RESPONSE TO THE NEW DAVID BEDEIN FILM BY Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA SPOKESPERSON CHRIS GÄ¢¹½ÊÓÆµNESS

19 April 2015

The accusation that Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA has been taken over by Hamas and is complicit in the recruitment of children is presented in the commentary of a new film by David Bedein as fact, without any evidence. This is because there is no evidence.

What a shame Roim Olam – a weekly foreign news magazine aired on Israel public Television Channel 1 News – chose not to give its audience a fair and balanced portrait of Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA’s education work with a quarter a million children in Gaza, showing our human rights classes that inculcate a sense of universal values; our summer fun weeks with recreational activities that attempt to give a sense of normalcy; our psychiatric counselling with tens of thousands of children injured, maimed, blinded and traumatized during the conflict last summer and our efforts to rebuild destroyed homes of countless children.

I am surprised that an award winning editor can broadcast such biased and false allegations without any evidence or proof.

BACKGROÄ¢¹½ÊÓÆµD INFORMATION

Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA is a United Nations agency established by the General Assembly in 1949 and is mandated to provide assistance and protection to a population of some 5 million registered Palestine refugees. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and the Gaza Strip to achieve their full potential in human development, pending a just solution to their plight. Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA’s services encompass education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, and microfinance.

Financial support to Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA has not kept pace with an increased demand for services caused by growing numbers of registered refugees, expanding need, and deepening poverty. As a result, the Agency's General Fund (GF), supporting Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA’s core activities and 97 per cent reliant on voluntary contributions, has begun each year with a large projected deficit. Currently the deficit stands at US$ 100 million.

For more information, please contact:

Christopher Gunness

Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA Spokesperson

Mobile:

+972 (0)54 240 2659

Office:

+972 (0)2 589 0267

Sami Mshasha

Chief of Communications & Arabic Language Spokesperson

Mobile:

+972 (0)54 216 8295

Office:

+972 (0)2 589 0724