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We, the undersigned, wish to request that the Canadian government restore funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees.  In your mandate letter as Minister of International Development, the Prime Minister has called you to focus “Canada’s development assistance on helping the poorest and most vulnerable, and supporting fragile states.”  We believe that Palestinian refugees in the Middle East are among the world’s most vulnerable populations, and sorely need the aid that Canada has historically provided. 

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CJPME Factsheet 125, published June, 2011: This factsheet looks at Canada’s continued defunding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA), which provides assistance, protection and advocacy to approximately 4.8 million Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. Until 2009, Canada had been one of the top 20 contributors to UNRWA’s core programs. While UNRWA’s funding grew consistently between 2000 and 2008, Canada was the only donor country to defund UNRWA’s core programs during this period.

The UNRWA is the caretaker human development and relief agency for Palestinian refugees. It provides educational programs, relief and social services, health programs, microenterprise and microfinance programs, and emergency relief. In January, 2010, the Canadian government announced it would curtail funding to UNRWA and redirect aid to projects in the Palestinian Authority (PA). This position paper explains why Canada’s decision will be counterproductive if it seeks to address the root causes of extremism and promote peace and stability between Israel and Palestine and provides recommendations. 

CJPME Factsheet 73, published January, 2010: This factsheet addresses a number of destructive myths relating to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA). This UN Agency, tasked with alleviating the humanitarian needs of Palestinian refugees and their unique political situation, has been the target of attacks and malicious allegations in recent years.

CJPME Factsheet 72, published January, 2010: This factsheet provides a historical and contextual overview of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA), created to provide humanitarian assistance to the 850,000 Palestinian refugees displaced by war or forcibly expelled from their homes between 1947 and 1949. Today, Palestinian refugees now constitute the world’s largest and most enduring refugee population.