17/03/2025 - Co-directed by Lyana Saleh, Nicolas Wadimoff’s film tells the story of the United Nations agency caught between opposing viewpoints which are failing to communicate

Presented in a world premiere within FIFDH Geneva’s Focus Competition, UNRWA, 75 ans d'une histoire provisoire by Lyana Saleh and Nicolas Wadimoff tells the complicated story of the UNRWA, a crucial agency run by the United Nations which is now at risk of closure. The only humanitarian organisation created for and dedicated to a specific refugee group - displaced Palestinians – the UNRWA has made itself heard since its creation in 1949. Whilst, for some, thanks to its free and high-quality educational system, it represents the heart of Palestinian culture and identity, for others it helps perpetuate the idea of refugees returning to their homeland in future, fuelling belligerent and insurgent sentiments. Lending a voice to both the Palestinians and the Israelis, the film tells the rich and detailed story of an agency which has to operate with great caution, like a cable car on a threadbare wire. Archive footage accompanies viewers on their journey, as if to remind them of the origins and implications of this complex and lacerating conflict.

Born as an “a-political” agency, the UNRWA is now at the centre of a debate whose implications are anything but a-political. It’s this very paradox, this complexity, the two-headed nature of this agency which changes depending on the viewpoint, which is explored by this documentary. At this particular moment in time when, having become symbolic of an endless conflict, the agency’s very survival is at risk, it’s crucial that we understand why it’s essential. A complex yet intriguing tangle of humanitarian needs and political strategies, the UNRWA is slowly turning into the only light at the end of an increasingly dark tunnel for the Palestinian people.

As highlighted by the film, the context in which the agency was born, at the end of the Second World War, has had an unarguable influence on it. Why did the United Nations feel the need to create an entity specifically dedicated to Palestinian refugees? This is the question which many people have asked themselves, both Palestinians and Israelis. Whilst, in the first instance, as the film indicates, both Israel and Palestine welcomed the initiative – the former because it lessened the burden of having to look after deported Palestinians and the latter because they needed resources to survive (in terms of food and education) – both sides soon grew more suspicious. And a gradual deterioration of this trust has led to where we are today.

Whilst, for the Palestinians, represented in the film by the long-serving former Palestinian Ambassador at UNESCO Elias Sanbar, the agency and its educational institutions helped to protect a culture and associated traditions which were at risk of extinction, crushed by interests larger than themselves, the Israelis - whose spokesperson in the film is the writer and former Knesset member Einat Wilf - believed the UNRWA contributed towards the political radicalisation of many refugees and, by upholding the illusion that they would one day return to their homeland, helped to perpetuate the “Palestine problem”. The film depicts these radically opposing viewpoints and doesn’t hide a thing. What’s clear is that this agency which was created with a temporary status which is renewable every three years has sadly now acquired a more definitive one.

The film brilliantly emphasises the delicate position of the UNRWA, which feels caught in the middle between differing demands to which it is obliged to respond, whilst simultaneously fighting for its own survival on which a dizzying number of people depend. Daring to tackle an incredibly delicate subject, the film encourages us to keep on believing that constructive dialogue is still an option.

UNRWA, 75 ans d'une histoire provisoire was produced by Akka Films and RTS Radio télévision suisse romande.

(Translated from Italian)