Israel is right to call for the dismantling of UNRWA

There has been much discussion over the past year about the role played in Gaza by UNRWA – the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.

This past week, the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) adopted two laws cutting Israel’s cooperation with UNRWA. There has been an international outcry.

The UN Secretary General Gueterres claims that Israel’s legislation will lead to a humanitarian disaster, as the Palestinians in Gaza are entirely dependent on UNRWA for their survival, and there is no alternative for UNRWA.

But is that true?

“UNRWA is not indispensable”

There is no doubt that UNRWA plays a critical role in the distribution of humanitarian aid to the Arab Palestinian population in Gaza. There is also no doubt that Palestinians in Gaza are suffering tremendously in this war.

It is also true that UNRWA – which has 13,000 employees in Gaza – helps distribute massive amounts of aid provided by international organizations.

However, it is simply not true that UNRWA is indispensable in the short, medium or long term.

As AIJAC has shown in its analysis published this week, there is no reason why UNRWA cannot be replaced.

There are many aid agencies operating in Gaza. Many of these are other UN agencies, including the UN World Food Programme. The UN Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) asserts that it has, since its creation “provided more than $6 billion in life-saving assistance in more than 100 countries and territories,” with more than US$800 million in 2019 alone. The idea that only UNRWA can do in Gaza what the CERF does everywhere else is farcical.

“It keeps the Palestinians in an eternal state of victimhood”

Concerning the immediate future, Israel is committed to ensuring that humanitarian aid reaches the population in Gaza, within the constraints of its legitimate war against Hamas. Following the passage of the legislation, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released a statement, pledging:

“Since avoiding a humanitarian crisis is also essential, sustained humanitarian aid must remain available in Gaza now and in the future. In the 90 days before this legislation takes effect – and after – we stand ready to work with our international partners to ensure Israel continues to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security.”

The more fundamental issue, however, is that UNRWA is deeply and institutionally flawed, and must be replaced. UNRWA exists to perpetuate the myth that all Palestinians have a “right of return”. It keeps the Palestinians in an eternal state of victimhood and perpetuates their failure to take responsibility for the lack of a Palestinian state.

The “right of return” is a myth because most Palestinians are not refugees at all, and no refugees have a right of return. As Dr. Einat Wilf and many others have demonstrated, keeping this system alive is perpetuating, not contributing to the solution of, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“There are fundamental and systemic problems with UNRWA’s connections with terror”

The immediate reason Israel has adopted this legislation is because UNRWA’s role in Gaza since 7th October shows that there are fundamental and systemic problems with UNRWA’s connections with terror – as an organization – problems that directly and immediately threaten Israel’s security and the lives of its own citizens. As AIJAC reports, “there is considerable, incontrovertible evidence of seemingly uncontested Hamas abuse of UNRWA facilities over the last 12 months of war.”

The organization UN Watch has been warning for months that UNRWA is deeply connected with Hamas. For example:

• Numerous UNRWA staff took part in the October 7th massacre.
• Hundreds of UNRWA staff in Gaza are members of terrorist groups.
• The head of UNRWA’s Teachers Union in Lebanon was Hamas terror chief in Lebanon.
• The ex-head of UNRWA’s Teachers Union in Gaza is on the Hamas Politburo with Yahya Sinwar.
• 3,000 UNRWA teachers were in a Telegram group that celebrated October 7th.
• Hamas built a terror tunnel directly below UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza, hiding a computer intelligence center that was powered by the agency’s electrical grid.

The United Nations has ignored Israel’s concerns for too long. The Secretary General in particular has buried his head in the sand. Israel is fully entitled to protect itself, and moreover has shown that it will be taking all possible efforts in the coming days to ensure that Palestinian civilians in Gaza receive adequate humanitarian assistance.

The outcry that is currently directed against Israel should be directed at the organization that established and is responsible for UNRWA: the United Nations. And that means that our nations need to take responsibility to ensure that UNRWA is radically reformed – or (better still) dismantled, and its core humanitarian tasks assumed by other agencies.

Fact Sheet: Recent Israeli Legislation on UNRWA
Commentary about the new Israeli legislation ‘banning UNRWA’ has mischaracterised the scope of the laws, the idea that UNRWA is irreplaceable, and the Israeli concerns about UNRWA. This factsheet provides some corrective information.
> Read more..

Is UNRWA really a “lifesaving” organization? The truth is the opposite.
New UN Watch video shows how Justin Trudeau, Jordan’s Queen Rania, Owen Jones, Catherine Colonna and many others mindlessly parrot UNRWA’s false “lifesaving” mantra. The truth is the opposite. UNRWA’s actual purpose is to perpetuate hatred, war and terrorism.
> Read more..

For 75 years, UNRWA has sought to undermine Israel, perpetuate conflict – analysis
Seth Frantzman at JPost: “What did UNRWA accomplish in seventy-five years? Most of its camps played a key role in wars against Israel, and its mandate perpetuates the conflict.”
> Read more..

International Summit for a Future Beyond UNRWA
The international summit addressed the humanitarian situation in Gaza and planned for a future beyond UNRWA. The goal was to develop a program of action for the international community to fully ensure the humanitarian and other needs of Gazans, while preparing to transition away from a failed agency.

The Essence of UNRWA
In this video, Dr. Einat Wilf explains the essence of UNRWA at a briefing to UN delegations at the UN HQ in NYC hosted by Israel’s Ambassador to the UN. This briefing provides a summary of UNRWA’s history and how it became the ideological backbone of the Palestinian vision of violent “return” as manifested on October 7th, and how UNRWA has given birth to every terrorist organization from Black September to Hamas.

The Treason of the Intellectuals
Niall Ferguson is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University. In this interview, Ferguson discusses his stunning essay “The Treason of the Intellectuals,” published in December 2023 in the Free Press. The essay delves deeply into the changes Ferguson has observed in his 30-year career as an academic, especially over the past 10 years. He describes in the opening of his essay: “I have . . . witnessed the willingness of trustees, donors, and alumni to tolerate the politicization of American universities by an illiberal coalition of ‘woke’ progressives, adherents of ‘critical race theory,’ and apologists for Islamist extremism.”

In the Light of God | The Book of RUTH with Johannes Gerloff #48
Boaz brings the living God into the picture. This is happening at a time when “the thing with God” seemed just as unworldly or quirky as it does today.