Since it launched its genocidal war against the Palestinian people, Israel has crossed many red lines.

Neither the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the supreme judicial organ of the United Nations, to stop its “plausible” genocide in Gaza, nor the damning advisory opinion of the same court ordering it to end its illegal occupation of Palestine and apartheid policies against the Palestinians gave Israel pause. The request of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant be issued did not have much effect on its conduct either. In fact, not even the gathering criticisms of some of its allies is making Israel rethink its murderous apartheid and genocidal policies.

And now, Israel is crossing yet another red line by defying the entire international community of nations – the United Nations itself. On July 22, the Israeli legislature, the Knesset, gave preliminary approval to a bill declaring the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) a “terrorist organisation”.

This latest move follows last January’s stunt – which worked, at least initially – where Israel accused 12 UNRWA workers of having participated in the October 7 attack by Hamas and other Palestinian groups against it and alleged widespread collusion between the UN agency and Hamas.

The UNRWA High Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres responded to the accusation by hastily and credulously firing all UN staff members named by Israel on the basis of allegation made without any evidence. The........

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