The Knesset, the Israeli parliament, has passed legislation banning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East from Israeli controlled territory. From the Times of Israel:
MKs voted 92 to 10 to approve a law barring UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory, and 87-9 in favor of another measure curtailing UNRWA’s activities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by banning state authorities from having any contact with the agency.
Without coordination with Israel, it will be almost impossible for UNRWA to work in Gaza or the West Bank, since Jerusalem would no longer be issuing entrance permits to those territories or allowing coordination with the IDF. Israel also currently controls access to Gaza from Egypt, with Israeli forces deployed along the border between them.
Founded in 1948, shortly after the Israeli war of independence, UNRWA is a U.N. organization established to provide aid to Palestinian Arab refugees in the West Bank Judea and Samaria, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. It is the only individualized refugee program run by the UN and it is also the only one that does not have settlement of the refugees in question as part of its charter.
In fact, there are more Arab refugees registered with UNRWA now, by a factor of 10, than there were in 1948. What’s more, UNRWA seeks to prolong refugee status for those under its umbrella. According to the UNRWA website, “More than 2 million registered Palestine refugees live in Jordan… Most, but not all, have full citizenship.” While I’m no expert, wouldn’t you say that having full citizenship in the country you reside be the definition of not a refugee?
It gets worse though, a fairly large proportion of Arab UNRWA employees are Hamas terrorists. Of the 12,000 local UNRWA workers, at least 440 are part of the Hamas military wing, another 2,000 are active Hamas members and more than 7,000 of the remainder have 1st degree relatives who are Hamas members. Those ratios are much higher than the Gazan population at large. Several senior UNRWA officials have been identified as Hamas members and participants of the 10/7 attack. Most of them have been neutralized by the IDF like Mohammed Abu Itiwi here.
Additionally, the IDF has documented Hamas terror tunnels and other underground facilities beneath dozens of UNRWA facilities like hospitals and schools. There are several videos of 10/7 that show Hamas terrorists transporting captives and bodies stolen from Israel to al Shifa hospital in Gaza. You know al Shifa hospital, it’s the one that a Hamas dud fell one and Israel got blamed for it. It also has a Hamas command node built underneath.
Of course the ‘international community’ is up in arms about this. If UNRWA cannot operate in Israeli controlled areas, it effectively ceases to exist. How else are they going to launder their terror support monies?
Israeli ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, made a statement regarding Israeli cooperation with international aid organizations and why UNRWA was being singled out.
Frankly, I am a bit surprised it took this long for the Knesset to take this action. But then again, prior to 10/7 Israel kind of cared about what the international community thought. Since then however, it looks like the Israelis have learned a hard lesson, that survival is more important than international praise or condemnation.