DISMANTLING OF UNRWA
- by Jamie Munn CEO/ Executive Director, ICVA (March 2026)
I am writing this in a personal capacity, not in my role, because this is one of those moments where staying quiet does not feel right.
I’ll be blunt. I am furious about what is happening to UNRWA and even more furious about how quiet so many of us are.
Philippe Lazzarini's article in The Guardian should be required reading for anyone who works in humanitarian action, diplomacy, or international cooperation. Because what he is describing is not just a crisis in Gaza. It is the dismantling of one of the core institutions of the international humanitarian system in full view of the world.
UNRWA is not an abstract UN agency.
It is schools.
It is primary healthcare.
It is food distribution.
It is protection.
It is dignity for millions of Palestinian refugees.
If UNRWA collapses, we are not just losing an organisation. We are signalling that humanitarian institutions can be dismantled by a state, that humanitarian workers can be killed, and that an entire civilian population can be collectively punished ... and the world will move on.
What troubles me most right now is not just what is happening, but how easily political and humanitarian leaders are distracted. How quickly the conversation moves. How comfortable some have become with things that should be absolutely unacceptable.
We cannot spend our careers talking about international humanitarian law, multilateralism, and a rules-based order, and then fall strangely quiet when those very principles are being tested in the most visible way possible.
Silence is not neutrality. Silence is a choice.
And this is a moment where we should be choosing to speak, dare I say SHOUT, in support of UNRWA, in support of humanitarian workers, and in support of the people of Palestine.
History does not judge us by the meetings we attended or the statements we carefully drafted.
It judges us by the moments when speaking up was uncomfortable and whether we did it anyway.
LINK OF ARTICLE: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/21/israel-crushed-unrwa-gaza-palestinians-middle-east
