UNRWA school, Gaza City, May 2025. © Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP.
The Acting Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Christian Saunders, is reportedly preparing this week to terminate between 3,000 and 4,000 Palestinian staff, mainly in Gaza and the West Bank. The termination letters were reportedly scheduled to be issued on 1st of November 2026.
And with that, he will be one step closer to accomplishing what he was sent to UNRWA to do: dismantle the Agency, primarily in Gaza, and hand whatever remains of its operations to the so-called Board of Peace and other UN organizations, effectively erasing UNRWA’s mandate.
In other words, assisting and abetting Isr$el’s longstanding objective of annihilating UNRWA and everything it represents.
Two weeks ago, on 18 October, Mr. Saunders sent a letter to the staff unions. His message is a remarkable exercise in contradictions, convenient excuses and political doublespeak, exposing far more about the intentions of UNRWA’s current leadership than Mr. Saunders probably intended
First, Mr. Saunders has apparently acquired the ability to predict donor funding for years to come.
He informs the staff unions that donor funding for overseas assistance has declined dramatically since the beginning of 2025 and is likely to remain reduced “for years to come.”
For years to come?
How exactly does the Acting Commissioner-General know what donors will be willing to contribute for years to come?
UNRWA has traditionally struggled to forecast its financial position even three months ahead. Suddenly, Mr. Saunders can predict donor appetite several years into the future?
Unless, of course, this was never a financial forecast in the first place, but a political decision already taken at the highest levels of the UN, with a predetermined outcome: UNRWA, at least as we know it, is not meant to survive beyond 2027.
The funding crisis is merely the convenient pretext for executing that decision, and the Acting Commissioner-General’s role appears to be not to save the Agency, but to oversee its deliberate dismantling.
Mr. Saunders further asserts:
“More than 26,000 personnel across the UN have lost their jobs over the last 18 months!”
Yes, Mr. Saunders. Except that those 26,000 personnel were not, fortunately, subjected to two years of bombardment, displacement, the destruction of their homes, the killing of their families and the loss of practically everything they owned.
And since we are making comparisons, perhaps someone should remind the Acting Commissioner-General of something he knows perfectly well: UNRWA is not financed through the same assessed contributions that fund the UN Secretariat.
The UN Secretariat’s financial crisis over unpaid assessed contributions has no bearing on UNRWA’s programme budget, which is funded through voluntary contributions. Mr. Saunders knows this perfectly well, yet conveniently conflates the two to justify the mass dismissal of Palestinian staff.
Mr. Saunders goes on to warn the staff unions that unless additional funding is received within two weeks:
“I will indeed have to take the difficult decision to separate a significant number of staff. Thus any shortfall in funding can only mean a reduction in staffing levels, there is no alternative!”
By his own account, UNRWA’s current budget deficit stands at approximately $70 million, one of the lowest shortfalls the Agency has faced in at least a decade.
UNRWA has had deficits of $400 million, $300 million, $200 million, and $100 million without separating a single staff member.
But now, with a $70 million shortfall, thousands of Palestinian staff must suddenly be terminated?
What changed? The financial situation? Or the political instructions?
The numbers simply do not add up, and if anyone needed further indication of what Mr. Saunders was brought in to accomplish, and why the Secretary-General has strategically refrained from appointing a new Commissioner-General for the past year, this is precisely where I would look.
I believe we are witnessing the deliberate dismantling of UNRWA, carried out under the convenient cover of a financial crisis.
The objective is clear: progressively dismantle UNRWA’s operations, eliminate its Palestinian workforce and transfer whatever remains of its functions to the board of peace and other organizations until the Agency and its mandate magically disappear. And let us remember what UNRWA actually represents.
UNRWA’s mandate is inseparable from the history and rights of millions of Palestine refugees. Its archives preserve the records of generations of Palestinian families, their displacement, their identities, their property and their history. Its continued existence is a reminder of a refugee question that remains unresolved and of rights that successive generations of Palestinians have never relinquished.
Erase UNRWA, erase its mandate, transfer its functions elsewhere, and you are not merely restructuring a UN agency. You are helping erase the Palestinians themselves.
That is precisely what Israel has been seeking to achieve for decades. What deserves scrutiny now is the extent to which the current UN leadership, under the convenient pretext of a financial crisis, is facilitating that objective.
Mr. Saunders then attempts to justify the protection of international staff by explaining:
“It is also important to note that international staff are not funded from the program budget, they are funded by the regular budget from UN New York.”
We know perfectly well how international staff are funded. What Mr. Saunders conveniently avoids explaining is why the mass termination of Palestinian staff is not accompanied by a corresponding reduction in international staffing.
If UNRWA’s education and healthcare operations in Gaza are being dismantled, the international headquarters structure in Amman should be reduced accordingly. Its size and staffing must reflect the operations it actually supports.
Apparently, the Agency can dispense with thousands of Palestinian teachers, doctors, nurses and other frontline staff, but cannot dispense with the international officials, many of whom are working from the comfort of their desks in their home countries.
And Mr. Saunders concludes his letter with this rather astonishing remark:
“I am of course happy to meet with you and your union colleagues whenever time allows to discuss this and other matters but you should be aware that I have a very busy schedule this week.”
A very busy schedule.
Of course.
You are preparing to terminate thousands of Palestinian staff, many of whom have lost their homes, their families and practically everything they own, and the staff unions should understand that you have a very busy week.
The level of disdain is staggering.
Perhaps we should refer the matter to the Secretary-General.
Oh, but wait.
The Secretary-General has already given us his explanation:
“The problem is that there is not enough money!”
There you have it
