It has been almost a month since the Israeli Knesset voted to bar UNRWA from operating in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza and the West Bank. The Israeli authorities have moved forward with its implementation, despite widespread condemnation from the international community and some of Israel’s allies.

The United Nations itself has denounced the move saying it will have “devastating consequences” as it is the main agency delivering aid to Gaza. While the UNRWA ban will undoubtedly amplify the suffering of Palestinians, it is also a spectacular own goal for Israel.

That is because it will elevate the two and a half million Palestine refugees in Gaza and the West Bank to a new level of international protection under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) whose preferred solution for protracted refugee situations is voluntary repatriation: the right of return.

This is precisely the opposite of what the Knesset in general, and Israel’s far-right cabinet, in particular, were hoping to achieve when they set out to destroy UNRWA. Intoxicated with their own power and high on their perceived military victory in Gaza, they were labouring under the misinformed delusion that if they stopped UNRWA from operating, the refugees it serves could be removed from the peace process; their history, identity, rights and historical claims air-brushed out of the discourse.

But Israel is about to learn that 6.8 million people – the number registered with UNRWA – cannot be vapourised so easily, despite political support in Washington and Israeli military might.

Under Article 1D of the 1951 Refugee Convention, once these refugees stop receiving services from UNRWA, they become........

© Al Jazeera