UNRWA services are a lifeline for Palestinian refugees until their case is resolved

 Palestinian Sulaiman Abu Namous from Gaza breathed a sigh of relief recently by extending the mandate of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for another three years.

UNRWA has formed Abu Namous, who is (110 years) a lifeline and a source of basic services for him and his family, just as he is like his Palestinian refugees who number more than five million people.

Abu Namus still remembers the features of his native town, from which he emigrated after the Nakba, and which was followed by the declaration of the establishment of Israel in 1948.

At the time, he was living with his family of nine in the “Wadi Hanina” town of Beer Sheba, southern Palestine, where they were engaged in planting seeds such as corn, wheat, barley, and many others.

And Israel gave another name to the town to become "Rescion Ricciona" instead of Wadi Hanina.

Abu Namus now lives in Jabalia camp in the northern Gaza Strip, which is considered the largest refugee camp in the Strip, in a tin roof house and its old red brick walls, which UNRWA established in 1967, after living for years in refugee tents.

Abu Namous says: "I did not change the features of the house that UNRWA built, to remind my children and grandchildren that our presence here is temporary, and that we must return to our homes one day and live in Beersheba, and restore our right to practice our normal lives like the rest of the people of the world."

The Abu Namus house is distinguished by its gray walls, similar to the refugee homes in the Palestinian camps, which usually contain narrow alleys that are barely sufficient for a person or two to walk in.

He adds, while he was watering an olive tree planted near the door of his house over 70 years old, "This tree and those alleys in addition to the gray walls of my house, and the bag of flour printed with the UNRWA sign is our identity in front of the whole world that we are refugees who were displaced from our country by force, killing and blood, and that we must Finding a solution for us to regain our rights and lands. "

The United Nations established UNRWA at the end of 1948 to provide aid to Palestinian refugees and to coordinate the services provided to them by NGOs and some other UN organizations.

And the decision to establish UNRWA was issued by the United Nations General Assembly No. 302, renewing its mandate every three years until a just solution to the Palestinian issue is found, with its headquarters in Vienna and Amman.

The renewal was made days before for a new UNRWA mandate for three years, with a majority of 169 votes, nine abstentions, and opposition from the United States and Israel.

This took place amid financial difficulties faced by UNRWA since the United States suspended its $ 300 million annual financial assistance to the Agency in 2018.

The United States and Israel believe that UNRWA has no reason to remain in its current form, especially as they reject the fact that the Palestinians can transfer refugee status to their children, according to Israeli reports.

UNRWA provides relief, education and health care services to more than five million Palestinian refugees in refugee camps scattered throughout Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

Palestinian refugees are staunchly opposed to ending UNRWA services, pending a just solution to their decades-old issue.

"The actions of UNRWA cannot be terminated as long as we live as refugees, they must return us to our towns and then they can end them, and we also will not need them because their role is over," said Abu Namous.

He added, while holding the key to his old house, "The Ottoman, British, Egyptian and Israeli governments and finally the two Palestinian governments lived, but our case as refugees has not been resolved yet."

As for his son Shehdeh Abu Namous (46 years old), he describes the word "refugee", whose identity has been attached throughout his life as "nothing but a lump" that will continue to hurt him throughout his life, noting that he inherited this trait from his father and will pass it on to his children until they return to their homes.

As he embraces his young son, he says, "It is unacceptable that UNRWA stop its work, because it is not only an organization that provides us with food and drink and little money, but it is a main address of our cause."

He explains that refugees in the Gaza Strip suffer from extreme poverty and unemployment, as a result of the difficult political and social conditions in which they live, in addition to the tight Israeli blockade imposed by Israel on the sector since 2007.

President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the decision of the United Nations to extend UNRWA´s work, and considered it a "clear message from the international community that international legitimacy decisions are not a compromise or blackmail."

And the file of the Palestinian refugees is one of the most prominent issues of the historical conflict with Israel, which is close to seven decades, and with all these years passing without finding a solution to the file, the multiplication of Palestinian refugees has made their case more complicated.