US embassy cable - 04AMMAN122

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 000122 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR PRM/PRP, PRM/ANE AND NEA/IPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/05/2014 
TAGS: ASEC, PHUM, PREF, PREL, PTER, KPAL, IS, JO, UNSC 
SUBJECT: SECURITY THREATS TO HUMANITARIAN AID AGENCIES: 
UNRWA 
 
REF: STATE 345694 (NOTAL) 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Gnehm per 1.5 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) SUMMARY AND COMMENT:  Per reftel, refcoord reviewed 
UNRWA security issues with Deputy ComGen AbuZayd on January 
4.  According to AbuZayd, the majority of security threats to 
UNRWA stem from IDF-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and 
Gaza.  UNRWA workers also face harassment and verbal threats 
from some private Israeli citizens.  AbuZayd believes that 
UNRWA's role as the primary source of support for Palestinian 
refugees provides protection from Palestinian militants. 
Recent attacks on the UN in Iraq and Afghanistan have 
prompted UNRWA to tighten security for its operations in 
Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where UNRWA has remained at 
security phase I in spite of ongoing Israeli-Palestinian 
violence.  UNRWA is particularly concerned about security for 
its Jordan operations, due to an Iraq-related increased in 
the UN presence here and related potential new threats. 
While UNRWA's unique mandate to provide services to 
Palestinian refugees may create a sense of false security 
against terrorism, recent attacks on other presumably "safe" 
areas such as Arab expatriate neighborhoods in Riyadh 
demonstrate that terrorists do not necessarily follow logic. 
Increased security for UNRWA installations, especially in 
Jordan, strikes us as prudent.  End summary and comment. 
 
2.  (C) As requested reftel, refcoord met with UNRWA Deputy 
Commissioner General Karen AbuZayd on January 4 to discuss 
the agency's security concerns in the wake of increasing 
attacks on humanitarian workers throughout the world. 
Cautioning that UNRWA operates in a unique environment, 
AbuZayd said that UNRWA's security concerns are well-known to 
the U.S. Government and focus largely on IDF actions 
undertaken in the West Bank and Gaza.  While attacks on the 
UN and other humanitarian agencies in Iraq and Afghanistan 
have prompted UNRWA to take a closer look at the security of 
its installations outside the West Bank and Gaza, its core 
concerns -- regarding the safety of its international and 
Palestinian staff in the midst of a conflict -- remain 
unchanged. 
 
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THREATS DURING THE LAST TWO YEARS 
--------------------------------- 
 
3.  (C) AbuZayd told refcoord that the vast majority of 
security threats to UNRWA workers has resulted from 
IDF-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and Gaza.  Since 
the current conflict began in September 2000, two on-duty 
UNRWA staff have been killed by IDF troops and another six 
off-duty UNRWA employees were killed when they were caught 
near clashes between the IDF and Palestinian militants. 
(AbuZayd noted that the IDF still has not shared with the UN 
its investigation into the November 2002 death of UNRWA 
international staff member Iain Hook, whom the IDF 
acknowledges it shot to death during a raid in Jenin refugee 
camp.)  Beyond the usual risks of operating in a conflict 
zone (e.g, being in the wrong place at the wrong time), 
AbuZayd said that UNRWA's 13,000 employees in the West Bank 
and Gaza face the added risk of navigating IDF checkpoints on 
their way to and from work and, in some cases, in the 
performance of their duties.  These UN employees face daily 
harassment and abuse from the IDF and several have reported 
that the IDF has pointed guns at their heads.  In Gaza (site 
of UNRWA's administrative and policy headquarters), she said 
UNRWA employees face still more risks from targeted 
assassinations in densely crowded civilian areas.  On the 
evening of December 30, for example, UNRWA Comptroller 
Ramadan Al-Omari narrowly escaped injury when an IDF missile 
struck a civilian vehicle that was only two cars ahead of him. 
 
4.  (C) Separately, UNRWA employees face threats and 
harassment from private Israeli citizens.  UNRWA Commissioner 
General Peter Hansen has received numerous threatening phone 
calls, including death threats, from callers who appear to be 
Israeli.  As a result of these calls, Hansen now travels with 
a full-time bodyguard/driver and makes a point of varying his 
times and routes.  UNRWA international staff also face 
harassment and petty vandalism from Israelis, with UN cars 
frequently defaced and spat upon, and UN employees in those 
cars accosted with shouts of "unwanted" or "UN is nothing." 
Several West Bank-based international employees have told 
refcoord they prefer not to travel inside Green Line Israel 
in order to avoid such harassment.  Similarly, AbuZayd told 
refcoord that she has chosen not to have "UN" emblazoned on 
her car in order to avoid personal harassment and negative 
attention for the Israeli friends whom she visits on 
weekends. 
 
5.  (C) When pressed by refcoord to identify possible threats 
emanating from the Palestinian community, AbuZayd responded 
that the general Palestinian perception of UNRWA as a source 
of protection and relief for Palestinians ensures that even 
militant, rejectionist factions respect UNRWA and its staff. 
UNRWA, she noted, is often viewed in the Palestinian 
community as something apart from the rest of the UN system, 
an organization that is part of the community and dedicated 
to the well-being of Palestinian refugees.  As such, UNRWA is 
not even referred to in Palestinian communities as "the UN;" 
it is instead called either "the agency" or "the agency for 
relief."  When Palestinians complain about UNRWA, it is 
usually a request for more services or a job.  Even in the 
lawless and desperate atmosphere of Lebanon's refugee camps, 
where UNRWA employees are routinely criticized for perceived 
slights to one faction or another, the tense political 
environment has never resulted in assaults on UNRWA 
employees.  While AbuZayd noted that UNRWA could not afford 
to discount the risks of individuals acting against UNRWA, 
she said that recent attacks on the UN in Iraq and 
Afghanistan have not changed UNRWA leaders' assessment that 
the Palestinians perceive UNRWA to be a benevolent 
organization that must be protected. 
 
6.  (C) Given the assessment that security risks to UNRWA 
stem largely from the current conflict in the West Bank and 
Gaza, AbuZayd said that UNRWA's security situation depends on 
resolution of the overall political situation.  Her personal 
view, and that of other senior UNRWA managers, is that the 
political situation -- and hence UNRWA's security situation 
-- is unlikely to improve anytime soon.  The greatest 
contribution the U.S. could make to the security of UNRWA 
workers, AbuZayd said, would be an enhanced effort toward 
peace. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
EFFECT OF ATTACKS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN 
----------------------------------------- 
 
7.  (C) AbuZayd told refcoord that recent terrorist attacks 
on humanitarian agencies in Iraq and Afghanistan have had the 
greatest impact on UNRWA operations in Jordan, Syria and 
Lebanon, where the UN family has largely remained at security 
phase I in spite of conflict elsewhere in the region.  (UNRWA 
operations in the West Bank and Gaza have been at phase III 
during the same period.)  AbuZayd acknowledged that because 
UNRWA operations in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon have not been 
affected by the ongoing violence in the West Bank and Gaza, 
UNRWA's security rules and procedures in those countries 
prior to the August 19 UN bombing had been relatively lax. 
In Jordan in particular, AbuZayd said, UNRWA -- like other UN 
agencies -- is now worried that the larger UN footprint 
created by the high numbers of UN staff "in exile" from Iraq 
makes international agencies in Jordan a more inviting target 
for terrorists.  (Heads of several UN missions in Jordan have 
also raised these concerns with us.)  She added that UNRWA's 
Jordan field office is particularly vulnerable, as -- unlike 
other UNRWA offices -- it is located directly on a public 
street and has no setback.  (All other UNRWA offices, 
including the Gaza and Amman headquarters, are located in 
large compounds with restricted access and considerable 
setback from public streets.) 
 
8.  (C) In the wake of the August 19 attack on the UN in 
Baghdad, UNRWA management in all five fields has changed its 
"security mentality" and procedures in accordance with 
recommendations contained in the UNSYG's independent review 
of the Iraq attack.  All UNRWA international staff have 
undergone mandatory security training and senior management 
is convening more regular meetings of the fields' security 
management teams (SMT).  AbuZayd said SMTs in the West Bank 
and Gaza meet on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, while SMTs in 
the other fields now meet once a month.  However, the number 
of UNSECOORD staff members has not changed.  One UNSECOORD 
official is responsible for all UN agencies in the West Bank 
and Gaza and another UNSECOORD official is responsible for 
all UN agencies in Jordan.  AbuZayd was not aware of 
UNSECOORD arrangements for operations in Syria and Lebanon. 
She noted that further changes will depend on the next round 
of UN recommendations on required security changes (due to be 
completed in mid-January), as well as the willingness of 
donors to fund these changes. 
 
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COMMENT 
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11.  (C) Due to the nature of its mandate -- providing relief 
and services to just one party in a long-running and 
emotionally charged conflict -- UNRWA inevitably is viewed by 
both Israelis and Palestinians alike as anything but a 
neutral organization.  This perception historically has 
provided UNRWA a great deal of protection from Palestinian 
militants, while raising Israeli government suspicions about 
UNRWA's true activities and intent.  The fact that the vast 
majority of UNRWA's 23,000 employees throughout the region 
are themselves Palestinian refugees only reinforces these 
views.  For these reasons, we judge it unlikely -- but not 
impossible -- that terrorist groups would choose to target an 
organization that works exclusively on behalf of one of the 
primary groups of dispossessed whom terrorists claim to 
support.  Nevertheless, recent attacks on the UN in Iraq and 
Afghanistan, as well as on mostly Arab residential 
neighborhoods in Saudi Arabia, demonstrate that terrorists do 
not necessarily follow such logic and that UNRWA cannot be 
complacent about potential new threats.  Increased security 
measures for UNRWA's estimated 800 facilities throughout the 
region -- and particularly here in Jordan, where the 
incentive seems greatest for an attack on the UN -- seem to 
be prudent. 
GNEHM