June 22, 2018

ATTN: ​
UN Secretary General António Guterres ​

Greetings from Jerusalem.

UNRWA, which retains Marathon Strategies, a high power New York PR firm, selected the date of June 20, 2018, WORLD REFUGEE DAY, to publicize the notion that UNRWA is bereft of resources, with no cash to pay salaries of doctors, nurses or school teachers.

News of the sudden paucity of resources available to UNRWA has reached all major media outlets, illustrated with photos of hungry children.

On June 21, the staff of the Center for Near East Policy Research asked ambassadors and consuls of 44 UNRWA donor nations to ascertain if any of them had cut back on funds to UNRWA.

The response was that not one nation cut back funds to UNRWA, with the exception of the US, which reduced this year’s donation from $360 million to $60 million. $1.2 one billion dollars in donations continue to flow to UNRWA.

Yet three UN employees promote news reports that UNRWA starves for resources:

*UN Peace Process Coordinator Nickolay Mladenov
*UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl
*UNRWA Spokesman Chris Gunness

The Center for Near East Policy Research formally asks the​​
UN Secretary General António Guterres if these UN officials will be investigated for spreading misleading information about the humanitarian situation of UNRWA .

Since 44 donor nations confirm their full transfer of donations, perhaps the time has come to examine the possibility that contributions to UNRWA of medical equipment, food and cash to UNRWA are being stolen?

Perhaps it is time to introduce new standards of transparency to oversee donations to UNRWA?

Since Hamas controls the UNRWA workers union in Gaza, what steps can the UN take to make sure that Hamas does not embezzle funds intended for humanitarian purposes?

With warmest regards, ​ ​

​
David Bedein
Director
Israel Resource News Agency
Center for Near East Policy Research

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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