Palestinian diplomats are engaged in a full court press to convince European and Arab countries to continue UNRWA's mandate - a mandate that ensures a parallel infrastructure for education, healthcare and housing in areas under Palestinian control.
They are also trying to convince Latin American countries to vote to extend UNRWA's mandate.
The agency's mandate has been rubber stamped to be extended every three years for decades, but in light of the recent corruption scandal at UNRWA's highest levels and the US opposition to the group, this year the extension will be a little more visible. The chances that it will not be extended are still very small.
But under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas and is foreign ministry, the PLO's diplomats worldwide and at the UN are initiating contacts with every country they can find to ensure that the vote remains overwhelmingly towards continuing the agency's operations.
UNRWA's model of providing free education, healthcare and housing to an ever-increasing number of descendants of refugees for ever is not sustainable. No one even pretends it is. But instead of having the agency curtail operations in areas where the local government can and should take over the role as any normal nation would, the "pro-UNRWA" crowd is not willing to even consider a change in its responsibilities to keep it financially viable.
In Jordan, the vast majority of those who receive benefits are full citizens, not "refugees" in any sense, and there is no reason the world must finance the schools and clinics of full Jordanian citizens.
For the Palestinians, insisting on maintaining UNRWA proves that they have no real desire for independence. After all, the "refugees" on Palestinian soil are not refugees by any definition either. The Palestinian Authority, if it truly wants independence, would actively want to take over UNRWA's functions in areas under its control to move more towards independence. If it truly wanted to be a state, it would ask to integrate UNRWA's operations into its own government and take the UNRW budget during a transitional period.
It never even considers that. The PLO is not only willing but insisting on outsourcing a large part of its governmental responsibilities to the UN, forever.
That is not how nations striving for independence would act.
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