By Anjali Sharma
UNITED NATIONS – UN agencies and senior officials on Thursday warned taht Israel’s parliament, the Knesset vote in favour of legislation targeting the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA could effectively bring its operations in the occupied Palestinian territories to a halt.
The bills approved overwhelmingly by Israeli parliamentarians (92 in favour, 10 against) would prohibit the Israelis authorities from having any contact with UNRWA and bar the agency from operating within Israel itself.
The passage of aid into Gaza and the West Bank requires close coordination between UNRWA and the Israeli authorities.
If the legislation is implemented, Israel will no longer issue the agency’s staff with work or entry permits, and coordination with the Israeli military, essential for the safe passage of aid, will no longer be possible.
Israeli politicians have criticised UNRWA, with some claiming that members of the agency collude with Hamas.
Those claims denied by the agency, have grown louder since the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on Israel, in which over 1,130 people were killed.
Israeli government officials have denounced UNRWA, describing the agency as “a Palestinian organization fully committed to the Jewish State’s destruction”.
The day before the vote one of the politicians behind the bills was reported stated that UNRWA “is educating kids to hate Israel and spreading antisemitism”.
The independent UN review in April confirmed UNRWA’s long standing commitment to uphold the humanitarian principle of neutrality and concluded that the agency has a more developed approach to neutrality than similar UN entities or NGOs.
Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, explained that the agency is the “backbone” of the entire aid operation in Gaza in the face of an “insidious campaign” by Israeli authorities to push it out of Occupied Palestinian Territory.
UNRWA was established shortly after the creation of the United Nations itself by General Assembly resolution 302 (IV) in the wake of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war to provide “direct relief and works programmes” for registered Palestinian refugees, defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948 and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 war”.
The agency has provided essential humanitarian services to Palestine refugees in areas controlled by Israel, notably in Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These include health facilities, schools and vocational training centres.
The reaction from the UN system to the bills has been swift and unequivocal. As the news broke on Monday, several of the most senior UN officials, up to and including Secretary-General António Guterres, condemned the decision.
Mr. Guterres stressed the central role that UNRWA plays in the delivery of aid and said that the effective ban would have “devastating consequences”.
The acting head of the UN aid coordination office, Joyce Msuya, called the decision “dangerous and outrageous” whilst UNRWA’s Mr. Lazzarini said that the bills will “increase the suffering of the Palestinians and are nothing less than collective punishment”.
UN human rights office OHCHR spokesperson Jeremy Laurence declared that aid deliveries will “grind to a halt” without UNRWA, and WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the development “intolerable”.
UNICEF chief Catherine Russell reminded that UNRWA is crucial in delivering lifesaving aid to Palestinian children and families, emphasising that “this decision is dangerous; the lives and futures of Palestinian children are at stake,”
James Elder, a UNICEF staffer in the region, denounced the decision, said “a new way has been found to kill children.”
UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke insisted that the UN is trying to “not have an implementation” of the Knesset decision, cited the outpouring of protest not only from the UN, but also from “prominent government officials… and Heads of State”.
Mr. Guterres informed the President of the General Assembly that he had written a letter to the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on his government to continue to allow UNRWA to operate and to respect Israel’s obligations under international law.
UN Security Council members collectively released a statement strongly warned against any attempts to dismantle or diminish UNRWA’s operations and mandate that expressed their grave concern over the adoption of the legislation and noted their appreciation for the work of the agency’s staff members.
If the passage of the bills continues unimpeded, they will come into effect within 90 days of the adoption.
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