For generations of Palestinians, the United Nations has been both a lifeline and a source of bitter disillusionment. Since 1948, when UN Resolution 194 affirmed the right of refugees to return home a promise never fulfilled the world body has passed over 150 resolutions concerning Palestine, condemning settlements, demanding ceasefires, and upholding international law. Yet in the rubble of Khan Younis, where children sift through debris for schoolbooks, those words feel like echoes in an empty hall.
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), established in 1949, feeds over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza alone. Its schools educate half a million children. But even as its staff risk their lives over 170 killed since October 2023 funding dries up under political pressure. In 2023, the U.S. and several European states suspended contributions after Israel alleged (without presenting public evidence) that a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7 attacks. An internal UN investigation later dismissed most claims, but the damage was done. “They cut our flour while bombs fall,” says Dr. Samira Al-Hajj, a physician at a UNRWA clinic now operating in a tent.
In refugee camps across the West Bank, elderly men keep dog-eared copies of UN resolutions in their coat pockets. “Resolution 242,” says 82-year-old Abu Faisal in Jenin, tapping his chest. “It says occupation is illegal. So why is my grandson arrested for walking past a checkpoint?” His grandson, 19, was detained last month under administrative detention a practice repeatedly condemned by UN human rights bodies but still used by Israeli authorities. The dissonance between UN pronouncements and on-the-ground reality has bred a quiet cynicism, especially among youth who see diplomacy as theater while homes are demolished.
Still, hope flickers in unexpected places. A youth initiative in Ramallah recently launched a digital archive of UN resolutions translated into street art, turning legal texts into murals on separation walls. And in May 2024, the International Court of Justice acting on a UN General Assembly request ordered Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah, citing “plausible risk of genocide.” Though enforcement remains elusive, the ruling gave many Palestinians their first sense of legal vindication in decades.
The UN’s relationship with Palestine is a paradox: it recognizes Palestinian statehood in principle (138 member states voted yes in 2012), yet denies full membership due to U.S. and Israeli opposition in the Security Council. Palestinians sit in the General Assembly with a nameplate that reads “State of Palestine,” but no vote on critical matters. They are seen, but not heard; acknowledged, but not empowered.
The United Nations was founded to save succeeding generations from war. For Palestinians, it has documented their suffering with meticulous care but rarely stopped it. And so they endure, quoting resolutions like prayers, building schools from rubble, and waiting for the day when the paper shield becomes a real one. Until then, the sky offers no cover, and the law offers no shelter only the stubborn belief that justice, once written, cannot be unwritten.
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