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STORY: UN / UNRWA MINISTERIAL MEETING
TRT: 04:19
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 26 SEPTEMBER 2024, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, United Nations flag outside UN Headquarters
2. Wide shot, conference room
3. Wide shot, dais
4. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Two million Palestinians are now crammed into a space the size of Shanghai International Airport. Existing, not living, but existing among lakes of sewage, piles of rubbish and mountains of rubble. The only certainty they have is that tomorrow will be worse. Yet. If there is any outpost of hope in this hellscape, it is UNRWA.”
5. Wide shot, dais
6. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Attempts to evict UNRWA from its headquarters in East Jerusalem continue. And UNRWA has not been spared on the political level. These include systematic disinformation campaigns to discredit the agency's life-long work. Meanwhile, draft legislation in the Israeli parliament seeks to label the agency a terrorist organisation and to make any activity by UNRWA on Israel territory Illegal.”
7. Various shots, applause
8. Wide shot, conference room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner general, UNRWA:
“Palestinians are no stranger to loss, but to be dispossessed from education, which has always been a source of tremendous pride, is new. We cannot afford to lose an entire generation and sow the seeds for future hatred and extremism.”
10. Wide shot, delegates
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner general, UNRWA:
“Disturbingly, senior Israeli officials have described destroying UNRWA as a war goal. We heard it. Draft legislation in the Israeli Knesset seeks to evict the agency from East Jerusalem, revoke its privileges and immunities, and designate it as a terrorist organisation. An unconscionable action by a member state against a UN entity mandated by the General Assembly.”
12. Wide shot, delegates
13. Wide shot, dais
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Ayman Aṣ-ṣafadī, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jordan:
“The indispensability of UNRWA cannot be questioned, nor can the fact that UNRWA cannot be replaced, for doing that is questioning the right of Palestinian children to food, to shelter, to education and to hope. UNRWA cannot be replaced.”
15. Wide shot, dais
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Ayman Aṣ-ṣafadī, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jordan:
“UNRWA schools, most of them were decimated. Those that still stand are sheltering Palestinians, children, women who are killed by Israeli bombs and starved by Israeli siege, denying them water, food, medicine. We need UNRWA because nobody can help the Palestinians in Gaza more than UNRWA now.”
17. Med shot, delegates
18. Wide shot, dais
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Maria Malmer Stenergard, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sweden:
“The underfunding of UNRWA remains deeply concerning. We welcome the generous contributions from several new and recurring donors since October last year. However, more steps must be taken towards a sufficient, predictable and sustainable funding for the agency, including by broadening the donor base.”
20. Med shot, Lebanese delegate
21. Wide shot, conference room
Secretary-General António Guterres today (26 Sep) said people in Gaza are “existing, not living,” and if “there is any outpost of hope in this hellscape,” it is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Addressing a Ministerial level meeting to discuss the situation of the agency, Guterres said, “attempts to evict UNRWA from its headquarters in East Jerusalem continue,” while on the political level, there are “systematic disinformation campaigns to discredit the agency's life-long work.”
He noted that “draft legislation in the Israeli parliament seeks to label the agency a terrorist organisation and to make any activity by UNRWA on Israel territory Illegal.”
UNRWA’s Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini told the meeting that “Palestinians are no stranger to loss, but to be dispossessed from education, which has always been a source of tremendous pride, is new.”
He said, “we cannot afford to lose an entire generation and sow the seeds for future hatred and extremism.”
Disturbingly, Lazzarini continued, “senior Israeli officials have described destroying UNRWA as a war goal.”
He described efforts to evict the agency from East Jerusalem, and to revoke its privileges and immunities, and designate it as a terrorist organisation, which he said is “an unconscionable action by a member state against a UN entity mandated by the General Assembly.”
Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ayman Aṣ-ṣafadī, Co-Chair of today’s meeting, said, “the indispensability of UNRWA cannot be questioned, nor can the fact that UNRWA cannot be replaced, for doing that is questioning the right of Palestinian children to food, to shelter, to education and to hope.”
Aṣ-ṣafadī said, “UNRWA schools, most of them were decimated. Those that still stand are sheltering Palestinians, children, women who are killed by Israeli bombs and starved by Israeli siege, denying them water, food, medicine.”
He said, “we need UNRWA because nobody can help the Palestinians in Gaza more than UNRWA now.”
The other Co-Chair, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden Maria Malmer Stenergard, said, “the underfunding of UNRWA remains deeply concerning” and while she welcomed “generous contributions” from new and recurring donors “more steps must be taken towards a sufficient, predictable and sustainable funding for the agency, including by broadening the donor base.”
Today’s meeting emphasized UNRWA’s indispensable and irreplaceable role in the lives of Palestinian refugees, particularly in Gaza, and seeked to explore ways to bolster political and financial support for the agency.
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