UNRWA and Palestinian national identity: The role of the United Nations in state-building

This dissertation explores the role that the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has been playing in Palestinian state-building since the 1970s. UNRWA's role is examined by assessing the impact of the organization's socio-economic services, particularly in education and human development on the reconstruction of Palestinian identity. Despite the efforts of Israel and Jordan to suppress Palestinian nationalism, UNRWA has succeeded in not only enabling the emergence of a politically-conscious class of Palestinians, but its social services have also fostered the creation of a professional class of Palestinians that is more capable of controlling their own destiny, most commonly associated with an independent Palestinian state. Also the dissertation focuses on how UNRWA's reports to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) have shaped UN resolutions since the late 1950s and in turn the UN's approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.; The main questions that this dissertation seeks to examine are the following. Did UNRWA change its agenda after the 1970s from an intergovernmental institution that was established to reintegrate and resettle the Palestinians in other Middle Eastern countries to an intergovernmental institution that started working hand in hand with the refugees to help them set the foundation of their future state? Did UNRWA keep the Palestinian question alive, thus keeping the Palestinian people's plight center stage around the world instead of putting an end to it in accordance with its original mandate? Who has influenced UNRWA more, the refugees or the donor and host countries?...