UN commissioner-general says Israeli attacks on UNRWA politically motivated

The Israeli attacks on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) are politically motivated said Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, at a press briefing in New York on Wednesday.

Lazzarini said the institute is facing the most serious crisis since its establishment in 1949, adding that Israel's cutting its relations with UNRWA and banning UNRWA from operating in the country and eastern Jerusalem are direct attacks on the institute and are completely politically motivated.

He said so far 234 staff of UNRWA have been killed in conflicts and a great number of its facilities have been destroyed. The institute is also facing a worldwide disinformation campaign aiming at undermining its legitimacy in the international community.

Lazzarini stressed that if UNRWA stops operating, the responsibility of providing education and medical services will be left to the occupying power.

"If UNRWA cannot operate, that means the UN will not be able to operate and to provide these critical services. And in that case, the only alternative and option is that the owners and the responsibility goes back to the occupying power, meaning that Israel will be responsible to provide these critical services," he said.

On Wednesday at the UN general assembly forth committee, Danny Danon, Israel's permanent representative to the UN, called for Lazzarini to resign in shame.

Lazzarini responded that Danon's remarks are not a personal attack but an attack on the function of the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, which will not come to an end even if he resigns.

"I did not have a bilateral meeting with ambassador Danon. He made a call this morning at the fourth committee asking me to resign in shame. And basically, my answer to this is that if my person would really make a difference, this is certainly something I should envisage. But I don't think it is my person which is attacked. It is my function. It is a Commissioner-General which is primarily targeted today, and it is a part of this broader campaign to delegitimize the agency and UNRWA," he said. 

Lazzarini said the goal of Israel is to deprive Palestinians of their refugee status and make it impossible for them to return to the land that are now used as illegal settlements.

"The objective is to strip the Palestinian from the refugee status and also to unilaterally change the parameters for a political solution. It's a way to undermine the future aspiration of the Palestinian for self-determination. It's a way to undermine and to bury once for all the two-state solution. We have also seen that it's not just UNRWA which has been targeted. Any voices in the region supporting the Palestinian authorities supporting the pathway of a two-state solution started to be phased out," he said.

The Commissioner-General called on the member states of the UN to take emergency actions, preventing Israel from implementing relevant laws and clarifying the roles of UNRWA. 

He also urged the international community not to delay or stop their donation to the institute. He warned that the attacks on UNRWA are not only weakening the function of the UN but also destabilizing the international order established since the end of the WWII.

UN commissioner-general says Israeli attacks on UNRWA politically motivated

A new chapter has been opened in the decades-old campaign of fighting desertification in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region as the 3,046-km green belt encircling the Taklimakan Desert in the region was completed on November 28, 2024.

The Taklimakan Desert, once known as the "sea of death," covers 337,600 square kilometers and its circumference measures 3,046 km, making it the largest desert in China and the second-largest drifting desert in the world.

It has taken more than 40 years to fully enclose the desert with a green belt. This incredible achievement is part of China's Three-North Shelterbelt Forest Program, the world's largest afforestation initiative. The program was launched in 1978 and is scheduled to be completed by 2050.

Xinjiang's commitment to fighting desertification did not waver following the green belt's completion. Instead, the region is continuing to expand and fortify the belt to achieve broader ecological management objectives.

Despite subzero temperatures and recent snowfall, the relentless work at the sand control site persists.

In Yutian County on the edge of the Taklimakan Desert, workers are busy leveling a 530-hectare piece of sandy land for the forthcoming ecological conservation endeavors.

"It's been almost a month, and we'll work for another three or four days, and then we'll have leveled it out here," said a bulldozer driver working on-site.

In Luopu County also on the edge of the Taklimakan Desert, workers are preparing red willow branches in nurseries for planting across more than 400 hectares of desert in the coming spring. Indigenous sand-fixing plants like sacsaoul and red willow are poised to assume important roles in fighting desertification the upcoming year.

The green belt surrounding the Taklimakan Desert not only emphasizes ecological conservation but also highlights economic progress. Through photovoltaic projects, the region is pioneering a novel ecological management strategy aimed at achieving dual objectives of environmental preservation and economic prosperity. This approach not only aids in fighting desertification, but also promises economic benefits, propelling sustainable development in the area.

Presently, the construction of a photovoltaic project within the Taklimakan Desert is busy underway, with workers installing solar panels. By spring, sand fixing plants like alfalfa and Chinese fountain grass will be planted below these panels, making the project a good example for the exploration of a new win-win model of ecological governance and economic development in Xinjiang.

Xinjiang opens new chapter in fighting desertification