The government of India contributed USD 1 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in support of the Agency’s programs and services, including education, health care, relief, and social services for Palestine refugees.
ABOUT UNRWA :
UNRWA is a United Nations agency that is established in 1949 to provide assistance and protection to some 5.6 million Palestine refugees registered with UNRWA across its five fields of operation. Its mission is to help Palestine refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip achieve their full human development potential, pending a just and lasting solution to their plight. UNRWA services encompass education, health care, relief, and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, protection, and microfinance.
Due to growth in the number of registered Palestine refugees and faltering funds it's becoming difficult to meet basic aids. UNRWA is funded majorly by voluntary contributions and financial support has been outpaced by the growth in needs. As a result, the UNRWA program budget, which supports the delivery of core essential services, operates with a large shortfall.
INDIA's CONTRIBUTION TO UNRWA:
India is one of the major countries to provide funds in UNRWA which has increased it's annual financial contribution from US$ 1.25 million in 2017 toUS$ 5 million in 2018 and 2019, and in May 2020, India contributed US$ 2 million, which brought its total contribution for 2020 to US$ 3 million. In the recent Ministerial Pledging Conference for UNRWA, Honorable Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr. V. Muraleedharan announced that India will contribute US$ 10 million to UNRWA over the next two years.
According to the Representative Office of India in Palestine India’s support for the Palestinian cause is an integral part of the nation’s foreign policy and India has always played an active role in garnering support for the Palestinian cause.
PALESTINE REFUEGEE CRISIS:
Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947-49 Palestine war (1948 Palestinian exodus) and the Six-Day War (1967 Palestinian exodus). Most Palestinian refugees live in or near the 68 Palestinian refugee camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. UNRWA defines "Palestine refugee" as a person "whose normal place of residence was Mandatory Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli conflict.
In 2012, there were an estimated 4,950,000 registered descendants of the original "Palestine refugees" who fit the 1949 UNRWA criteria, based on the UNRWA registration requirement of which an estimated 1.5 million lived in UNRWA camps.