Is it time to redefine the US' role in Palestinian aid? - opinion

The UN agency that supports Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, known by the acronym UNRWA, is facing an uncertain future as the US debates the agency’s post-war utility. 

On Wednesday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told the UN Security Council that a “deliberate and concerted campaign” was being carried out to bring UNRWA down at a time when its services are most critical.

“Today, an insidious campaign to end UNRWA’s operations is underway, with serious implications for international peace and security,” Lazzarini told the Security Council. “We must recognize and reflect in our words and actions that Palestinians and Israelis share a long and profound experience of grief and loss. That they are equally deserving of a peaceful and secure future.”

UNWRA flounders; future uncertain 

UNRWA’s budget comes almost entirely from voluntary donations made by UN member countries. Before pausing funding in March in response to allegations of UNRWA employee participation in the Oct. 7 attacks, the US was UNRWA’s largest funder, sending $350 million annually. 

Germany and the European Union are the second and third largest UNRWA funders, contributing roughly $200 million and $114 million a year, respectively, to the organization’s mission.

US politicians, led by House Republicans, have questioned America’s role in funding UNRWA for years. In 2018, President Donald Trump cut off American support for UNRWA. President Joe Biden renewed the aid after he took office. As part of budget negotiations, US lawmakers agreed last month to pause UNRWA funding until 2025.

US Ambassador Robert Wood lauded UNRWA during the April 17 Security Council meeting, calling its humanitarian role in the region “indispensable.”

“We urge UNRWA’s continued humanitarian access in Gaza and the lifting of onerous restrictions on its work,” Wood said.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan struck a different tone. Erdan told the UN Security Council that UNRWA is “the UN’s single biggest obstacle to a solution” and that the organization is “creating a sea of Palestinian refugees, millions of them, indoctrinated to believe that Israel belongs to them. … The end goal is to use these so-called refugees and their libelous right of return—a right that doesn’t exist—to flood Israel and destroy the Jewish state.”

Nearly 6 million Palestinians are eligible for UNRWA services.

Jonathan Fowler, UNRWA senior communications manager, told The Media Line via email that UNRWA’s work for Palestinian refugees “is governed by a mandate set down by the UN General Assembly in 1949 and repeatedly renewed since then.”

US politicians defunded UNRWA in part as a reaction to an Israeli government report alleging that hundreds of UNRWA employees moonlighted as Hamas militants and that several of them crossed into Israel on Oct. 7 to take part in the massacre, rapes, and abductions of civilians.

According to Israel, 16 UNRWA workers directly participated in the Oct. 7 attacks, taking on roles ranging from handing out ammunition to kidnapping civilians. 

The US and Israel are not the only countries questioning UNRWA’s educational operations in Gaza. On April 11, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning “the problematic and hateful contents encouraging violence, spreading antisemitism, and inciting hatred in Palestinian school textbooks drafted by Union-funded civil servants as well as in supplementary educational materials developed by UNRWA staff and taught in its schools.”

The resolution further noted that “education to hatred has direct and dramatic consequences on the security of Israelis as well as on the perspectives of a better future for young Palestinians.”

The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an Israeli non-profit organization, reported in March 2023 that previous attempts to reign in antisemitism and incitement in UNRWA school curriculums had been unsuccessful. The report cited examples from various UNRWA schools in Gaza, including a middle school where sample sentences for a grammar exercise included “I will commit jihad to liberate the homeland” and “I will not give up a centimeter of my land.”

Additionally, United Nations Watch has leveled serious accusations against UNRWA, claiming that its probe into neutrality and allegations of staff supporting terrorism was intentionally biased. The report alleges that UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini compromised the investigation from its inception, dismissing the claims as mere "smear campaigns." Furthermore, the review led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna is criticized for being set up to reassure donors rather than genuinely address the issues, with the investigative team being accused of having a pro-UNRWA bias and conflicts of interest.

US decision-makers and thought leaders are now looking for a way to fill UNRWA’s void. The US Israel Education Association (USIEA) recently released a proposal titled “Gaza after UNRWA: Reforming Education for Peaceful Coexistence” that suggests eliminating UNRWA’s role in educating Gazans and completely rebuilding the educational system after the war.

“Through this white paper, we want to show how replacing the current Palestinian education system through innovative new approaches can lay the groundwork for peaceful coexistence,” Heather Johnston, founder and CEO of USIEA, told The Media Line.

USIEA proposes scrapping UNRWA for a new entity it calls the Alternate Gazan Education System Fund. The program would be administered by current funders of UNRWA as well as interested countries that are signed on to the Abraham Accords. Under USIEA’s plan, Saudi Arabia would also join after normalizing its relationship with Israel.

The program includes revamping teacher education, developing a new curriculum for Gazan schools, and bringing in foreign teachers to conduct classes until local teachers can be vetted and properly educated.

Gazan teachers would be required to go through a course called “Teaching to Coexist” before they could teach in Gazan schools.

“Reevaluating what and how we teach the next generation can make enormous strides toward peace in the Middle East. That would be the best gift we could give the next generation,” EJ Kimball, director of policy and strategic operations at USIEA, told The Media Line.

While the proposal has gained some traction amongst US lawmakers, it has its opponents, too.

Dr. Brian K. Barber, a senior nonresident scholar at the Washington, DC-based Middle East Policy Council, described USIEA’s white paper as “a transparent attempt to accomplish Israel’s historic effort to dispense with UNRWA.” “As such, it fails to persuade both on practical and moral grounds,” he told The Media Line. 

Barber said that placing “teaching to coexist” as a central tenet in the Gazan education system was hard to imagine. “Can one seriously imagine trying to teach a population to coexist with a military power that has historically and recently destroyed their homes and schools, killed their family members, and brought them to starve? Just what would that coexistence look like?” he said.

USIEA’s white paper describes UNRWA as “a compromised agency that became entangled with the Hamas apparatus in Gaza.” The proposal also describes UNRWA textbooks as antisemitic and anti-Israel, claiming that children educated in UNRWA schools are “indoctrinated to hate their Jewish neighbors.”

Barber called the white paper misleading on several points. 

Regarding the claim that Gazan youth have been indoctrinated to hate Jews and Israelis, Barber cited research he has carried out with youth at UNRWA schools in Gaza since 1994. 

“Our data has shown overwhelmingly that Gazan youth have been peace-oriented, wishing only to enjoy basic human rights and future opportunity for education, family formation, and employment,” he said. 

UNRWA also disagrees with USIEA’s assertions of misconduct.

“On schoolbooks, we have seen repeated claims to this effect over the years and we reject them,” Fowler said.

Something has to change

The March 2023 IMPACT-se report found 25 examples of UNRWA-created content taught in UNRWA schools during the 2022-2023 school year that endorse violence, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israel, reject Israel’s right to exist, or promote antisemitism. 

UNRWA’s spokesperson also rejected a claim that senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was once a teacher in an UNRWA school.

That claim was reported last month by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a non-profit news organization that monitors and reports on Arabic language media outlets. MEMRI posted a translation of an interview with Ahmad Oueidat, former director of UNRWA’s professional development and curriculum unit, who said that both Haniyeh and Dr. Talal Naji, the secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine—General Command, were both former UNRWA educators.

For parties both supportive of and opposed to UNRWA’s role in the Gazan education system, it’s clear that something in Gaza has got to change.

“The path forward for Gazan education once the bombings have stopped would be to rebuild and repair the damaged and destroyed schools and create fully safe passage of students and teachers to resume instruction,” Barber said. “The US and other international actors should devote all of their efforts, available resources, and influence to induce Israel to loosen its strangling and humiliating control of Palestinians, within and outside of Gaza.”