November 3, 2010
For Immediate Release

Action Update: UNRWA Distances Itself From Statements of its New York Director

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition thanks all of its members, supporters and people of conscience who have written to The Secretary General of the United Nations in response to our action alert of November 1, 2010 ( http://www.al-awda.org/alert-un.html ). UNRWA has issued a statement distancing itself from the recent outrageous comments made by Andrew Whitley the current director of its New York office and which were the subject of our action alert. Mr. Whitley had stated that the Palestinian refugees should not entertain the "cruel illusion" that they will ever exercise their inalienable Right of Return and that they should start considering "their own role in the societies where they are", or elsewhere. The UNRWA statement, which is posted at http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=831, reads as follows:

"UNRWA unequivocally distances itself from the statements made by the Director of its office in New York, Andrew Whitley, at the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations in Washington on 22 October 2010. These statements in no way reflect the policies or positions of the Agency and are the personal views of Mr. Whitley."

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition thanks UNRWA for issuing this statement. However, Mr. Whitley's comments of October 22, 2010 reflect a clear breach of duty and betrayal of the trust vested in UNWRA by the world community and, particularly, by the refugees themselves. In addition, as a UN official, Mr. Whitley undermined the integrity and the credibility of UNRWA and exposed himself as the enemy of the people he is supposed to serve. Therefore, he should be dismissed immediately from the organization.

ACTION

We call on all our members, supporters and people of conscience to write once again to His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon, The Secretary General of the United Nations to thank UNRWA for their statement distancing themselves from Mr. Whitley's comments but to insist on his immediate dismissal.

SAMPLE LETTER

His Excellency Ban Ki-Moon
The Secretary General of the United Nations

Your Excellency,

I am writing to thank UNRWA for its recent statement distancing itself from outrageous comments on October 22, 2010 made by Andrew Whitley the current director of its New York office. However, Mr. Whitley's statement reflects a clear breach of duty and betrayal of the trust vested in UNWRA by the world community and, particularly, by the refugees themselves. Additionally, as a UN official, Mr. Whitley undermined the integrity and the credibility of UNRWA and exposed himself as the enemy of the people he is supposed to serve. Therefore, I ask you dismiss him immediately from UNRWA.

Such a measure is necessary to maintain the integrity of UNRWA, and the confidence of all people, especially the Palestinian refugees, in this unique agency.

Sincerely,

Your name
Address
Telephone number

Please address messages to: inquiries@un.org and cc f.grandi@unrwa.org; c.gunness@unrwa.org; s.mshasha@unrwa.org; j.ging@unrwa.org; r.cook@unrwa.org; r.hearn@unrwa.org; b.shenstone@unrwa.org; a.whitley@unrwa.org; l.takkenberg@unrwa.org; maher.nasser@unvienna.org

Please cc your correspondence to alerts@al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-918-9441
Fax: 760-918-9442
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) is dedicated to education and advocacy for the restoration in full of Palestinian human, national, legal, political and historical rights with particular emphasis on the right of Palestinians to return to their homes and lands of origin from which they have been dispossessed since 1948. PRRC is a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3) organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations to PRRC are tax-deductible. To donate, please go to http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the instructions. To become a member, go to http://al-awda.org/membership.html