THE Bureau of the UN General Assembly’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People reaffirmed last Wednesday night its unwavering support for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and its indispensable mission.
It said the announcement comes in accordance with its General Assembly mandate to ensure the well-being, protection and development of the Palestine refugees pending a just solution to their plight on the basis of resolution 194 (III) of 1948.
The Bureau expressed its grave concerns about the catastrophic conditions in Gaza and the hindrances to UNRWA’s mandate implementation, recognising UNRWA’s role as a lifeline for Palestine refugees for the past 75 years, offering not just essential services but a sense of hope and stability, amidst protracted crisis and injustice.
The Bureau strongly appealed to donors who have suspended funding to UNRWA to reverse such decisions, which severely jeopardise the Agency’s humanitarian and stabilising efforts across the region, particularly in the war-torn Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
‘The demonisation of the Agency must stop,’ said the Bureau.
‘Supporting UNRWA means standing with the Palestinian people until the achievement of a just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine in accordance with UN resolutions and international law,’ the statement affirmed.
The Bureau reiterated its urgent appeal for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza, an end to the forced displacement of Palestinians, and unobstructed access to humanitarian assistance.
On Thursday, the UN condemned Israeli occupation forces for opening fire on starving Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid south of Gaza City, killing 104 victims and injuring 760 others.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, reiterated Guterres’ demand for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire and said the UN chief ‘once again calls for urgent steps so that critical humanitarian aid can get into and across Gaza to all those in need.’
Up till last Thursday, at least 30,035 Palestinians had been killed in Gaza, and 70,457 others injured, since the outbreak of the ongoing Israeli aerial and ground aggression on the enclave last October.
Hospitals have been destroyed, so Palestinian men, women and children have to be treated in the ruins without anaesthetics, children included.
These tactics, alongside the crippling blockade, makes it clear to all Palestinians that Israel intends to either drive them out of Gaza or kill them, either with bullets or through though diseases.
The Israeli war plan has already pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
There is no doubt that Israel intends to finish the job of eliminating the masses of the Palestinian people, men, women and children.
Meanwhile, the Rochdale by-election victory for George Galloway proves yet again that the British workers support Palestine! Even Premier Sunak has noticed that the masses are rising up and has told his police chiefs that something must done to put an end to the mass demonstrations demanding free Palestine, ‘from the river to the sea!’
The time is now here for the working class to use its enormous strength to bring down the Tories with a general strike to put an end to all of Sunak’s plots and conspiracies with the police.
A General Strike will bring down the Tories, put an end to their conspiracy to smash Gaza and also to rearm for a war with Russia.
A General Strike will bring in a Workers Government that will nationalise the banks and the major industries, and bring in a planned socialist economy, to satisfy the needs of the working class, as well as allying itself with the people of Palestine, to see that the State of Palestine is definitively established, and to put an end to all of the imperialist plans to rob the Middle East’s oil wealth.
Forward to the general strike and a Socialist UK. Forward to the establishment of the State of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital!