UNRWA

There are many illusions about what is happening to the Yarmouk district of Damascus and its Palestinian refugee population. The district was originally set aside in 1957 for Palestinian refugees already living there, whom Israel had expelled from their homes in 1948, with periodic additional populations thereafter. Today it is home to around one million Syrians and Palestinians, of whom the Palestinians number roughly 170,000.

“What are you doing in heaven’s sake?” My mom shouted at me and rushed to slap me on my head before I jumped running away. “Are you crazy? You are burning souls.” “Souls? They are just damned ants.” I retaliated. “No, …

In their endeavor to beautify occupation and killing the children, to legitimize the Gaza siege and starving a whole people of ethnically cleansed refugees (over 73% of the peopole living in Gaza are ethnically cleansed in 1948), the zionists are …

Ma’an – 23/08/2014 BETHLEHEM – The UN’s Palestine refugee agency UNRWA on Saturday criticized the Israeli military for publishing allegations — that have since been retracted — that Hamas militants fired a rocket from one of their schools in Gaza the day before. In a statement, the organization called upon “Israeli military spokespersons and other […]

IMEMC News | August 3, 2014 A health disaster of widespread proportions is rapidly unfolding in the Gaza Strip as a direct result of the ongoing conflict, said the United Nations today. Mr. James W. Rawley, the Humanitarian Coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), together with Mr. Robert Turner, UNRWA’s Director of Operations in […]

UN Official Breaks Down Crying Live on Air 
For Chris Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which has numerous facilities in Gaza, it’s all too much. This is the sixth time UNRWA sites have been hit during Israel’s current campaign. He broke down sobbing during an interview, footage of which was screened by Al Jazeera Arabic

http://youtu.be/cu3lYK6OmMI

Al-Akhbar | July 31, 2014 Palestinians are “facing a precipice” in Gaza, the top UN refugee official there told the Security Council on Thursday in a strongly-worded appeal for action. With more than 240,000 Palestinians already sheltering in UN facilities — four times the number from the last Gaza conflict in 2008-2009 — Pierre Krahenbuhl […]

Are we going to stand back and spectate while the ugly foundations of a modern day dystopia are laid in front of our eyes? Or will our common humanity unite us and compel us to act to help save the people of Gaza?  In saving them, we save ourselves.

Image above: Right-wing nationalists attack a central Tel Aviv protest against Israel’s bombing of Gaza on Saturday, 12 July.(Oren Ziv / ActiveStills
 
 

 
by Franklin Lamb
Yarmouk Palestinian camp, Damascus
 
This observer does not write these words causally and he is no huge fan of most intellectually lazy quick spun internet conspiracy theories, too many of which appear given to flights from reality when facts get complicated and dispositive information is obscure.