3.3.2. UNRWA UNRWA was established in 1949 with UN General Assembly Resolution 302 (IV) to complement the work of the UNCCP by providing assistance in the form of “direct relief 359 See, for example, Susan Akram, ‘Palestinian Refugees and their Legal Status: Rights, Politics and Implications for a Just Solution’ (2002) 31(3) Journal of Palestine Studies, 36-51 <https://doi.org/10.1525/jps.2002.31.3.36>; Lena El-Malak, ‘Palestinian Refugees in International Law: Status, Challenges, and Solutions’ (2006) 20(3) Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, 187. 360 UNGA, ‘Palestine: Progress report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine; Repatriation or resettlement of Palestine refugees and payment of compensation due to them’ (14 December 1950) UNGA Res 394 (V) <https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/209554> accessed 3 October 2022 361 Forsythe (n 355), 56. 362 “The present unwillingness of the parties fully to implement the UNGA Resolution under which the Commission is operating, as well as the changes which have occurred in Palestine during the past three years, have made it impossible for the Commission to carry out its mandate”. See UNGA, ‘Progress Report and Supplementary Report of the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine, covering the period from 23 January to 19 November 1951’ (1951) UN GAOR 6th Session Supp no 18 A/1985, para 79 <https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/704493?ln=en> accessed 3 October 2022. 363 Terry Rempel, ‘The United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, Protection, and a Durable Solution for Palestinian Refugees’ (2000) 5 BADIL Brief, 5 <https://www.badil.org/phocadownload/Badil_docs/bulletinsand-briefs/Brief-No.5.pdf> accessed 3 October 2022. 364 UNCCP, ‘Seventy-First Report’ (15 August 2017) UN Doc A/72/332 <https://undocs.org/A/72/332> accessed 3 October 2022. 77 Chapter As a result of several factors, namely Israel’s refusal to cooperate, several internal disputes among its members, and the international community’s unwillingness to support it in the fulfillment of its excessively wide and contradictory mandate, the UNCCP effectively ceased its functions by the mid-1950s. Although it was never officially abolished, the UNCCP ceased making any meaningful efforts to uphold its protection mandate. To this day, the only report produced by the UNCCP is a one-page document, published annually, which states that, “it has nothing new to report”.364 No alternate entity has been established or mandated to replace the UNCCP in order to provide protection and facilitate durable solutions to Palestinian refugees. Palestinian refugees have thus been left, uniquely, without any agency mandated to ensure legal protection of their basic rights as refugees. 3 The objective of the agency therefore gradually shifted from the realization of repatriation for Palestinian refugees to gathering information on refugee property in what is now called Israel, and investigating the possibility of compensation.359 To this end, a UNCCP sub-office designed to investigate compensation alternatives was created by the General Assembly with the passage of Resolution 394 (V) in 1950.360 While records collected by the UNCCP continue to provide the most comprehensive database of Palestinian property to date, the creation of the sub-office marked a significant change in policy, and signaled “the beginning of the demise of [the UNCCP] as anything but a symbol”.361 In 1951, the agency officially reached the conclusion that it was unable to fulfill its mandate.362 The rights affirmed in UNGA Resolution 194 (III) were repeatedly deferred in light of what the Commission came to view as the practicalities on the ground, i.e. Israel’s opposition to the return of the refugees.363