A Sit-in in Commemoration of The 70th Anniversary of The Nakba and Rejection of UNRWA’s Decrees

A sit-in in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba and rejection of UNRWA’s decrees, and in response to the UNRWA policy and policies that reflected negatively on the human and social security of the Palestinian refugees, including UNRWA staff, the Open Forum Committee of NGOs organized a sit-in in front of the UNRWA headquarters, in the presence of representatives of Palestinian NGOs, committees, unions and parties.

A speech on the behalf of the Open Forum Committee of NGOs was delivered by Mr. Samer Manna’a, assured on reviving the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba is an international witness of the continuation of the tragedy of the Palestinian refugees and the inability of the international community to redress our right to return to our homes and villages that we were displaced since 70 years. The International Agency is the living expression of the international legal and moral commitment to the right of return and Resolution 194 as well as the refugee’s tragedy.

The right of return is one of the pillars of the Palestinian national cause, which the US administration is trying to cancel through a series of steps and by halting the payment of approximately $ 25 million of US obligations to the fund. UNRWA, on the way to resolving or redrafting its mandate and the limits of its responsibilities, both geographically and programmatically, and by draining its resources, thus paving the way for the cancellation of the Palestinian refugee cause or in resolving the cause by turning it from a ” Right of return to homeland” to the cause of” permanent housing for refugees “, and outside the homes and properties from which the owners have been forcedly displaced since 1948, and away the relevant resolution 194.

Mr. Manna’a declared that they should stick to UNRWA and call on it to stop the process of reducing and decreasing services and instead to increase services in quantity and quality.  At the end of the sit-in, the Open Forum Committee of NGOs handed a memorandum to the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Mr. Pierre Krahenbuhl, through the Director General of the Agency in Lebanon, Mr. Claudio Cordone.