UNITED NATIONS RELIEF AND WORKS AGENCY FOR PALESTINE REFUGEES IN THE NEAR EAST (UNRWA), agency of the United Nations, with headquarters in Amman, Jordan. Established in 1949, it replaced the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees in 1950 as the major UN agency dealing with Palestine refugees. In 1999 close to 3.6 million refugees who had been displaced by the various
Arab-Israeli Wars were registered with UNRWA, 1.1 million of them in UNWRA refugee camps. Originally the agency was charged with the care of these refugees until they could be repatriated, compensated, or resettled; UNRWA has, in fact, found itself faced with the job of housing, feeding, and educating people for long periods of time in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. During this period, it has had the difficult task of dealing with the competing interests of Israel, the Arab states, and the Palestinian movement.
See B. Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949 (1988). ____________________The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright© 2004, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved. -48785- |