Addressing a UN meeting on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a leading Vatican diplomat said that the Holy See “emphasizes that humanitarian assistance, however essential it may be, cannot replace the urgent need for a just and lasting political solution.”
Archbishop Christophe-Zakhia El-Kassis, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said on November 12 that “the question of Palestinian refugees must remain high on the international agenda, alongside efforts to achieve a negotiated two-State solution, with the State of Israel and the State of Palestine living side by side in peace and security within internationally recognized borders, and with an internationally guaranteed special status for Jerusalem.”
The UN General Assembly created the UNRWA in 1949, following the partition of Palestine and its aftermath.