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UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini acknowledges that it has been "stressful" leading the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees, but says he is confident he is "on the right side of history".
The 61-year-old head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has, along with his organization, withstood a barrage of criticism and accusations from Israel since Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attack inside Israel and the devastating war in Gaza that followed.
"Of course it is stressful. No one could really be prepared for something like this," Lazzarini said in a recent interview.
It has been rough from the start. The softly-spoken Swiss father of four began his tenure in 2020 under COVID lockdown, as UNRWA was reeling after the United States, traditionally its largest donor, dramatically slashed its contribution during President Donald Trump's first term. But that was nothing compared to what was to come.
"October 7 basically ... destroyed the last protection dikes that UNRWA might have had," he said, lamenting the "arsenal" it unleashed "to try to discredit the agency, attack the agency, get rid of the agency".
Relations between Israel and UNRWA, which supports nearly six million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, have long been strained, but they have fallen off a cliff in the past year and a half.
Israel's allegation that some UNRWA staff took part in the October 7 massacre spurred a string of nations early last year to at least temporarily halt their backing for the already cash-strapped agency.
Lazzarini warned of "the real risk of the agency collapsing and imploding". Serving as the "backbone" of the aid operation in Gaza, UNRWA should have funding until June, he said. "I have no visibility" beyond that, added Lazzarini, speaking on the sidelines of the FIFDH human rights film festival in Geneva where a film about UNRWA was featured.
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Funding gaps are not the only problem the agency faces. Amid accusations that UNRWA was "infested with Hamas terror activity", Israel in January took the unprecedented step of severing ties with the UN agency and banning it from operating on Israeli soil.
While UNRWA can still operate in Gaza and the West Bank, it has been barred from contact with Israeli officials, making it difficult to coordinate the safe delivery of aid in the Palestinian territories.
No aid is meanwhile going into Gaza, since Israel halted deliveries to the Strip amid a deadlock over a fragile cease-fire.
"This decision threatens the life and survival of civilians in Gaza," Lazzarini warned. He also described the situation in the West Bank, where Israel has for weeks been carrying out a major counter-terrorism offensive, as "deeply, deeply troubling".
While uncertain how things would evolve, he said the threat of the Israeli annexation of the West Bank was hanging like "a Damocles sword over the head of the Palestinians (and) the international community".
Israel has said that UNRWA could be replaced by other UN agencies or NGOs. But Lazzarini argued that while other organizations could handle distributing humanitarian aid, they could not replace UNRWA's delivery of "government-like services" such as education and healthcare.
Without UNRWA, "we would definitely sacrifice a generation of kids, who would be deprived of proper education", he warned. Education should also be a top priority for Israel, he insisted.
"If you deprive 100,000 girls and boys in Gaza (of an) education, and if they have no future, and if their school is just despair and living in the rubble, I would say we are just sowing the seeds for more extremism." Israel has for years accused UNRWA schools of teaching antisemitism and the hatred of Israel.
Lazzarini decried "an extraordinary war of disinformation" against the agency. Lazzarini, who himself has been the target of virulent attacks, acknowledged that "certainly I don't read everything and don't listen to everything. Otherwise, you wouldn't sleep anymore."
He added: "If I didn't feel that I am still on the right side of history, I don't think I would continue to carry on." But, he said, "I have been given a voice, and obviously I need to use this voice. That is the minimum we owe to the Palestinian refugees who are pretty voiceless."