By starting the article with saying the previous one was filled with falsehoods and myths he set the tone but did not address the biggest issues. He said that no matches on the lists for staff, beneficiaries or suppliers came with matches to terrorists, but that oculd also mean that they don't have good lists. Or that people are adept at hiding their identities. It could also mean they are squeeky clean. But it is not a method to claim that. It does not say incursions don't happen only that they are disruptive. So they probably do happen and they just claim it is bad for them later. And since they don't carry guns, they can't do anything about it. The biggest issues aren't addressed at all and that is the funding, the huge staff, and passing refugee status on to future generations and citizens of other countries not losing their refugee status. These are the issues that are of question that differentiate the UNRWA apart from the UNHCR. He needs to address those issues.

One can stop reading after the second paragraph.

Ok, so UNWRA conducts reviews to make sure that it doesn't employ actual terrorists. Well Done! Someone give them all medals.... ...Meanwhile there is still a vest history of biased statements and actions by UNWRA staff (up to the highest levels) that clearly violate the supposed neutrality of this rotten agency. Moreover - there is no response here to Dayan's numbers. Why does the UNWRA have 26 times the staff members of the UNHCR, when they look after a fraction of the number of people? Why do the Palestinians have their own unique organisation at all. It's a rotten, political swindle by the Arab states, at the expense of the Palestinian people...... ....and a real gravy train for the UNWRA staff - no wonder you guys want to protect it. BUT -as I wrote about Dayan's piece: The UNWRA is a curse on the Palestinian people. A symbol not of favouritism, but of victimisation by the very people who claim to support them. Refugee Status is not a gift, it is a horror. Why should the Palestinians, alone of all the refugees in the world (ok - with a few in Burundi / Western Sahara, but those populations aren't into their fourth generation of massively subsidisd victimhood) , be cursed with passing on this status to their children. Any one who claims to care about the welfare of Palestinians should argue fiercely for the dismantling of UNWRA as soon as possible.

Chris Gunness ignores a few facts. For one, unlike UNHCR, UNRWA has no means to remove refugees from that status. As a result we have an absurd situation where hundreds of thousands of citizens of a state - Jordan - are considered "refugees." Similarly, all the "refugees" that live in the West Bank and Gaza would not be considered refugees by any sane definition, since they live in their own land, almost all under the rule of their own people. Gunness also fails to explain why only Palestinian Arabs must wait decades for a political solution before the UNRWA tries to resettle them in other countries. Perhaps this isn't "preferred" but examples from Lebanon and Egypt show that hug numbers would choose to become citizens if only they were given the chance. We've seen these justifications before for UNRWA's existence as a separate, unique agency for a single growing "refugee" population, and they do not hold water.

Most of the relocated and reintegrated. Their sons were not eternisized as refugees. The Palestinia refugees have been used as a political weapon. No other refugees in the ample convept inherit the sarus if refugees. Most of Refugeed in the world on 2nd generation max. are absorved or integrated, only Arab countries that have Pal. Refugees have eternized the problem to keepthe Israeli Arab conflict.

It is quite obvious that those who are shouting loudest for the dissolution of UNRWA are those, who care the least about the wellbeing of Palestinian refugees and about the necessity of finding a political solution which reflects the desire of the Palestinian people to realize their right to self determination in their own land. Israel's legitimacy completely depends on whether justice is given to the Palestinian people.

The United States and other countries are gearing up to cut off funding to the UNRWA. Hence Mr. Gunness' muddled and highly fanciful response to Yoni Dayan's editorial. The UNRWA is the most over-staffed, over-funded and corrupt of all the United Nations agencies. It's time to turn off the tap, and it appears as though the major sources of its funding has come to realize the uselessness of the UNRWA. High time, indeed!

Is that the year UNWRA wants to turn the clock back to? That seems the era the arabs are most comfortable in.

And isn't there something robotic about his protestations of absolute neutrality and innocence? Like the piece was written by a committee (on which there were many lawyers).

Of course he's a spin doctor - who else would they have respond to an article that tells it like it is?? Don't wait for the main issues to be addressed, they won't be because they have no response. They will divert attention away from those issues and emphasise those things that make them look good and that can't be verified by the ordinary layperson. Bottom line: if they're guilty of the things we claim they are, we shouldn't expect them to suddenly admit to those things, should we?

#1 is absolutely right. If you read the original article and then read this article, you will see that most of the issues raised in the original article are not addressed: the completely out of proportion funding/ staff numbers, the passing of refugee status to future generations and citizens of other countries not losing their refugee status. Most of the article is spent trying to convince us that none of its employees are terrorists, which was not the main focus of the original article.

Why is there is a unique refugee organization for the Palestinians, and then a second group exclusively for everyone else? (Including all those protracted cases, who do not receive the same rights as those under the UNRWA)

on a grand scale. Over and over again, it has been cited and proved that they consistantly use terrorist, terrorists use their facilities and there is no other group that gets such preferential treatment, no matter what group you compare it to and no matter what circumstances you apply. A true liar among liars. He must be feeling his pocketbook threatened.

"Like many other refugee populations, Palestine refugees emerged from circumstances of armed conflict, forced displacement and dispossession of land". . This sentence says enough about their "neutrality" . "forced displacement" ? for a minority of them . All the other were told to leave by their leaders . A solution ? the same as this one Israel had for those hundreds of thousands who fled arab and muslim countries because they feared for their life : Israel integrated them , Let the arab states , who initiated all the wars , integrate them .

"Palestine refugees continue to be refugees because the issues which caused their exile remain outstanding." Well, that statement could be discussed. Does not every refugee issue have it´s own specific conditions? Historical, political and social? Palestine refugees continue to be refugees because the UN:s handling of their exile remain outstanding. Now thats a fact.

If UNWRA want to continue then they cannot justify doing this under an Apolitical United Nations Umbrella Because their Representatives have abused their positions and used the good name of UNWRA to publicly steer UNWRA into taking an overwhelmingly ONE SIDED PRO HAMAS-GAZA and ANTI ISRAEL position on the Hamas-Gaza/Israel relationship HARDLY a neutral facilitator for peace and reconciliation regional security and Palestinian Statehood And if there is any doubt...their statements are on record. Follow the infamous examples of such UNWRA TV Interviews especially on RT

Mr. Gunness can write another 4 pages with arguments why the UNWRA shouldn't be dissolved but,......the numbers speak for themselves. A fugitive 'problem growing from a few hundred thousands to a few million is a number which proves that Mr. Gunness & UNWRA is doing something awfully wrong. Compairing the donations of UNWRA & UNHRC speak for themselves and it's not to Mr. Gunness credit to start arguing about it. The famous 'neutrality' that Mr. Gunness is talking about wouldn't pass the simplest test. Mr. Gunness is defending the indefendable and should instead doing his precious Palestinians a big favor and dissolve his organisation. He should stick to realities and dump the myth of the 'poor Palestinians needing help from the UNWRA. If however they want to stay eternal refugees (in the hope that Israel will dissolve instead of UNWRA) than they do.

So much good could be accomplished with the billions of dollars misused not only to fund the UNRWA. But the U.N. itself. The world would be a better place without the U.N. It does only harm.

sure. Now we all know it is even worse than we thought. UNRWA and UN are total garbage.

Gunness claims UNRWA can't be as bad as claimed because the US and Israel audit and monitor their operations and have no complaints. Rubbish! The US has enough troubles with Arab and Muslim nations, and just accepts the status quo. Israel can't monitor RWA operations from the ground, and knows that - absent the RWA - the UN would just dump responsibility for the Palestinian Arabs' welfare on ... Israel. And Israel doesn't want that burden.

Gunness claims his organization helps "hundreds of thousands of the most disadvantaged people in the Middle East." Is he unaware of the reality for the common Arabs in most of Israel's neighboring nations? That one comment disputes his "neutrality" (and his credentials).

UNRWA has entrenched the victimhood mentality into the Palestinian thought process thus securing a nation of beggars and criminals. UNRWA is not helping a single Palestinian! In the same way as South Africa’s ANC introduced government grants, Black economic empowerment, Affirmative action and the like; destroyed the mindset of the average black South African and has forced them to think as beggars rather then as entrepreneurs who would create a thriving economy. Most in SA and Palestinians do not realise that they are in actual fact free to create a better life for themselves; all they have to do is stop begging.

that is all the spin doctor gives us here... why do we need to hear him refuting facts as myths. It has been proven time and again that his orginization employs, aids and hides terrorists and orginizations that open engage in terror and the butcher of jewish women and kids and other civilians (also arabs for that matter). Please do not add insult to injury!

What are the salaries of the agency's top executives? What was their net worth before becoming part of the agency? What is it now? This is a serious question. I really want to know.

with enemies,can learn from them how to be neutral.Namely, hating everybody equally.

The author does not lie himself, but cites faulty studies (the debunked textbook study) and fails to address the different definition of refugee that is applied to the Palestinians as opposed to every other refugee in the world, among a number of issues. UNRWA helps to prolong the conflict, but that is the fault of the UN and is a reflection of the culture there rather than one agency. If I recall correctly, I have actually met Mr. Gunness. Nice guy and not ill-intentioned.

According to official U.N. treaties, a refugee is defined, in short, as someone who was forced to leave his or her home due to persecution. Refugee status, however, usually cannot be transferred from one generation to the next. However, under a special decree of the U.N., Palestinians have been allowed to continue regarding themselves as refugees for several generations. Palestinian refugees from the 1948 War of Independence and their descendants are not subject to the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, rather to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which has its own criteria for determining who is a refugee.