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Remarks by HR/VP Mogherini following the UNRWA ministerial meeting and Ad Hoc Liaison Committee meeting

27.09.2018
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Remarks by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini following the UNRWA ministerial meeting and Ad Hoc Liaison Committee meeting

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I would like to say a few words, because today we took a very important step, together with other colleagues, starting from Jordan, but also Turkey, Germany, Japan and Sweden. We co-hosted a meeting to relaunch the financing of UNRWA [the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East] and we managed, as you may have heard already, to mobilise a very significant funding that reduces the funding gap enormously. This means that the Palestinian refugees continue to be assisted by the UN agency.

This is crucial especially for schools and hospitals in Gaza, but also in Lebanon, in Jordan, in Syria, to avoid adding problems to those already existing. The European Union - I had the honour to announce today - will add €40 million to our financing to UNRWA, on top of the funding we are already providing; the European Union and Member States are already providing half of the budget of UNRWA.

We will continue to invest in that because we think this is a key, not only humanitarian duty, but also investment in the two state solution. We are also working in the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee right now with our partners starting from Norway, to keep the two state solution alive, 25 years after the Oslo Agreement was signed in the White House.

We have to avoid that this perspective fades away, or rather that it is dismantled, piece by piece. Because if you seriously think of any alternative, you realise that there is no alternative, unless you believe that one state for all those who are living on the territory could be a solution. But I gather this would not be a solution acceptable for the Palestinians nor the Israelis. We will continue the work and this is what I wanted to share with you today.

Thank you.

 

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Category
Remarks
Location

New York

Editorial sections
Middle East & North Africa (MENA)
Palestine (*) - Occupied Palestinian Territory, West Bank and Gaza Strip
EEAS
United Nations (UN)