The Israeli Knesset last week adopted two bills that will effectively ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, from carrying out any activity in Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Simply put, the decision is catastrophic, because UNRWA is the main international body responsible for the welfare of millions of Palestinians throughout the Occupied Territories and much of the region.
Israel followed up its decision by attacking and damaging an UNRWA office in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank. This was the Israeli government’s way of demonstrating its seriousness regarding the matter.
This is not the first time that Israel has pursued an anti-UNRWA agenda and, contrary to claims by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, the decision is not linked to the current genocidal war on Gaza or the unfounded claims that UNRWA supports “terrorism.”
An independent review commissioned by the UN in April revealedthat Israel “made public claims that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations,” but that it “has yet to provide supporting evidence of this.”
However, Israel’s claims did a great deal of damage to the organization, as 13 countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany and Italy, withheld badly needed funds that were helping Gaza stave off a horrific famine.........