Jordan’s Prime Minister Marouf al Bakheet and the UNRWA’s Commissioner General Filippo Grandi appealed for monetary aid to appeal for finances to fund the UNWRA’s work among Palestinian refugees. In a speech to the UNRWA’s advisory council the two warned of instability if services to the regions 3.6 million Palestinian refugees were not continued. Al Bakheet called on international governments and international donors to support the work of the UNRWA who is responsible for providing services to Palestinian refugees displaced from their homes in 1948 and 1967. Given the upheavals in the region, which al Barkheet described as “totally in line with the aspirations and hopes in the region”, continued support for refugees was essential to Jordan’s national security.

UNRWA Commissioner General Filippo Grandi, announcing a $63 million deficit for 2011, echoed the Jordanian PM’s concerns saying that “the events sweeping the region have resonated in the Palestinian refugee communities, where grievances about long-denied rights, as well as aspirations for a better life, run deep”.

Nearly two million Palestinian refugees reside in Jordan, many of whom are marginalized from Jordanian society. The UNRWA is charged with caring for the refugees in the interim of a long term solution to their exodus from their homes in Israel and Palestine.