My Word: UNRWA’s ‘Un’-doing

Irony can be loud and clear – like the sound of a rocket alert siren. Last Friday afternoon, as I was readying for Shabbat in Jerusalem, instead of tuning out, I turned the radio up to catch the verdict of the International Court of Justice ruling on South Africa’s preposterous claim that Israel was committing “genocide” in Gaza. The case should never have come to court in the first place, but the UN’s IJC was willing to play along with the charade.

For some 35 minutes, the head of the court gave renewed voice to the spurious claims of Israel’s enemies, including that speeches by President Isaac Herzog and other Israeli leaders were tantamount to a statement of genocidal intent.

Winston Churchill, by this measure, would have been in the dock for crimes against humanity just for his “Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat speech”: “You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalog of human crime. That is our policy. 

“You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terror. Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.”

The ICJ’s decision, which stopped short of ordering Israel to immediately cease fighting the Hamas terrorist regime in Gaza, was, most Israeli commentators agreed, not as bad as it could have been, although the process is not over yet. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to hear much of the radio commentary on the ruling. There were alerts for incoming rockets along the border that disrupted the broadcast.

Each alert, each rocket, and each war crime added emphasis to the absurdity of the charges. On October 7, thousands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists invaded the sovereign State of Israel under cover of thousands of rockets. They tortured, mutilated, and murdered some 1,200 people; abducted some 240; and wounded thousands. The rocket attacks – fired by Iranian terrorist proxies from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen – are ongoing. It is not Israel that is committed to or attempting to commit genocide.

THE ICJ RULING is entwined with another major development. As a meme by “SoVeryIsraeli” doing the rounds on social media put it: “Never ask a woman her age; a man, his salary; or an UNRWA employee, where they were on October 7.”

Evidence continues to mount regarding the extent of collusion by staff of the UN’s Relief and Works Agency in the mega-atrocity that terrible day, as well as complicity in the holding of hostages, facilitating the storage and transfer of weapons, the grand scale theft of humanitarian aid, and the ongoing incitement within the UNRWA educational system. Never belittle the dangers of an education starting in kindergarten that fosters terrorism and a cult of jihadist martyrdom. It ensures a dismal future for all.

 Israel last week forwarded to the US solid intelligence that at least 12 UNRWA staff are Hamas members who actively participated in the invasion, massacres, and abductions. These are not a dozen bad apples. They are the fruit of a tree rotten to its core. 

Later intelligence, according to some reports, indicates that some 1,200 UNRWA staffers, close to 10% of its payroll in Gaza, are affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. That payroll, it should be noted, is funded by international taxpayers.

The US under Donald Trump stopped funding to UNRWA but Joe Biden restored the millions in aid when he became president, providing some $300 million to the agency last year alone.

By midweek, more than a dozen countries, including the UK, US, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, and Canada, had announced they were suspending funds to UNRWA. They should be asked what took them so long.

Many Israeli researchers have for years noted the incitement prevalent in the UNRWA education system, from kindergarten on; the terror tunnels deliberately constructed under hospitals and schools; the use of UNRWA facilities as places to store and launch rockets; and the use of UNRWA staff and vehicles to aid terrorists. This did not start on October 7, 2023. This was not a secret. It has been well-documented for decades.

UNRWA has an overall staff of some 30,000 operating in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), and, of course, Gaza. In the Gaza Strip, UNRWA is the second largest employer, providing jobs to some 13,000 people out of a population of approximately 2.2 million. 

The largest employer is the Hamas government itself. The two are closely entwined. UNRWA staff in Gaza are almost all locals. Far from being idealistic, humanitarian aid-givers, the agency’s staff union is headed by Hamas officials whom union members elected. As the UN Watch NGO has revealed, a Telegram chat-group of 3,000 UNRWA teachers was filled with messages praising the October 7 massacre. One of the released Israeli hostages reported being held captive in an attic in the home of an UNRWA teacher.

According to The Wall Street Journal, intelligence reports indicate that nearly half of all UNRWA employees – an estimated 49% – had close relatives with official ties to terrorist groups, especially Hamas. Keep these figures in mind when you hear official reports from Gaza concerning the numbers of displaced and casualties. 

THE “PALESTINIAN refugees” are part of an extraordinary phenomenon. Starting as some 700,000 in 1948, as a result of the war the Arab world launched on the nascent Jewish state, their numbers have ballooned to a reported five million today. Far from solving the problem, the UN has contributed to it. By uniquely granting the Palestinians “perpetual refugee status,” a status that is passed down through the generations, it has ensured the perpetuation of their plight (and Israel’s).

We have become used to seeing bags of flour and other commodities being distributed to the local population in Gaza and elsewhere. But, if after more than seven decades UNRWA really needs to hand out food to those under its auspices, it clearly has failed at even its most basic task of providing relief.

Since its creation in 1949, UNRWA has cultivated a feeling of entitlement and need. Instead of helping the Palestinians become self-sufficient members of the societies where they live (societies that, for the most part, are Arabic-speaking and Muslim), the UN body has created a welfare culture and dependency.

Foreign taxpayers via UNRWA and other organizations are not correcting an injustice, they are creating it. The footage and intelligence coming out of Gaza show that Hamas is hijacking the multi-million dollars in aid, stealing food, fuel, and medical supplies. The huge sacks with the UNRWA logo are being used to transfer and store weapons.

The exposure of the abominable UNRWA situation provides an opportunity for change. As many analysts have noted, only the Palestinians have a body dedicated solely to their needs – or demands. All other refugees around the world are handled under the auspices of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and their status as refugees ends with their absorption. 

The Palestinians, on the other hand, benefiting from a status as refugees that can be passed on down the generations, have no incentive to solve their problems. UNRWA itself keeps the Palestinians primed for a “return” – i.e. the destruction of the State of Israel.

When asked on a KAN 11 television interview who should take over from UNRWA, Dr. Einat Wilf, who co-authored The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace, suggested what she sarcastically called “a radical idea”: that the Palestinians should take charge of themselves, rather than remain dependent on international aid.

It’s time for the UN to disband UNRWA. Its areas of responsibility – such as education and healthcare – could be transferred initially to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and later to the hands of the Palestinians themselves, although creating a local network without ties to terrorists will be a challenge. 

UNRWA is not the only international body working alongside Hamas in Gaza. The problem, like the 300-km. network of Hamas terror tunnels, is deep and twisted. The whole concept of “human rights” has been hijacked by terrorist organizations. This is the perversion of justice that should be on trial in an international court.