Connections Podcast Episode 92

The Campaign Against UNRWA

Mouin Rabbani Interviews Chris Gunness  

On Wednesday, 13 March Jadaliyya co-editor Mouin Rabbani and Chris Gunness discussed UNRWA and the campaign against it led by Israel and the United States. This episode of Connections examines the allegations against the Agency, the agenda of its critics, and the objectives of the anti-UNRWA campaign.

Connections offers timely and informative interviews on current events and broader policy questions, as well as themes relevant to knowledge production. It combines journalism, analysis, and scholarship. 

Guest 

Chris Gunness is an award-winning journalist who spent 23 years at the BBC as producer, correspondent, and anchor. In 2006 he joined The Office of the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) in Jerusalem. In 2007 he was appointed Chief Spokesman and Director of Strategic Information and Advocacy for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). He left UNRWA at the start of 2020, and in 2021 established the Myanmar Accountability Project, a legal initiative which brings criminal prosecutions against war criminals in the Myanmar junta.

Host 

Mouin Rabbani is a researcher, analyst, and commentator specialising in Palestinian affairs, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. He has among other positions previously served as Principal Political Affairs Officer with the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Head of Middle East with the Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, and Senior Middle East Analyst and Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group.  

Rabbani is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya, where he also hosts the Connections podcast and edits its Quick Thoughts feature, Managing Editor and Associate Editor of the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, and a Contributing Editor of Middle East Report. He is Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies (CHS) and at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

A graduate of Tufts University and Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS), Rabbani has published, presented and commented widely on Middle East issues, including for most major print, television and digital media.

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