United Nations employees allegedly helped carry out the Oct. 7 massacre of Jewish civilians. This recent revelation should be the top line in every newspaper around the world. And it should deprive that U.N. agency of both funding and any role in planning for Gaza’s future.
On Jan. 26, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, acknowledged that “Israeli Authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel” on Oct. 7. Lazzarini stated that he had “immediately terminated the contracts of these staff members.” UNRWA, he said, would investigate.
No fewer than 12 UNRWA staffers allegedly took part in the Oct. 7 massacre. They also reportedly used agency vehicles and facilities during the attack. For its part, the Biden administration responded by “temporarily pausing” U.S. funding for the organization.
The timing of the revelation of UNRWA’s alleged involvement is noteworthy.
Less than 24 hours before, a spokesperson at the State Department said that UNRWA would be given a “central role in Gaza after the war.” But the State Department and the administration should have known better.
Indeed, UNRWA’s troubling history has been known for years.
UNRWA was created in 1949 with the ostensible purpose of resettling Palestinian Arab refugees from Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. It has since morphed into something else entirely.
All other refugee populations in the world fall under the jurisdiction of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which, despite dealing with six times as many refugees as UNRWA, has only a quarter of the staff. UNRWA’s definition of “refugee” also includes people who are generations removed from the 1948 war, people who are citizens of new states, and people who reside in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip: places that Palestinians themselves claim as part of a future Palestinian state. Uniquely, UNRWA’s categorization of “refugee” is not dependent on need and applies to citizens of recognized countries.
Accordingly, a child born in Gaza under Hamas rule is a “refugee,” and so too is Gigi Hadid, an American-born millionaire supermodel who resides in Los Angeles. All are refugees until they “return” to Israel. In so doing, UNRWA has helped perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ensuring that it can only end with the Jewish state’s destruction.
Worse still, UNRWA has been an active participant. As U.N. Watch, an organization that fights to reform the United Nations, has pointed out, curriculum used in UNRWA schools is replete with antisemitism. A Jan. 11 UN Watch report documented UNRWA teachers praising the Oct. 7 massacre and declaring their support for Hamas. But this too is unsurprising.
A 2014 report by the Center for Near East Policy Research found that Hamas and Islamic Jihad “control the UNRWA stations in Gaza,” and in 2012, “UNRWA in Gaza elected Hamas to all 11 seats in UNRWA’s teachers’ union.”
A 2015 internal investigation found that UNRWA schools were used by Hamas to “hide weapons” and “launch attacks” during the 2014 Israel-Hamas war.
The Trump administration cited UNRWA’s troubling history when it decided to pull U.S. funding from the organization in 2018. But the Biden administration chose to restore it.
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American tax dollars went to a U.N. agency whose employees allegedly helped massacre Jews. If true, this discredits the United Nations and should deprive it of both funding and a role in Gaza after the war.
UNRWA helped author the horrors of the past and present. It doesn’t deserve a say in Gaza’s future.
Sean Durns is a senior research analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.