John Bennett Blandford Jr. (1897-1972) was the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East's second Director from 1951 to 1953. Blandford served as chairman of the UNRWA Advisory Commission before becoming director of UNRWA. He had been deputy chief of U.S. Economic Cooperation Administration in Greece and a consultant to president Harry Truman on the Marshall Plan. [1]
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Palestine War and subsequent conflicts, as well as their descendants, including legally adopted children. As of 2019, more than 5.6 million Palestinians are registered with UNRWA as refugees.
Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country over the course of the 1947–49 Palestine war and the Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refugees live in or near 68 Palestinian refugee camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. In 2019 more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees were registered with the United Nations.
Camps are set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to accommodate Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA, who fled or were expelled during the 1948 Palestinian exodus after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War or in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967, and their patrilineal descendants. There are 68 Palestinian refugee camps, 58 official and 10 unofficial, ten of which were established after the Six-Day War while the others were established in 1948 to 1950s.
Peter Hansen, a Danish national, was commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from 1996 to 2005.
Henry Richardson Labouisse Jr. was an American diplomat and statesman. He was the third Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from 1954 to 1958. He was the director of the United Nations Children's Fund for years (1965–1979). He was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A lawyer, he was United States Ambassador to France 1952–1954, as well as United States Ambassador to Greece 1962–1965. Labouisse had been the principal United States Department of State official dealing with the implementation of the Marshall Plan.
Karen Koning AbuZayd is a senior official of the United Nations. She is currently serving as a Commissioner on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. On 5 January 2016, she was appointed United Nations Special Adviser on the Summit on Addressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants held on September 19, 2016. The Summit resulted in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants.
İlter Türkmen was a Turkish diplomat and politician.
Jalazone is a Palestinian refugee camp in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) north of Ramallah and adjacent to the village of Jifna to the north, Deir Dibwan to the east, Bir Zeit to the west and the Beit El Israeli settlement to the southeast.
'Azza also known as Beit Jibrin Camp is a Palestinian refugee camp in the Bethlehem Governorate located within the city of Bethlehem. It is the smallest of the 59 refugee camps in the West Bank and the other Arab countries. It was established in 1950 in an area of 20 dunams and receives services from UNRWA workers based in nearby Aida camp, but inside the camp, there are no medical or educational services, so it was merged with the Aida camp to receive services.
Filippo Grandi is an Italian diplomat and United Nations official, currently serving as United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He previously served as Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and United Nations Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan.
Laurence Michelmore was UNRWA's Commissioner-General from 1964 to 1971. Michelmore had been senior director of the UN's Technical Assistance Board, deputy director of personnel, and administrative consultant of the UN Special Fund and the Secretary-General's representative on Malaysia.
Howard Kennedy was a Canadian Army officer and the first Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from 1950 to 1951.
Giorgio Giacomelli was an Italian diplomat who represented Italy as ambassador to Somalia and Syria and was UNRWA's Commissioner-General from 1985 to 1991.
Olof Rydbeck was a Swedish diplomat, head of Sveriges Radio between 1955 and 1970, Sweden's ambassador to the UN, and a Commissioner-General of UNRWA.
John Herbert Davis was an American academic and diplomat, best known in his early career for his work in agribusiness, and in his later career for heading the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
Khan Yunis Camp, also spelled Khan Younis Camp, is a Palestinian refugee camp in the Khan Yunis Governorate just west of the city of Khan Yunis and two kilometers east of the Mediterranean coast in the southern Gaza Strip. While UNRWA states that there were approximately 72,000 Palestinian refugees living in the camp in 2010, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics recorded a population of 37,705 in the 2007 census.
Husn Camp or Al-Husn Camp, known locally as Martyr Azmi el-Mufti camp, is a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan. It is located near Al Husn, about 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Amman. It was established in 1968 as an emergency camp to house 12,500 refugees who were displaced from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip during the 1967 Six-Day War. As of 2005, it housed 50,573 refugees. The camp has a women's centre, four schools in two buildings, a health centre, a food distribution centre, and a rehabilitation centre.
Sandra Mitchell was appointed Deputy Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from 2014 until 2020 when her contract was fully performed