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December 13, 2023<\/p>\n
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Excellencies,<\/strong><\/p>\n Ladies and gentlemen,<\/strong><\/p>\n I arrived in Geneva last night. Straight from Gaza.<\/p>\n My third time since the devastating war started.<\/p>\n I have to say, it is a living hell.<\/p>\n Most of Gaza\u2019s population has been forcibly displaced, largely into the southern part of the Strip, Rafah.<\/p>\n Rafah is now hosting well over a million people. It used to be home to 280,000 people.<\/p>\n It lacks the infrastructure and resources to support such a population.<\/p>\n Inside our own warehouses, families live in tiny spaces that are separated by blankets hung on thin wooden structures.<\/p>\n Out in the open, flimsy shelters have emerged everywhere.<\/p>\n Rafah has become a tented community.<\/p>\n The spaces around Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA buildings are congested with shelters and desperate, hungry people.<\/p>\n Aid can no longer reach those who could not move to the south.<\/p>\n There is no more food to buy, even for those who can pay.<\/p>\n In the shops, the shelves are empty.<\/p>\n The sight of a truck carrying humanitarian assistance now provokes chaos. People are hungry.\u00a0 They stop the truck and ask for food, and they eat it on the street. I witnessed this firsthand when I entered into Gaza on Monday evening.<\/p>\n To call such scenes inhumane is an understatement.<\/p>\n Civil order is breaking down.<\/p>\n The people of Gaza are now crammed into less than one third of the original territory, near the Egyptian border.<\/p>\n It is unrealistic to think that people will remain resilient in the face of unlivable conditions of such magnitude.<\/p>\n Especially when the border is so close.<\/p>\n Excellencies<\/strong>,<\/p>\n I wrote to the President of the General Assembly last week, warning that Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA\u2019s ability to fulfill its mandate in Gaza is severely limited.<\/p>\n The entire humanitarian response heavily relies on Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA\u2019s capacity.<\/p>\n It is now on the verge of collapse.<\/p>\n Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA is still operating 8 health centres, out of 22.<\/p>\n We are sheltering more than a million people in our schools and other facilities.<\/p>\n Our social workers are supporting traumatized people as best they can.<\/p>\n We are still distributing whatever food we manage to bring in, but this is often as little as a bottle of water and a can of tuna per day, per family, often numbering 6 or 7 people.<\/p>\n This operational reality is not sustainable. Not for the population and not for the Agency.<\/p>\n More than 130 Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA staff are confirmed killed.<\/p>\n Many of our staff, who are themselves displaced, take their children to work with them to ensure that they are safe together or die together.<\/p>\n I asked one colleague how he managed to remain composed and offer help in a shelter. He told me that he looks for a corner in the building to cry 10 times a day.<\/p>\n Excellencies<\/strong>,<\/p>\n There is nowhere to feel safe in Gaza.<\/p>\n Civilian infrastructure and Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ facilities have not been spared by the shelling.<\/p>\n I was horrified by images yesterday of an Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA school being blown up in the north of Gaza.<\/p>\n The people of Gaza are running out of time and options, as they face bombardment, deprivation, and disease in an ever-ever-shrinking space.<\/p>\n They are facing the darkest chapter of their history since 1948.<\/p>\n And it has been a painful history.<\/p>\n The events in Gaza are taking place against a backdrop of 75 years of displacement.<\/p>\n 75 years of failure to find a just and lasting solution to the plight of Palestine Refugees.<\/p>\n During this time, they have been deprived of their basic human rights and their right to self-determination.<\/p>\n Throughout the region, many continue to live in overcrowded refugee camps with substandard living conditions, generation after generation.<\/p>\n For the last 75 years, the world has asked Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA to uphold the rights of Palestine Refugees.<\/p>\n And we have done so successfully, contributing to their development and to their feeling of stability as much as possible.<\/p>\n Over 2 million students have graduated from our schools, half of them girls.<\/p>\n Health indicators among this refugee community exceed WHO standards.<\/p>\n But today, and despite our successes, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA suffers from chronic underfunding which impacts the quality of our services.<\/p>\n Upholding refugees\u2019 rights is not only the responsibility of humanitarian and development actors. It is a responsibility shared with donors and Host countries.<\/p>\n I would like here to thank the countries who have hosted, for the last 7 decades, millions of Palestine Refugees.<\/p>\n I also thank our partners and donors for their support and trust.<\/p>\n But Palestine Refugees need a just solution, not just aid.<\/p>\n Today, they feel abandoned by the international community.<\/p>\n They feel betrayed as the world fails to act in the face of one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our time in Gaza.<\/p>\n They now believe that human lives are not equal and human rights are not universal.<\/p>\n This is a dangerous message, and it will have serious repercussions.<\/p>\n Excellencies<\/strong>,<\/p>\n The Global Refugee Forum represents the political will of the international community to affirm the human rights of all people fleeing war and other crises.<\/p>\n Whether it is Syrians, Somalis, Afghans or Palestinians, addressing the plight of refugees and upholding their rights require the political will to tackle the root causes of their displacement.<\/p>\n Refugees often stay in that status for far too long.<\/p>\n This is not unique to Palestine Refugees.<\/p>\n All refugees remain refugees until they receive a change of status, acquire citizenship, or return to their countries of origin.<\/p>\n Both Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵHCR and Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA are the expression of a collective responsibility of United Nations Member States towards refugees.<\/p>\n The people of Gaza, like all people, long for safety, stability, and fulfilment.<\/p>\n This is also the forum where I must raise the alarm about the dehumanization that is rampant during this war.<\/p>\n The war in Gaza heavily relies on a media war.<\/p>\n Dehumanizing and derogatory language should not be normalized.<\/p>\n The lack of empathy only fuels divides, polarization, and hatred.<\/p>\n I am horrified at the smear campaigns that target Palestinians and all those who provide assistance and protection to them.<\/p>\n Our partners present here must help us push back against hatred and debunk repeated vulgar accusations.<\/p>\n It is disheartening that some longstanding partners are choosing to believe the barrage of misinformation that seeks to discredit Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA.<\/p>\n I urge our partners to remain vigilant, and not to act upon distorted facts.<\/p>\n I have, Excellencies, three calls today.<\/p>\n First<\/strong>, we need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the siege to let in sufficient aid. I welcome here the overwhelming support of 153 Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Member States at the General Assembly calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.<\/p>\n Second<\/strong>, we must be able to roll out humanitarian assistance worthy of its name. It needs to be meaningful.<\/p>\n The day after the war in Gaza will be shaped by how we respond to the current crisis.<\/p>\n What can 100 trucks or so per day offer to 2.2 million people?<\/p>\n The high-level discussions about the number of trucks per day have taken up so much time and energy that I have no answer to a father of five in Rafah who asked me how he and his children can survive on one can of beans for three days.<\/p>\n We are very far from an adequate humanitarian response.<\/p>\n Third<\/strong>, collectively, we must ensure that International Humanitarian Law is still the regulating framework of the conflict. It cannot be selective or be re-interpretated.<\/p>\n To conclude<\/strong>, the Israel-Palestine conflict has been neglected for far too long. The political process needs to be revived urgently.<\/p>\n There is absolutely no alternative to a genuine political process to end the cycle of violence.<\/p>\n Israelis and Palestinians must both enjoy statehood, peace, and stability.<\/p>\n This will require dedicated efforts to help both societies heal and live side by side.<\/p>\n Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"