October 7 victims sue UNRWA USA for alleged financial support of Hamas

American and Israeli victims of the Hamas October 7 massacre are suing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) USA National Committee for alleged financial support of the terrorist organization, according to a lawsuit filed in the District Court of Delaware on Sunday.

The lawsuit alleges that the 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which supports UNRWA through fundraising, advocacy, and community engagement in the US, has been knowingly providing material support to Hamas by funding the employment of terrorists, spreading terrorist propaganda, and facilitating weapon storage in schools and other civilian public buildings.

While UNRWA USA is an independent nonprofit, the suit said the organization’s stated mission is to support UNRWA, and the charity has called the UN agency’s workers “colleagues.” The nonprofit reported that it had raised over $ 3.8 million for UNRWA in 2022, and when it provided almost $5 million in 2021 it claimed that it was “the agency’s top institutional donor” that year.

“It is operating a terrorist-financing scheme in violation of federal law and thereby misleading its donors, the United States government, and the international community,” said the lawsuit.

Connections between UNRWA and Hamas

It was alleged that the connection between UNRWA and Gazan terrorist organizations had been public knowledge since the early 2000s, and had become even more apparent during the Israel-Hamas War.

“From its inception, UNRWA has been a major part of the problem in the Middle East, through its internal corruption, its promotion of educational materials in Palestinian schools that promote and glorify terrorism, and its direct involvement with and material support for Hamas and other terrorist organizations, including the commission of terrorist actions and the use of its offices and resources to conceal terrorist activities,” said attorney David Schoen.

The lawsuit mentioned a 2017 Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center report which said that Hamas controlled a UNRWA Gaza staff union since at least 2009. In a February 16 statement, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant claimed that 12% of local staff were affiliated with Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Gallant accused 30 UNRWA workers of taking part in the October pogrom. The Wall Street Journal reported in late January that at least two had helped kidnap Israelis and others had coordinated logistics for the assault, such as the procurement of weapons.

UNRWA facilities have been used to hide weapons and other equipment, said the filing, such as a 2014 incident in which 20 rockets were found in a vacant school. More recently, the IDF claimed that it had found a Hamas subterranean data center beneath the UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters.

Schools run by UNRWA promote jihad and antisemitism, according to a March 2023 IMPACT-se and UN Watch report cited by the lawsuit. The report detailed UNRWA material for 5th graders at Al-Zaytun Elementary School teaching them to venerate 1978 Coastal Road massacre terrorist Dalal Mughrabi, and grammar exercises for 6th-grade girls at the Asma Girls’ Middle School B that included the phrase “I will commit jihad to liberate the homeland.”

The lawsuit also noted the discovery of a 3,000-member UNRWA educators Telegram group by Middle East analyst Eitan Fischberger, in which the teachers praised and shared images of the October 7 attack.

The lawsuit said that the US Senate had passed a bipartisan bill on February 13 blocking government funding of UNRWA due to terrorism connections. Seventeen countries and international entities had also paused funding to UNRWA over concerns about the agency’s connection to terrorism.

“This case is long overdue. Delaware’s Attorney-General should move to revoke UNRWA’s status as a Delaware corporation,” said David Finger, an attorney working with the plaintiffs. “Delaware should not tolerate its corporations being used to facilitate violence, terror, and savagery.”

The plaintiffs had survived the October 7 massacre, lost loved ones in the attack, or were rendered homeless as a result of the destruction and evacuations. US citizens Noach Newman, Adin Gess, Maya Parizer, Natalie Sanandaji, Yoni Diller, David Bromberg, and Lior Bar Or were seeking damages under the Antiterrorism Act. Israeli plaintiffs Lishay Lavi, Hagar Almog, and Ariel Ein-Gal were seeking damages under the Alien Tort Statute, which gives US courts jurisdiction for acts committed in violation of international law, such as anti-terrorism financing treaties.

Jason Torchinsky, another attorney working on the lawsuit, said that “US law does not allow Americans to support terrorism and to also claim a ‘charitable’ tax deduction for it.”

The lawsuit is part of a series of lawsuits filed in cooperation with the National Jewish Advocacy Center and  International Legal Forum against those they believe connected to the October 7 massacre.