Bills to block UNWRA activity in Israel advance in Knesset

The Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approved on Sunday two bills aimed at ending the activity and privileges in Israel of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency  (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

Both bills are an amalgamation of a larger number of bills proposed by MKs from both the coalition and the opposition.

 The first, which combines proposals by MKs Boaz Bismuth (Likud) and Sharren Haskel (United Right), states that the UNWRA will no longer “operate any institution, provide any service, or conduct any activity, whether directly or indirectly,” in Israel.

The second bill, which combines proposals by MKs Ron Katz (Yesh Atid), Dan Illouz (Likud), and Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beytenu), states that the treaty between Israel and the UNWRA, signed following the Six Day War in 1967, will expire on October 7, 2024, or as soon as the bill passes its final voting in the Knesset plenum; that no Israeli government agencies or representatives may contact the UNWRA or a representative of it; and that the UNWRA workers will not enjoy immunity or special rights that other UN workers enjoy in Israel, such as immunity from indictment and some tax cuts. It further stipulates that Israel’s National Security Council must report to the committee every two months regarding the bill’s implementation.

The bills were proposed in response to reports that the UNWRA workers had participated in the October 7 massacre and held Israeli hostages captive afterward; that some of its facilities in the Gaza Strip, including schools and medical centers, doubled as ammunition and arms caches; and that its education system included incitement to violence against Israel.

'Tool at the service of terror'

The bills will now return to the Knesset plenum for second and third readings, which will likely be held after the Knesset begins its winter session on October 28.

FADC chairman MK Yuli Edelstein wrote in a statement following the bill’s approval in his committee, “The problem of the UNWRA did not begin on October 7, but it arose and was revealed in all of its satanism” on that day.

Edelstein said that the issue was “complicated and included broad repercussions,” but did not detail what these repercussions were.

Illouz wrote on X/Twitter that the UNWRA “for a long time” had been a “tool at the service of terror,” and had become “an ally of Hamas in its struggle against Israel.” He added that his proposal was “necessary for Israeli security and maintaining its sovereignty.”

Ynet reported on Sunday that UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, urging him not to enable the bills to pass. 

According to Guterres, they will block the UNWRA’s operation in the West Bank and Gaza, and prevent necessary aid from reaching Palestinian refugees.

According to the report, Guterres noted that the UNWRA runs nearly 400 schools and 65 medical centers in the West Bank and Gaza, and provides services to over 350,000 children, as well as general welfare services, including to most of the Palestinian population in Gaza. Guterres added that legislation, which would disconnect ties between a member state and a UN agency, was a “very worrisome development,” and that if the bills pass, he will bring it to the attention of the UN General Assembly.

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon responded to the letter, saying that Israel had provided the UN with information regarding over 100 UNWRA employees who had participated in the October 7 massacre, but that the UN still had not disconnected the ties between the UNWRA and Hamas. According to Danon, the UNWRA failed both professionally and morally, and it was time that the UN acknowledged that it had turned into an “arm of Hamas.”