Israel has often complained that UNRWA, the UN body dealing with "Palestinian refugees," merely exists to continue the conflict without resettling the people it treats as the UN does with all other refugees, but apparently the Palestinian Arabs are unhappy with the organization too - for not giving them enough, and for giving too much to their brethern in Syria's Yarmouk neighborhood.
Residents of Gaza defined as "refugees," namely the descendants of Arab residents who left Israel in the 1948 War of Independence, are protesting against UNRWA after the latter transferred resources to displaced Palestinian Arab residents of the Yarmouk "refugee camp," a neighborhood in southern Damascus that has been under Islamic State (ISIS) attack.
The popular committee of refugees held a demonstration on Monday in front of UNRWA's aid distribution center in the western Al-Muaskar camp, demanding that UNRWA cease the budget cuts planned for them, and calling on donating nations to prop up the UN body.
Palestine, the Hamas-affiliated paper, reports that the protesters bore signs reading "UNRWA cuts - why now?," "where is the international community?," "save Gaza from a slow death," "UNRWA has the supreme legal authority on the camps and the refugees," "we demand the donating nations take responsibility for covering the financial loss of UNRWA," and "I'm a Palestinian refugee, is it not my right to live freely?"
Mohammed Abu Al-Saeed, who is responsible for the refugee popular committee in Gaza's Khan Younis, called on UNRWA to provide all the needed services to the "refugees," including education, health, food, drinkable water and more, so as to prevent them from having to pay for themselves.
Yarmouk, in south Damascus, was once home to 160,000 people, Syrians as well as Palestinians, but its population has dwindled to just 18,000 since the uprising erupted in March 2011.
The camp is encircled by government forces and was under a tight siege for more than a year.
Around 2,000 people were recently evacuated from the neighborhood after the Islamic State (aka ISIS) group seized large parts of it.
Watchdog groups reported that the Syrian regime was using starvation as a weapon against the populace there, and dozens of people reportedly died of that starvation.
This is in fact not the first time Gazans have protested against UNRWA, as in January rioters tried to storm the group's Gaza headquarters after it was announced it didn't have funds to rebuild Gaza.
While UNHRC is tasked with treating and resettling all refugees in the world, UNRWA exists separately and solely to deal with "Palestinian refugees," and has been exposed to be closely embedded with Hamas as seen in last summer's war when rockets where found at UNRWA clinics.
Uniquely, "Palestinian refugee" status is "inherited" by the descendants of the original refugees, meaning that today the number of "Palestinian refugees" numbers 5 million in total. Instead of resettling them and helping them to rebuild their lives, UNRWA operates an extensive network of "refugee camps" in which residents are encouraged not to integrate into their host countries.
Even in Gaza, those living in "refugee camps" are forbidden from purchasing land outside the "camps."
No UN organization was established to aid the 850,000 Jewish refugees who fled or were expelled from Arab countries following 1948.