The UN agency's existence after all these years means Palestinians are not considered capable of managing their own affairs
There has been much wringing of hands, furrowing of brows and raising of eyebrows over the “news” that some employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) participated in the terror attacks of Oct. 7. Some pearls have even been clutched.
Canada has “paused” its funding of UNRWA, even though it has already sent $48 million this fiscal year. The figure includes $20 million sent as emergency aid for Gaza after the Israel-Hamas war had begun. Another $25 million was sent as the first instalment of $100 million in funding announced last June. Officials at Global Affairs Canada are shocked to find out that gambling is going on in Casablanca. Might there have been some way to know what UNRWA was up to?
Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.
Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
Don't have an account? Create Account
They might have tried reading the Post. Here is the headline on Avi Benolo’s column from last June, not last week: “Liberals to spend $100M to prop up terror-supporting Palestinian governments.”
To be clear, if the vaunted Israeli intelligence services did not know that Hamas was planning an attack on the day it took place, no foreign government could be expected to know that UNRWA might be complicit in such. However, that UNRWA has, for decades, been up to anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli mischief is no surprise to anyone with even a passing familiarity with the region.
For those who might need a primer, Terry Glavin tells the tale from the 1960s onward, arguing that, even compared with terror groups, “UNRWA has been the greater impediment to peace, because its entire purpose is to sustain a huge and ever-expanding population of Palestinian refugees in the delusion that one day, the Jewish state of Israel will be destroyed, and they’ll all be free to return to their ancestors’ towns and villages.”
“The problem with UNRWA isn’t just a few bad apples, or a bushel or a peck of bad apples,” Glavin writes. “It’s the entire tree, trunk, root and branch.”
This newsletter tackles hot topics with boldness, verve and wit. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays)
By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
The next issue of Platformed will soon be in your inbox.
We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again
If the branch is the complicity in terror, the trunk is the teaching of hatred for Israel and Jews in the schools of Gaza and the West Bank. But the root also needs more attention.
Why is UNRWA running hundreds of schools in the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was established 30 years ago with the Oslo Accords? Why does UNRWA provide medical and social services more than 70 years after it was established in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War?
The principal problem with UNRWA is not that it does bad things, or even that it does good things badly. The problem is that it is doing things that the Palestinians ought to be doing for themselves. No self-respecting people would want their health system to be run by the Red Cross years after a natural disaster. UNRWA in Gaza is like FEMA (the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency) still running New Orleans years after Hurricane Katrina.
The entire premise of UNRWA is that the Palestinians — alone among the tens of millions of displaced Indians, Germans, Chinese and others during the 1940s — have been uniquely incapable of organizing their own affairs. UNRWA undermines the self-respect and dignity of Palestinians. They can be found all over the world, succeeding in professions, achieving academic distinction, unleashing entrepreneurial energy. Yet at home a massive UN bureaucracy is supposedly needed to provide basic services.
The “W” in UNRWA stands for “works.” It really stands for “welfare.” If a tiny portion of the cash that has flowed to UNRWA had been devoted to useful investment, millions of Palestinians would be working productively — just as they do as soon as they go abroad and get away from the dependency duo of the PA and UNRWA. Instead, UNRWA has deployed untold billions over generations to entrench a welfare mentality that denies Palestinians the opportunity to exercise their own agency, creativity and freedom.
All this suits the PA just fine, whether Hamas in Gaza or Fatah in the West Bank, for it absolves them of their basic responsibilities. Palestinians do not enjoy living in what is essentially a failed state. Fatah and Hamas would long ago have been overthrown, or been forced to change, if they failed to deliver basic services. But they are propped up from outside. Some of that support comes from other regimes, like Iran and Qatar. But a great deal comes under the guise of “humanitarian” assistance through UNRWA.
It’s a misnomer. UNRWA’s existence means that Palestinians are not considered fully human, capable of providing for themselves. Complicity in killing Israelis is the news of these days. Complicity in killing the spirit of Palestinians is the much older story.
National Post
Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.
Here's what you need to know about it, according to an expert
Forget silky slips, teddy bears, and heart-shaped chocolates, these five Valentine's Day gift ideas break from clichés.
Don't miss this deal on Microsoft Office's full suite of applications and tools
The air purifier can cover up to a 32-ft space
Delicious ideas that will ignite his senses
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Andrew Mitrovica
Mort Laitner
Nikkei Editorial
Rami G Khouri
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
visit website
