UNRWA officials tell Hamas, PIJ 'we are one' in secret Lebanon meeting - report

Former UNRWA commissioner-general

Pierre Krahenbuhl met with leaders of designated Palestinian terrorist organizations during his term, assuring them that “we are one” and “no one can separate us,” as published in a UN Watch exposé on Thursday.

According to the exposé, the meeting took place in Beirut in February 2017, with other participants including UNRWA Chief in Lebanon Hakam Shawan, Ali Baraka from Hamas, Abu Imad Al-Rifai from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and Salah Al-Youssef from the PFLP, as well as other representatives from different Palestinian factions such as the DFLP, the PFLP–Central Command, and Fatah Al-Intifada.

Baraka, who oversaw the terror organization’s foreign relations with the regimes in Tehran and Syria, was recently designated by the US for his role in Hamas. Likewise, Rifai, a PIJ leader from Lebanon, had previously boasted about dispatching suicide bombers to Baghdad to target American and British military personnel.

Meetings held secretly

Strikingly, Krahenbuhl appeared to have been completely aware that such meetings were problematic, as according to the UN Watch exposé, he warned those present to maintain their discussions out of the public sphere, so as to avoid a “challenge” to their “credibility,” as well as “lead to a loss between donor countries and UNRWA, which might result in reduced or even halted funding.”

During these discussions, he explicitly emphasized a “spirit of partnership” with those present in the room and encouraged them to challenge UNRWA’s decisions privately, promising potential modifications or complete reversals of decisions.

In his own words, Krahenbuhl advocated for a mutual partnership, inviting terrorist representatives to critique UNRWA’s decisions freely. He suggested they could meet “a thousand times” to discuss concerns, with the potential to alter or completely rescind existing policies.

“Your cooperation with us in security matters and your commitment to not closing UNRWA institutions, facilities, schools, or offices also completes this partnership,” the UNRWA official told the leaders of Palestinian terrorist organizations. “If we can achieve this, it means we are united, and no one can separate us.”

These documents provide a stark insight into the complex and controversial interactions between UNRWA leadership and organizations designated as terrorist groups by multiple international entities.

UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer noted that Baraka, who was present at the meeting with Krahenbuhl, regularly met with UNRWA regional directors, some of whom saluted him for Hamas’s anniversary.

UNRWA’s connections with Hamas have been placed under scrutiny since October 7 last year, as Israel has alleged that several agency staff members took part in the massacre itself, playing active roles in Hamas’s militia Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, and instructing antisemitic and terror lauding material in schools. An UNRWA teacher was also among the organizers of anti-Israel protests in the Netherlands while acting as leader of a Hamas-affiliated organization in the country.