US embassy cable - 05AMMAN2800

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 002800 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR PRM, NEA AND EB 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/30/2015 
TAGS: PREF, PREL, KPAL, KWBG, JO, UNRWA 
SUBJECT: UNRWA TO LAUNCH NEW GOI DISENGAGEMENT RESPONSE PLAN 
 
REF: AMMAN 710 
 
Classified By: ADCM Christopher Henzel for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY AND COMMENT: Commissioner General Peter 
Hansen's departure from UNRWA has kick-started the UN 
agency's stalled effort to develop a disengagement response 
plan for the Palestinian refugee community, which comprises 
about 60 percent of the population of Gaza and 29 percent 
of the population of the West Bank.  Senior UNRWA 
officials, who claim that Hansen discouraged scenario 
planning, are rushing to finalize a strategy that is likely 
to be centered on "de-congesting" the eight camps that 
UNRWA administers in Gaza.  UNRWA officials claim the PA 
Planning Minister has agreed to chair a workshop to compare 
UNRWA's plan with the PA's Medium Term Development Plan 
(MTDP) within six weeks, and that Norway has invited it to 
brief the April Local Aid Coordination Committee (LACC). 
Given UNRWA's previous reluctance to coordinate with local 
aid organizations and limited experience with development, 
we may want to press the agency to vet its draft plan early 
on with other local agencies, including the World Bank. 
END SUMMARY AND COMMENT. 
 
COMGEN HANSEN'S DEPARTURE KICK-STARTS UNRWA PLANNING 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
2. (C) With the departure of outgoing Commissioner General 
Peter Hansen, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency 
for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is resuming 
disengagement scenario planning.  (NOTE: The UNGA 
established UNRWA in 1949 to act as the primary provider of 
education, health, housing and unemployment/disability 
relief services for refugees fleeing violence in mandate 
Palestine.  UNRWA currently has 1.6 million persons 
registered as refugees in Gaza and the West Bank, roughly 
60 percent of the population of Gaza and 29 percent of the 
West Bank population.  END NOTE.)  At a March 17 meeting, 
UNRWA External Relations Director Andrew Whitley told 
refcoord that the senior management committee used its 
first post-Hansen meeting to shorten its planning 
timetable, "green lighting" the release of a comprehensive 
plan to respond to disengagement within six weeks (see 
para. 6 for likely components).  Whitley explained that 
UNRWA's Acting ComGen Karen Abuzayd acknowledges that the 
PA is opposed to the UN publicly launching initiatives 
that might appear to settle refugees ahead of a final 
status solution (ref A), but believes that Hansen's 
previous go-slow approach was not just overly cautious, 
but shortsighted, given the social and economic 
implications of leaving Palestinian refugees out of 
larger efforts to develop Gaza and the northern West Bank. 
 
3. (C) Privately, Whitley added that it was Hansen's 
farewell tour to the Gulf and Europe that convinced UNRWA 
Chief of Operations and Gaza Field Director Lionel Brisson 
-- a rival of Abuzayd who will continue to hold his dual 
positions through October -- that UNRWA needs a more 
comprehensive plan than the general approach it laid out in 
the 2005-2009 development plan (MTP) that UNRWA released in 
Geneva last month.  Whitley explained that Brisson had 
hoped to use Hansen's farewell fundraising dinner in Riyadh 
to raise the full USD 10.3 million he required to open the 
second vocational training center in southern Gaza called 
for in the agency's MTP.  However, when the dinner resulted 
in a USD 9.6 million shortfall, it was clear that UNRWA 
needs to look to its traditional donors (e.g., the EU, U.S. 
and Nordic States) who have been critical of the cursory 
way disengagement has been handled thus far in its MTP. 
 
PA AGREES TO CONVENE WORKSHOP TO REVIEW DEVELOPMENT PLANS 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
4. (SBU) Whitley and Brisson briefed PA Planning Minister 
Ghassan Al-Khatib March 18 on UNRWA's decision to launch 
a parallel disengagement development program targeting 
refugees.  Whitley claimed that Al-Khatib agreed at that 
meeting to chair a joint UNRWA-PA workshop, tentatively 
set for April 11, to discuss how the agency's 
yet-to-be-released plan relates to the MTDP.  Deputy 
ComGen Karen Abuzayd told refcoord in a separate March 24 
telcon, however, that she thought this meeting would slip 
to early May because the primary author of UNRWA's plan, 
Lionel Brisson, is scheduled to return to France for 
gallstone surgery later this month.  Whitley thought major 
donors would be invited as observers.  He was unable to 
confirm whether the World Bank or other technical experts 
would participate. 
 
UNRWA TO BRIEF LACC 
------------------- 
 
5. (SBU) In the meantime, Whitley said the UNRWA senior 
management committee asked him to meet with Jerusalem- and 
Tel Aviv-based diplomats over the next month to raise the 
profile of refugees among donors and agencies involved in 
post-disengagement economic planning.  According to 
Whitley, Norwegian Representative to the PA Sten Arne 
Rosnes is supporting his efforts by inviting senior UNRWA 
staff to present its plans at the April Local Aid 
Coordination Committee - a step UNRWA hopes will bring 
pressure to bear on UNSCO to invite UNRWA to participate 
in the next World Bank Consultative Group meeting. 
(NOTE:  We are verifying whether UNSCO, a co-chair of the 
LACC, has endorsed the Norwegian invitation for an UNRWA 
briefing.  UNRWA representatives do regularly attend LACC 
meetings.  END NOTE.) 
 
LIKELY ELEMENTS OF UNRWA'S PLAN 
------------------------------- 
 
6. (SBU) In March 14-24 telcons, UNRWA officials indicated 
to refcoord that Lionel Brisson intends to draft the 
agency's disengagement response plan using in-house 
resources.  At this stage, UNRWA appears to be hewing 
closely to the camp de-congestion approach it presented in 
response to donor queries last December (reftel).  That 
approach consists of building new refugee housing on the 
margins of existing UNRWA camps and related infrastructure, 
including new UNRWA schools, health clinics and a second 
vocational training center in southern Gaza.  UNRWA is also 
exploring the possibility of expanding its small business 
and micro-credit loan programs, which are currently the 
largest lending programs in the Gaza Strip. 
 
7. (SBU) Staffing and land tenure could, however, be 
stumbling blocks.  The bulk of UNRWA's initiatives would 
fall to the agency's new Camp Development Unit (CDU) -- an 
office UNRWA is attempting to establish under Technical 
Services Director Guy Siri.  (NOTE: The creation of the 
CDU is a major institutional change, as it will take over 
responsibility for housing from the Relief and Social 
Services Program.  END NOTE.)  Last fall, the UN approved 
only one of the nine international CDU positions that UNRWA 
needs to stand up the unit.  However, the agency believes 
it can make the CDU operational this year by securing 
external support from major donors.  UNRWA is also in the 
early stages of negotiating issues related to refugee land 
tenure with the Palestinian Authority on 428,000 square 
meters of land the PA has offered UNRWA in Rafah to build 
refugee housing east of Rafah Camp.  Eventually, it also 
hopes to open negotiations to obtain land in central Gaza 
to alleviate the severe overcrowding that exists in the 
four camps it operates between the Abu Kholi and Netzarim 
Junctions.  The need for additional land notwithstanding, 
Brisson noted that UNRWA can start work in Khan Younis Camp 
in a 500-meter "buffer zone" of UNRWA-controlled land that 
exists at the western part of the camp between refugee 
housing and the Gush Katif Israeli settlement security 
zone. 
 
8. (C) UNRWA is also under some pressure from donors to 
expand its emergency humanitarian assistance programs in 
response to disengagement.  SDC Representative Fritz 
Froelich, for example, told refcoord March 24 that he is 
urging Lionel Brisson to consider doubling food rations to 
provide a more tangible "dividend" to refugees in the 
immediate aftermath of disengagement.  He also believes 
that UNRWA needs to enhance its emergency operational 
support officer staff to ensure that basic humanitarian 
assistance is not disrupted in the immediate aftermath of 
disengagement. 
 
9. (SBU) COMMENT: UNRWA will continue to be responsible for 
providing health, education, housing and 
unemployment-relief services for 1.6 million persons in 
Gaza and the West Bank following disengagement.  However, 
its funding comes from voluntary donations, and it is 
struggling to provide basic services in all five of its 
fields (Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan).  With 
present resource constraints the agency will find it 
virtually impossible to initiate development activities for 
refugees in its Gaza and West Bank fields without securing 
additional support from the international community. 
Unfortunately, UNRWA's major donors remain wary of the 
agency's poor record of coordination with other assistance 
agencies, and its relatively limited experience with 
large-scale camp development (it has one ongoing project in 
Syria).  Some donors (e.g., the EU, Switzerland) are also 
concerned that UNRWA will launch development initiatives 
without explaining how they will relate to the agency's 
basic services or how UNRWA intends to phase out the 
emergency activities it initiated during the current 
Intifada.  Encouraging UNRWA to work with the World Bank 
and other technical experts to develop a comprehensive 
approach that supports a stable withdrawal and addresses 
structural poverty through job creation -- while carefully 
phasing out its critical emergency food and short-term 
employment programs - would present a new face to donors. 
Offering direct technical assistance to UNRWA may also be 
critical to build donor confidence that UNRWA's initiatives 
complement other aid agencies' infrastructure and technical 
training programs. 
HALE