For over 75 years, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has provided essential education, medical care, and food to millions of Palestinian refugees. Today, a growing international effort aims to permanently dismantle the agency. This drive is visible through physical destruction on the ground, legal actions, and major funding cuts from key Western nations.

Western governments have changed the approach to this agency. Recently, Finland decided that it will join Sweden in stopping the annual five-million-euro contribution to UNRWA and started giving aid to some general relief funds instead.

At the same time, U.S. Congress submitted H.R. 9680, the Replace UNRWA with Real Humanitarian Assistance Act, that orders the State Department to work on a plan to end the activity of UNRWA using other organizations instead.

Opponents of UNRWA present the situation as an important step toward accountability and keeping neutrality. However, experts and immigrants believe that it is a move to remove Palestinian refugees from the agenda.

UNRWA is uniquely bound to international resolutions protecting the Right of Return, and replacing it with generic humanitarian groups threatens to reduce a historical political dispute to simple poverty relief.

Despite facing heavy infrastructure damage in Gaza and operational bans in Jerusalem, UNRWA continues to serve thousands of families. Agency officials and Palestinian advocates stress that preserving UNRWA is not just about keeping schools and health centers running. It is about maintaining the international community's official acknowledgement of Palestinian refugee rights and historical identity.