Vigil - a new truth telling sign

 

This sign that I made a few months ago is going to be returned to service at my vigil tomorrow. It is a nightmare that the slaughter of the last year was given the full go-ahead by the country that once proclaimed liberty and justice for all. I have never heard that phrase voiced by our new president or the departing one, a war criminal along with Netanyahu. The hatred and contempt for the Palestinians that the Israeli war on them has revealed is epic, yet it fails to move many Americans. Now there is to be a ceasefire, but as any student of Israel's history knows, it uses ceasefires temporarily before going on to grab more land. This is nothing new, it began in 1948 when the first Palestinian refugee camps were created, tent camps just as we see now in Gaza and, as in Gaza, Israel refused to contribute a shekel to their maintenance. The UN responded with the creation of the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) the very same humanitarian agency that Israel rails against today. Things must change. Reader, have you thought of what you might do to bring change? It will not be coming from Washington DC.

targeting UNRWA

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which I have mentioned before, could hardly be a more benevolent organization. It has been providing for the Palestinian refugees from just after the establishment of Israel to the present time. The  58 refugee camps it maintains are a reminder of the fact that millions of people are still prevented by Israel from returning to the towns from which they were evicted.

Obviously, these camps are facts on the ground which Israel would love to see eliminated and it should be no surprise that the Jewish state has done all it can over the years to oppose funding for UNRWA.

I just received a notice from UNRWA that it will not be able to run the summer games for Palestinian youth that it has conducted for the past six years due to a shortage of funds.

In the United States, U.S. Representative Illeana Ros-Lehtinen is continually acting for Israel in calling for the elimination of funding for anything having to do with the Palestinians, UNRWA in particular. Israel, however is the beneficiary of billions of dollars annually agreed to for ten year periods and then gets additional gifts on top of it.

This is testimony to the control of U.S. foreign policy in Israel/Palestine by the Israel lobby.

You might consider donating to UNRWA on your own, as I do. It's the least an American citizen can do to counteract the capture of the Congress.

the remarkable UNRWA

UNRWA (UN-ruh), the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, is an agency dedicated to helping the millions of Palestinians who have been displaced by the coming of Israel. UNRWA maintains 53 refugee camps for 4.7 million people scattered across Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and the occupied territories (West Bank and Gaza) as seen on this map.


As Israel continues to oppress, attack and displace Palestinians, UNRWA continues the decades long effort to provide basic humanitarian services such as education, medical care and even recreation for children. It isn't an easy job and the camps are not nice places, crowded as they are with the descendants of those forced from their homes in 1948. These are the people that Israel absolutely refuses to allow to return. They are a living reminder to the world of human cost of the foundation of Israel.

Though rarely making headlines, UNRWA occasionally breaks into the news. Such was the case during Operation Cast Lead, the 2008/09 Israeli attack on Gaza that included the bombardment of the UNRWA school in the Jabalya camp with white phosphorous that killed 42 people (14 children), the attack pictured here.

Just last month, Israel refused the entry of construction materials for five new UNRWA schools in Gaza. It's reported that 40,000 children in Gaza are not attending school as a result of the lack of facilities. Overall, UNRWA operates 691 schools with 483,000 pupils (50% female) under a comprehensive educational program

Money is always a problem. Some countries give generously and you can too.

In the United States, there are some people who revile the UN and insist that the US should not be a part of it. Yet, it is one of the few places that America can in a very small way compensate for the huge gifts of money and weapons we give to Israel. Throughout the world, the agencies of the United Nations operate to provide a last refuge for people who have lost everything to conflict. Though the UNRWA is dedicated to the Palestinians, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the United Nations Fund for Population Assistance (UNFPA) operate worldwide to ease the very difficult lives so many face and about which too many Americans are unaware.