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New article by Anne Irfan explores relationship between PLO and UNRWA

A new article by Departmental Lecturer Anne Irfan on the relationship between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been published in the Journal of Palestine Studies.

The article examines the relationship between the PLO and UNRWA during the 1970s, the period when the PLO reached the zenith of its power in Palestinian refugee camps throughout the Levant.

Based on archival United Nations and UNRWA documents, as well as the PLO's own communications and publications, the article argues that the organisation approached its relationship with UNRWA as part of a broader strategy to gain international legitimacy at the UN.

That approach resulted in a complex set of tensions, specifically over which of the two institutions truly served and represented Palestinian refugees. In exploring these tensions, this article also demonstrates how the “question of Palestine” was in many ways an international issue.

Anne Irfan (2020) 'Palestine at the UN: The PLO and UNRWA in the 1970s', Journal of Palestine Studies, DOI: 10.1525/jps.2020.49.2.26