US embassy cable - 05AMMAN3040

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 003040 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR PRM AND NEA, H PLEASE PASS TO HACFO 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF, PREL, KPAL, KWBG, IS, JO, UNRWA 
SUBJECT: UNRWA TELLS HACFO STAFFDEL OPERATIONAL CHANGES TO 
BE IN EFFECT PRIOR TO DISENGAGEMENT 
 
REF: AMMAN 2800 
 
This message was prepared by regional refcoord and cleared by 
Consulate General Jerusalem. 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY: UNRWA Acting Commissioner General Karen Abu 
Zayd and senior agency officials updated HACFO Staffdel on 
the status of current operations and planned changes prior to 
disengagement.  The closure regime created by Israeli 
security measures and the construction of the separation 
barrier necessitate significant changes in UNRWA's operations 
and warehouse locations if it is to continue delivering 
humanitarian assistance.  UNRWA reported positively on 
vetting measures to ensure that assistance was not being 
provided to terrorist organizations.  In addition, UNRWA 
reported that is continuing to discourage incitement in its 
schools by introducing tolerance and conflict resolution 
materials to supplement the Palestinian curricula.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
2. (SBU) United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine 
Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)'s Acting Commissioner 
General (ComGen) Karen Abu Zayd, Director of Operations/Gaza 
Field Director Lionel Brisson, West Bank Field Director 
Anders Fange, Legal Advisors James Lindsay and Scott Custer, 
and the heads of the USG-funded West Bank and Gaza emergency 
Operations Support Officer (OSO) programs met House 
Appropriations Committee Foreign Operations (HACFO) staff 
members Robert Blair and Rodney Bent at UNRWA's West Bank 
offices in Jerusalem April 1.  The Staffdel was accompanied 
by regional Refcoord and ConGen Jerusalem EconOff. 
 
UNRWA REVIEWS POST-DISENGAGEMENT PLANNING 
----------------------------------------- 
 
3. (SBU) Abu Zayd said that UNRWA will consider scaling back 
its USD 186 million emergency programs (USD 49 million for 
West Bank operations and USD 137 million for the Gaza Strip) 
in response to disengagement, but stressed that emergency 
interventions would still be necessary given that the World 
Bank's "best case" economic recovery scenarios do not/not 
anticipate that disengagement will immediately impact the 
severe poverty that exists in Gaza.  (NOTE: World Bank West 
Bank/Gaza Director Nigel Roberts told the Staffdel that it 
could take several years for the Palestinian Authority (PA) 
to recover from losses incurred during the Intifida.  Roberts 
added that the PA economy will need to absorb the current 
35,000 Palestinian laborers residing in Gaza and the West 
Bank that commute to Israel for work.  Israel is phasing out 
Palestinian laborers from its economy by 2008.  END NOTE.) 
She added that the impact on Palestinians refugees of 
continued barrier construction in the West Bank remains to be 
seen.  (NOTE: Palestinian refugees make up about 29 percent 
of the population of the West Bank.  END NOTE.)  West Bank 
Field Director Anders Fange explained that UNRWA is 
particularly concerned about the construction of the 
so-called "Jerusalem envelope," which would force UNRWA to 
move staff and its Jerusalem warehouse to new facilities in 
Ramallah to conduct "cross-border" style operations. 
 
4. (SBU) Gaza Field Director Lionel Brisson noted that 
UNSCO's ongoing discussions with GOI authorities on Gaza 
access suggests that movement of goods and persons into Gaza 
will not improve after disengagement, given reports that 
indicate that all humanitarian shipments will still have to 
enter via the Israeli port of Ashdod and possibly use a 
single Gaza border crossing.  Unless strong international 
pressure reverses Israel's stated intention to halt 
Palestinian employment in Israel after 2008, UNRWA could not 
alter its basic emergency planning assumptions, argued 
Brisson. 
 
5. (SBU) Given the possibility that there will be a long lag 
time for the Palestinian economy to recover, both Brisson and 
Abu Zayd argued that UNRWA's planned mid-term response, 
outlined in the agency's recently-released Medium Term Plan 
(MTP), was critical to demonstrate to Palestinian refugees 
that their living conditions could improve.  Brisson 
explained that UNRWA hoped to secure funding to heavily 
invest in vocational and IT education to support economic 
activities such as e-commerce that would not be dependent on 
Israel for external access to overseas markets.  He noted 
that UNRWA currently had only 842 vocational training places 
for 80,000 persons aged 16-18 in Gaza and would like to 
double that enrollment by opening a a second vocational 
training center in southern Gaza.  He added that UNRWA was 
already in the process of extending computer training to its 
primary schools in Gaza using a 20 million euro grant the EU 
awarded in December 2004.  UNRWA's second main initiative is 
camp development, improving housing and building sewers and 
water lines.  Finally, Brisson said that UNRWA wanted to 
boost the local Gazan economy by expanding its existing 
micro-credit program, which is currently the largest in Gaza, 
by offering personal and housing loans in addition to its 
currently-offered business loans. 
 
6. (SBU) Abu Zayd noted that UNRWA's estimated cost for the 
MTP would add USD 200 million/year to UNRWA's regular 
operating budget (currently about USD 340 million) over the 
next five years to cover activities in all five of its 
fields: West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.  She 
added that UNRWA had also moved about USD 9 million in 
emergency program activities that have longer-term 
requirements, such as psycho-social and rehabilitative health 
care, to its regular budget this year.  However, Brisson 
pointed out that UNRWA, fearing donor backlash, had decided 
to gradually introduce MTP programming into the 2005 budget, 
adding USD 34 million as opposed to USD 200 million.  Abu 
Zayd added that UNRWA had already had some success raising 
funds in the Gulf to support infrastructure works, receiving 
USD 25 million from Saudi Arabia for its Rafah housing 
project.  (NOTE:  UNRWA has also received USD 15 million from 
Japan for Rafah re-housing.  END NOTE.) 
 
UNRWA-PA COORDINATION, POTENTIAL HANDOVER 
----------------------------------------- 
 
7. (SBU) Turning to UNRWA's coordination with the PA, and the 
agency's potential to hand over some of its programming, such 
as education to the PA as a result of disengagement, Abu Zayd 
explained that UNRWA's MTP and PA Medium Term Development 
Plan (MTDP) were already in sync, having the same thematic 
focus: 
 
-- capacity building 
-- infrastructure 
-- education/economic development 
 
Despite this alignment, Abu Zayd confirmed that UNRWA and the 
PA would hold a workshop in early May to ensure their 
approaches are harmonized.   Abu Zayd elaborated that the 
PA's firm position, as stated in meetings she had held with 
the PA's point person on disengagement, Minister of Civil 
Affairs Muhammad Dahlan, and PA Planning Minister Ghassan 
Al-Khatib, is that the UNRWA mandate to provide services to 
Palestinian refugees should continue until the establishment 
of a two-state solution.  She noted that other 
refugee-hosting authorities (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria) remained 
vehemently opposed to UNRWA turning this responsibility over 
to their agencies, despite the fact that the majority of 
refugees in Jordan were actually Jordanian nationals. 
However, she added that there is an increasing level of 
commitment to support refugees in Jordan and Syria. 
 
CURRICULA 
--------- 
 
8. (SBU) Moving to specific UNRWA operations of interest to 
Congress, Staffdel Blair asked how UNRWA was taking measures 
to combat anti-Israeli sentiment in its schools.  UNRWA Legal 
Advisor Scott Custer explained that UNRWA's standard 
operating procedure is to adopt the curricula of the local 
host authority.  Accordingly, UNRWA used the PA texts that 
previously contained old material from Jordanian and Egyptian 
schools.  However Custer argued that PA books have improved 
dramatically in recent years.  Although UNRWA was satisfied 
the current texts are not promoting hatred, he added that 
UNRWA had developed its own supplemental tolerance education 
materials through a PRM grant.  These texts are now used in 
all UNRWA schools in the West Bank and Gaza, and are being 
introduced in UNRWA schools in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. 
(NOTE: UNRWA provided copies of its supplemental texts to the 
Staffdel  Refcoord is also working with ConGen Jerusalem to 
provide the latest IPCRI assessment of PA texts. END NOTE.) 
 
ANTI-TERRORISM MEASURES 
----------------------- 
 
9. (SBU) UNRWA Legal Advisor James Lindsay also described the 
procedures UNRWA uses to vet staff and suppliers for 
terrorist activity to comply with section 103 (c) of the 
Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.   UNRWA monitors staff 
support for terrorist organizations at two levels: First, it 
strictly monitors what its local and international staff say 
publicly, and disciplines staff for inappropriate comments. 
Second, it vets potential employees to ensure they have not 
been convicted or imprisoned, requiring them to sign 
agreements acknowledging that they understand the 
requirements for full disclosure imposed by UNRWA.  Lindsay 
elaborated that UNRWA conducts its own background checks by 
reference checks from a minimum of three past employers in 
addition to providing the GOI with a list of all UNRWA 
employees.  However, he said that UNRWA is reluctant to run 
background checks with the PA, given that there are competing 
PA security services and that derogatory information could be 
manipulated for political aims. 
 
10. (SBU) Lindsay said that the Israeli authorities have 
provided information on UNRWA employees that that UNRWA has 
attempted to act upon.  Prior to the current Intifada the GOI 
detained no more than two to three people out of a staff of 
11,000 in the West Bank and Gaza per year.  Currently, the 
GOI has informed UNRWA that 17 of its staff have been 
arrested, indicted or convicted.  Lindsay explained that 
UNRWA has been pressing the GOI to provide information on the 
conditions of their detention as it cannot legally fire 
employees based on administrative detention (i.e., without 
criminal charge), which can sometimes occur based on family 
association or membership in a student organization.  He 
added that UNRWA is concerned about disciplining those 
convicted automatically, as some detainees are advised to 
strike plea bargains by their lawyers.  Lindsay said that 
UNRWA had "only recently" received information clarifying 
that two of the 17 are under administrative detention, three 
have been convicted and the remaining 12 are under 
indictment.  To date, Lindsay said that UNRWA has terminated 
one of the convicted employees, as the GOI prosecution 
clearly revealed that he employee had lied on his 
application, hiding the fact that he had been jailed by 
Israeli authorities in the 1980s. 
 
11. (SBU) On UNRWA facilities, the head of the West Bank 
Operation Support Officers (OSO) team explained that one of 
the OSO primary duties is to inspect UNRWA facilities at 
least once every 30 days.  He noted that there have been only 
minor violations in the past year, involving refugees hanging 
political posters.  (NOTE: UNRWA acknowledged that both 
militants and the IDF have carried out operations in the 
proximity of UNRWA schools resulting in the shooting death of 
one schoolgirl in the past year.  END NOTE.)  His assistant 
added that UNRWA is preemptively painting "gray areas," such 
as external school walls, with murals to prevent them from 
being used to paint political graffiti.  On UNRWA's housing 
policy, Abu Zayd explained that UNRWA's internal policy is 
not to provide replacement housing for refugees whose home 
has been demolished because it was used to manufacture bombs. 
 She was unable to offer specific numbers of suspected 
violators, but stressed that the numbers are "very small." 
Finally, UNRWA's Chief Financial Officer for the West Bank 
noted that UNRWA uses the State Department's list of 
terrorist organizations to vet all of its international 
procurements, and also conducts its own background checks on 
local suppliers. 
 
12. (U)  The Staffdel did not have the opportunity to clear 
this cable before departing. 
 
 
HALE