’s work in providing its services as part of the international community’s commitment to Palestinian refugees in accordance with the mandate granted to UNRWA by Resolution 302 until the time comes when the Palestinian refugees obtain their rights to return to their homes from which they were displaced in 1948 in accordance with Resolution 194.
