Middle East Piece - What is the United Nations UNRWA Agency?

What is the UNRWA?

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was established December 8th, 1948 to assist refugees created during the 1948 Palestine War. The UNRWA operates in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza and the West Bank where it assists about 4.4 million Palestinian Arab refugees. It is one of two United Nations refugee agencies in operation today, the other being the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

The UNRWA is only concerned with assisting Palestinian Arab refugees in the Middle East while the UNHCR handles the rest of the world's refugees, displaced, and stateless persons. The reason the UNRWA is tasked with only one specific ethnic group in one specific part of the world is a remnant of how adhoc refugee organizations were set up in decades past, each concerned with a particular ethnic group turned refugees by a particular conflict.

Soon after the UNRWA was established to help Palestine's Arab refugees, the UNHCR was created on December 14, 1950 to serve as all-encompassing refugee agency that normalized how refugees were identified and solved. The foundational text for these issues was drafted on July 28, 1951 known as the 1951 Refugee Convention, with an additional protocol in 1967 to expand its reach beyond Europe. It has served as the operational framework for the UNHCR's handling of the world's refugees ever since.

The UNRWA for Palestinians is a fundamentally unique refugee agency. It deviates from the agencies preceding it as well as those that came after in matters ranging from its continued existence alongside the capable UNHCR, to how it identifies refugees, to what its goal is for them.

On the surface it would appear rather encouraging that the Palestinian refugees, who remain one of the largest impediments for a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, have their own United Nations organization dedicated to their solution. Despite being created as a temporary refugee agency, the UNRWA has been with us for 60 years with no end in sight. Unfortunately, during this 60 year period the UNRWA has not resettled or repatriated any significant number of these refugees, and the refugee population under its jurisdiction has exploded in size. This is not due to any failures on the UNRWA's part; this outcome is by design.

Refugee Identification

Since the earliest international efforts to solve refugee problems, a fundamental requirement for refugee status was that a citizen fled from his/her home country into a different country:

The Nansen Passports in 1921 were only issued to Russians fleeing to non-Russian countries.

Referring to refugee arrangements made throughout the 1920s, the "definition of 'refugee' ... was based on the origin of the persons concerned within a group or category approach. Each group definition was basically premised on two conditions, namely lack of protection and non-effective nationality. These elements were reflected in the definition of Russian refugees, forming a precedent for defining also the Armenian, Assyrian, Assyro-Chaldean and Turk refugees. The definition provided that a Russian refugee was any person of Russian origin who did not enjoy or no longer enjoyed the protection of the U.S.S.R. and who had not acquired any other nationality."²⁴

The Convention of 1933 Relating to the International Status of Refugees "was based largely on the arrangements of 1926 and 1928 regulating the juridical and civil status of Russian, Armenian, Syrian, Chaldean, and assimilated refugees."²³

The High Commissioner for Refugees Coming from Germany (HCRFG) during 1930-1938 "focused on the legal protection of refugees who had already exited Germany and had been seeking refuge in other countries."²²

The Office of the High Commissioner Responsible for All Refugees Under the League of Nations' Protection (OHCAR) took over the operations of the Nansen International Office for Refugees (NIOFR) and the HCRFG in 1938, adopting the refugee definitions used by both previous organizations.

In 1951 the UNHCR adopted the definition provided by the 1951 Refugee Convention that required, among other things, a refugee to be "outside the country of his nationality ..."²⁵

The 1969 Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa does not recognize a refugee as such unless they are "outside the country of his nationality ..."²⁶

The 1984 Cartagena Declaration on Refugees also chose "To adopt the terminology established in the [1951 Refugee] Convention ..."²⁷ which of course required any refugees to have fled their home country for another.

For whatever reason, this longstanding requirement for refugee status was avoided where the Palestinian UNRWA is concerned. Included in the UNRWA's refugee population are Palestinian Arabs who never left Palestine along with many who never even left the territory that became Israel:

"Another distinction between UNRWA and UNHCR on population counts is this: Palestinians who had fled their homes from one location within Palestine to another location within Palestine … are nonetheless defined by UNRWA as refugees, even though they had not fled their homeland."²⁸

"The word refugees is inaccurate as regards two-thirds of this number because they were displaced from their homes in areas that became the State of Israel and came to rest in other parts of Palestine ... and refugees are usually defined as people displaced from their countries."²⁹

"Those who fled, and those who were expelled, both Jews and Palestinians, cannot accurately be called refugees, but rather displaced persons ... A refugee is a person who has fled or been expelled from the land of his birth; a displaced person is someone who has fled or been expelled from his home, but remains within the bounds of the territory of his homeland. The Jews who fled or were expelled by Arabs from the Old City of Jerusalem, the Etzion Bloc, Atarot, Kfar Darom or Beit Ha'arava, into Israeli territory, were never refugees ... However the Palestinians did not call their uprooted people displaced persons. They were instead referred to as refugees, even though most remained in the Palestinian homeland and lived at most only 20 to 40 kilometers away from their homes. For example, the Arabs of Lod and Ramle moved to the Ramallah area, which is 30 or 40 kilometers away from these towns."³⁰

In a totally unprecedented move, the UNRWA has also included within its refugee population all the descendants of the original refugees; their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. We are currently on the fourth generation of refugee descendants, each one exponentially increasing the refugee count:

"Still less accurate is the definition of the descendants of the bulk of those displaced – their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren – as refugees, because they themselves were never displaced and, in any case, live in areas of Palestine. Nonetheless, the United Nations applied the term to all those displaced from their homes in the course of the war – and to their descendants, wherever they now reside."³⁶

"The 1951 Convention does not define refugees’ descendants as also refugees. UNRWA counts patrilineal descendants. We are currently looking at the fourth generation of Palestinian Arab refugees."³⁷

"... among UNRWA’s refugee population, its size includes not only those who fled their homes but also during the course of over a half-century and in considerably larger numbers their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, regardless of where and under what social, political, and economic conditions they live. ... And counted as well among the Palestinian refugees are descendants of refugees born, raised, and living elsewhere in the Middle East and abroad, who, never having seen the Palestinian home land, are free nonetheless to return to it and to live there permanently but choose not to do so. ... They do not satisfy UNHCR’s definition of refugee."³⁸

Another peculiar deviation from the common practice of historic and contemporary refugee agencies is UNRWA's ignoring what is known as a cessation clause. Such clauses dictate the termination of refugee status and are very important in preventing prolonged refugee problems. The particular cessation clause the UNRWA disregards is the acquisition by a refugee of a new nationality. Normally in this scenario, the refugee loses their status and simply becomes a citizen of the new country.

Created in 1946, the International Refugee Organization (IRO) included in its constitution specific cessation clauses including either a "return to the home country" or the "acquisition of new nationality ..."³¹ Likewise, the UNHCR cancels refugee status "if (s)he willingly returns home or obtains a passport or residency in another state."³² In the words of the 1951 Refugee Convention that all modern refugee organizations adhere to, refugee status is terminated if the refugee "has acquired a new nationality, and enjoys the protection of the country of his new nationality ..."³³

But when it comes to the UNRWA:

"The UNRWA definition makes no mention of newly acquired nationality. Those who have such nationality (in particular Palestinian Arab refugees living in Jordan and possessing full Jordanian citizenship) are still classified as refugees.”³⁴

"Yet in the case of the Palestinian Arabs, the UN agreed to unique definitions … and removed them from the definitions contained in the global convention. ... Palestinian Arabs could keep their designation as refugees even if they acquired a new nationality ..."³⁵

To underscore the implications in ignoring just this one cessation clause we must look at the refugees in Jordan. According to the UNRWA's own statistics, there are now 1.7 million registered Palestinian refugees living in Jordan. Every single one of them "whether they live in camps or outside camps, are eligible for UNRWA services."³⁹ With the exception of 120,000 refugees that came from Gaza, "All Palestine refugees in Jordan have full Jordanian citizenship ..." This means that if the UNRWA would cancel refugee status with the acquisition of a new nationality, over a quarter of the bloated 4.7 million Palestinian refugees figure would be instantly solved.

"The most important change, the one most required and least subject to rational disagreement, is the removal of citizens from recognized states - persons who have the oxymoronic status of “citizen refugees”—from UNRWA’s jurisdiction. This would apply to the vast majority of Palestinian “refugees” in Jordan, as well as to some in Lebanon."⁵³

The UNRWA has generated criticism for the very specific timeframe included in their operational definition for refugees. While the UNHCR and other refugee organizations require that a citizen had to have fled from their "habitual" place of residence, the UNRWA counts "... persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948 ..."⁴⁰ Removing this clause and replacing it with the specific date range mentioned above is argued to have broadened the refugee population to many recent immigrants. This criticism appears unjustified because if someone's "normal place of residence" was in Palestine for two years, it is also their "habitual" place of residence, thus qualifying them as refugees either way.

Also, complaints that the UNRWA caters only to Palestinian Arabs are common. As briefly touched on earlier, however, refugee organizations were often created to assist one particular ethnic or national group. Nansen Passports that allowed undocumented refugees to travel internationally were at first issued only to Russians. Soon afterward, Armenian and Syrian refugees had conventions established just for them. The HCRFG focused only on refugees coming from Germany, and while unofficial, some accused the IGCR of being "set up to deal almost exclusively with Jewish refugees."⁴¹

The issue here should not be that the UNRWA was tasked with assisting only Palestinian Arabs, but that it continues with this antiquated modus operandi in the face of the rest of the world's refugees. In any case, the UNRWA acknowledges they have "a unique role as it is the only UN agency ... whose beneficiary population stems from one nation-group."⁵¹

Goals and Methods

Throughout the history of international refugee agreements, organizations, agencies, and conventions the goal of these groups has been to solve refugee problems. The solution is achieved when the refugee population in question has been either repatriated back to the country from which it fled, or resettled to new countries. Success was measured by refugee populations declining in size and ultimately disappearing. Repatriation was always the preferred method, but when it was not feasible the refugees were resettled instead.

"... the NIOFR labored to dispense with refugee populations in accordance with the already established principles of repatriation or resettlement. In a speech delivered during the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance ceremony in 1938, the president of the office, Michael Hansson, could register more than a few success stories along these lines (1972). The settlement of Saar refugees in Paraguay in 1935 and the construction of villages for forty thousand Armenians in Syria and Lebanon were just some of these efforts."⁴²

"Neil Malcolm, the commissioner from early 1938 to the middle of 1938, reported in his final statement to the league that about five thousand refugees had been helped by his office through various schemes of resettlement or through integration."⁴³

The IGCR's methods for solving refugees were "mainly confined to diplomatic representations in an effort to find opportunities for permanent settlement overseas.’".⁴⁴

“After the war was over, the IGCR worked on various schemes facilitating relief work, repatriation, and overseas resettlement.”⁴⁵

"The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA) was established in 1943 with the principal objective of resettling refugees displaced by the war."⁴⁶

“In December 1946, a draft constitution for a specialized agency charged with repatriation, protection, and resettlement or reestablishment of the remaining refugees and displaced persons in Europe was approved by the United Nations Assembly.”⁴⁷

"... genuine refugees and displaced persons should be assisted by international action, either to return to their countries of nationality or former habitual residence, or to find new homes elsewhere ..."⁴⁸

After WWII, "The prospects of integration into the war-ravaged countries of Western Europe, however, were very poor for many. Emigration was regarded as the best way to assist many of the refugees. The United Nations established several agencies to assist in emigration of European refugees ..."⁴⁹

"After World War II the International Refugee Organization successfully resettled, repatriated, transported, and maintained more than one million European and Asian refugees."⁵⁰

The UNHCR's stated purpose is to seek "long-term or so-called 'durable' solutions by helping refugees repatriate to their homeland if conditions warrant, or by helping them to integrate in their countries of asylum or to resettle in third countries."¹⁶

"... refugee status in the post-World War period is linked to the need to provide individuals with places of residence other than their own countries on account of war, natural disaster, internal conflict, fear of persecution, and general instability. This is the basis of refugee identification as it appears in the 1950 Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the 1951 Refugee Convention, and the 1967 United Nations Refugee Protocol."⁸

Standing alone once again is the UNRWA as the only refugee agency currently, or in history, that has not been mandated with repatriating or resettling the refugees under its care. This model that was successfully applied to literally tens of millions of European and Asian refugees was apparently not worthy of being adopted by the UNRWA for Palestinian Arabs. It instead exists only to provide aid, indefinitely, until someone else finds the solution. According to the UNRWA's Website, the differences between it and the UNHCR are as follows:

“UNRWA is only responsible for providing services to one group of refugees, the Palestine refugees, in its areas of operation. UNHCR is responsible for refugees worldwide. UNRWA is mandated to provide the Palestine refugees with humanitarian assistance, whereas UNHCR has the mandate to provide international protection to refugees who fall within the scope of its Statute and to seek permanent solutions for the problem of refugees by assisting Governments.”⁶

Here is a comparison of basic facts between the UNHCR and UNRWA worth looking over:

UNRWA UNHCR

Founded Dec. 8, 1949 Dec. 14, 1950

Staff size 27,000+ 6,689

# of countries operated in 3 + Gaza and West Bank ²¹ 116 ⁷

Annual budget US$ 470.9 million ⁸ Over $1 billion dollars

Sources of funding UNRWA operations are financed almost entirely by voluntary contributions from governments and the European Union, which account for 96 per cent of all income. ⁹

Four per cent of income is from United Nations bodies to cover staffing costs, including the funding of 113 international staff posts by the United Nations Secretariat. ¹⁰ UNHCR is almost entirely funded by direct, voluntary contributions from governments, non-governmental organizations and individuals. There is also a very limited subsidy from the regular budget of the United Nations, which is used exclusively for administrative costs. ¹¹

Refugees resettled or repatriated N/A: The UNRWA is not mandated with permanent resettlement or repatriation. The UNRWA’s goal is simply to provide aid until other parties find the solution. ¹² 50 million ¹³

Number of dependents assisted 4.4 million ¹⁴ 32.8 million¹⁵

Methods of resettlement N/A: The UNRWA is not mandated with permanent resettlement or repatriation. The UNRWA’s goal is simply to provide aid until other parties find the solution. The organization seeks long-term or so-called 'durable' solutions by helping refugees repatriate to their homeland if conditions warrant, or by helping them to integrate in their countries of asylum or to resettle in third countries.

In the aftermath of World War II, UNHCR concentrated on resettling the bulk of the refugees under its mandate in new countries. ¹⁷

When it is sometimes impossible for civilians to go home, UNHCR helps them either to integrate in countries where they first sought asylum or to go to one of some 16 states which regularly accept refugees for permanent resettlement. ¹⁸

	UNRWA	UNHCR
Founded	Dec. 8, 1949	Dec. 14, 1950
Staff size	27,000+	6,689
# of countries operated in	3 + Gaza and West Bank ²¹	116 ⁷
Annual budget	US$ 470.9 million ⁸	Over $1 billion dollars
Sources of funding	UNRWA operations are financed almost entirely by voluntary contributions from governments and the European Union, which account for 96 per cent of all income. ⁹ Four per cent of income is from United Nations bodies to cover staffing costs, including the funding of 113 international staff posts by the United Nations Secretariat. ¹⁰	UNHCR is almost entirely funded by direct, voluntary contributions from governments, non-governmental organizations and individuals. There is also a very limited subsidy from the regular budget of the United Nations, which is used exclusively for administrative costs. ¹¹
Refugees resettled or repatriated	N/A: The UNRWA is not mandated with permanent resettlement or repatriation. The UNRWA’s goal is simply to provide aid until other parties find the solution. ¹²	50 million ¹³
Number of dependents assisted	4.4 million ¹⁴	32.8 million¹⁵
Methods of resettlement	N/A: The UNRWA is not mandated with permanent resettlement or repatriation. The UNRWA’s goal is simply to provide aid until other parties find the solution.	The organization seeks long-term or so-called 'durable' solutions by helping refugees repatriate to their homeland if conditions warrant, or by helping them to integrate in their countries of asylum or to resettle in third countries. In the aftermath of World War II, UNHCR concentrated on resettling the bulk of the refugees under its mandate in new countries. ¹⁷ When it is sometimes impossible for civilians to go home, UNHCR helps them either to integrate in countries where they first sought asylum or to go to one of some 16 states which regularly accept refugees for permanent resettlement. ¹⁸

The UNRWA maintains a staff size of over 4 times more than that of UNHCR and requires half the budget, but only operates in a measly 4% of the countries UNHCR does and is concerned with only 13% of the number of people the UNHCR handles. The UNHCR has already settled 50 million refugees and is currently responsible for over 32 million people while the UNRWA is focused only on 4.4 million; a population that not only should have been resettled three or four generations ago, but is exponentially increasing in size.

“All other cases of refugees in the world came under the jurisdiction of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); for the Palestinian Arabs, the UN established a completely separate agency, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The agencies had different missions. UNHCR was supposed to find permanent homes for refugees and thus solve refugee crises. In contrast, UNRWA was designed only to support the Palestinian refugees within the refugee camps that the Arab states created.”⁴

The UNHCR does not offer assistance to Palestinian Arabs where the UNRWA operates and the UNRWA is not tasked with finding a solution … so what about the refugees? Sure they get aid in the forms of food, shelter, education, etc, but the question needs to be asked, is perpetual refugee status with aid better or worse for the Palestinians than permanent resettlement? From both humanitarian and financial points of view, the answer is completely negative.

From the humanitarian perspective, "Ironically, since the refugees are considered to be 'at present receiving [protection and assistance] from organs or agencies of the United Nations other than the United Nations High Commission for Refugees,' namely UNWRA, the Palestinians are not subject to the protections and safeguards of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees."⁵

The financial burden of perpetual refugee status is obvious. The UNRWA's budget is grossly dispoportionate to the UNHCR They are also a status-based agency as opposed to need-based meaning the economic abilities of its registered refugees are not taken into consideration when dispersing aid. This means a Palestinian refugee could be living in Amman, Jordan making 40,000 dinar annually (equivalent to about $56,000) and still receive aid from the UNRWA by virtue of his refugee status. "No justification exists for millions of dollars in humanitarian aid going to those who can afford to pay for UNRWA services."⁵⁴

Certainly the refugees of the 1948 Palestine war required humanitarian assistance just like other refugee groups from other wars. The United Nations was right to give it. The key phrase, however, is "just like other refugee groups" of which the UNRWA is not. After an examination of its numerous departures from traditional refugee administration, it is difficult to believe those who created this agency were ever sincere about solving the Palestinian refugee problem in the first place. Every attempt to sustain and exacerbate a refugee problem, instead of solving it, has been enshrined in the UNRWA's operating procedures. Those mistakes have been preserved, repeatedly, with each vote to renew the UNRWA's status quo. Related Information: How Many Palestinian Arab Refugees Were Created in the 1948 War? What Caused the Flight of the Palestinian Arab Refugees? Why are there still so many Palestinian Arab Refugees? What is the Solution to the Palestinian Arab Refugee Problem? Footnotes: ⁴ Gold, Dore. Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos. New York: Crown Forum, 2004. 54. ⁵ Wadie, Said E. "Palestinian Refugees: Host Countries, Legal Status and the Right of Return." ⁶ UNRWA Overview <http://www.un.org/unrwa/overview/qa.html> (Site accessed June 27, 2007) ⁷ UNHCR Basic Facts <http://www.unhcr.org/basics.html> (Site accessed July 10, 2007) ⁸ UNRWA Finances <http://www.un.org/unrwa/finances/index.html> (Site accessed July 6, 2007) ⁹ UNRWA Finances <http://www.un.org/unrwa/finances/index.html> (Site accessed July 6, 2007) ¹⁰ UNRWA Finances <http://www.un.org/unrwa/finances/index.html> (Site accessed July 6, 2007) ¹¹ UNHCR. How UNHCR is Funded <http://www.unhcr.org/publ/PUBL/3b5443c04.html> ¹² UNRWA Overview <http://www.un.org/unrwa/overview/qa.html> (Site accessed June 27, 2007) ¹³ UNHCR Basic Facts <http://www.unhcr.org/basics.html> (Site accessed July 10, 2007) ¹⁴ UNRWA - Who is a Palestine Refugee? <http://www.un.org/unrwa/refugees/whois.html> (Site accessed July 4, 2007) ¹⁵ UNHCR. Protecting Refugees and the Role of UNHCR 2007-2008 ¹⁶ UNHCR Basic Facts <http://www.unhcr.org/basics/BASICS/420cc0432.html> ¹⁷ UNHCR Basic Facts <http://www.unhcr.org/basics/BASICS/420cc0432.html> ¹⁸ UNHCR Basic Facts <http://www.unhcr.org/basics/BASICS/420cc0432.html> ²¹ http://www.un.org/unrwa/publications/index.html ²² Soguk, Nevzat. States and Strangers: Refugees and Displacements of Statecraft. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 151. ²³ Soguk, Nevzat. States and Strangers: Refugees and Displacements of Statecraft. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 148. ²⁴ Kourula, Pirkko. Broadening the Edges: Refugee Definition and International Protection Revisited. Refugees and human rights, v. 1. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1997. ²⁵ Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. 1951 ²⁶ Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, 1969 ²⁷ Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, Colloquium on the International Protection of Refugees in Central America, Mexico and Panama. 1984. ²⁸ Gottheil, Fred. "UNRWA and Moral Hazard." Middle Eastern Studies. 42. 3 (2006): 413. ²⁹ Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 2008. 490-491 ³⁰ Yehoshua, A.B. Ending the Palestinians' Circle of Misery Ha'aretz, April 2, 2000. ³¹ Kourula, Pirkko. Broadening the Edges: Refugee Definition and International Protection Revisited. Refugees and human rights, v. 1. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1997. 53. ³² UNHCR. CESSATION: When is a Refugee not a Refugee? ³³ Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. 1951 ³⁴ Kushner, Arlene. UNRWA: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East - A Hard Look at an Agency in Trouble 11-12. ³⁵ Gold, Dore. Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos. New York: Crown Forum, 2004. 54. ³⁶ Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press, 2008. 490-491 ³⁷ Gold, Dore. Tower of Babble: How the United Nations Has Fueled Global Chaos. New York: Crown Forum, 2004. 54. ³⁸ Gottheil, Fred. "UNRWA and Moral Hazard." Middle Eastern Studies. 42. 3 (2006): 413. ³⁹ UNRWA. Jordan Refugee Camp Profiles ⁴⁰ UNRWA. Who is a Palestine Refugee? ⁴¹ Soguk, Nevzat. States and Strangers: Refugees and Displacements of Statecraft. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 152 ⁴² Soguk, Nevzat. States and Strangers: Refugees and Displacements of Statecraft. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 148 ⁴³ Soguk, Nevzat. States and Strangers: Refugees and Displacements of Statecraft. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 151 ⁴⁴ Soguk, Nevzat. States and Strangers: Refugees and Displacements of Statecraft. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 153 ⁴⁵ Soguk, Nevzat. States and Strangers: Refugees and Displacements of Statecraft. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 153-154 ⁴⁶ University College Cork. What is a Refugee? ⁴⁷ Soguk, Nevzat. States and Strangers: Refugees and Displacements of Statecraft. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 158 ⁴⁸ United Nations. A/RES/62. Constitution of the International Refugee Organization. 15 December 1946 ⁴⁹ Epp, Frank H., and T. D. Regehr. Mennonites in Canada. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1974. 88 ⁵⁰ "International Refugee Organization." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 05 Jan. 2009 . ⁵¹ UNRWA Overview <http://www.un.org/unrwa/overview/qa.html> (Site accessed June 27, 2007) ⁵² Zureik, Elia. "Palestinian Refugees and Peace". Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Autumn, 1994). 5-17 ⁵³ Lindsay, James G. Fixing UNRWA: Repairing the UN's Troubled System of Aid to Palestinian Refugees Policy Focus #91. January 2009. ⁵⁴ Lindsay, James G. Fixing UNRWA: Repairing the UN's Troubled System of Aid to Palestinian Refugees Policy Focus #91. January 2009.