Where is Israel’s proof about UNRWA?

UNRWA – the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees – has been on trial in the court of Israeli political opinion for years. As far back as 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was telling Cabinet colleagues that the 74-year-old humanitarian organisation – which he deems to be a hotbed of anti-Israeli incitement – should be dismantled. The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, gave its verdict on Monday when it voted overwhelmingly to ban UNRWA operations in the country and designated the agency a terrorist organisation.

Since the October 7 attacks that claimed the lives of many Israeli civilians, the invective and accusations directed at UNRWA have intensified. The claim that several individuals among the agency’s 13,000 staff in Gaza were involved in the killing and kidnapping of Israelis was particularly serious and merited investigation.

On August 5, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini released details of an inquiry into 19 Gaza staff members carried out by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services. In 10 cases it found no or insufficient evidence linking the employees to October 7. “For the remaining nine cases,” Mr Lazzarini said, “the evidence – if authenticated and corroborated – could indicate that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the attacks of 7 October”. These employees were promptly fired.

This investigation was accompanied by further scrutiny. Three research centres led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna began a nine-week review of the agency; they concluded that “UNRWA possesses a more developed approach to neutrality than other similar UN or NGO entities”. Most major donor countries that had suspended their UNRWA funding pending the outcome of the investigations resumed their financial aid.

This begs the question: following UNRWA’s corrective measures after October 7 and in the absence of evidence of any continued wrongdoing – by individual staff members or the agency as a whole – why have Israeli MPs ignored appeals from some of the country’s main international allies and voted to ban the agency? The move cannot realistically be presented as a security measure – how does hamstringing aid supplies to Gaza, disrupting children’s education and jeopardising Palestinian refugees’ health care make Israelis any safer? Instead, many will concur with Mr Lazzarini’s assessment, tweeted shortly after the Knesset vote, that the new laws “increase the suffering of the Palestinians and are nothing less than collective punishment”.

Israeli authorities surely know that the UNRWA’s vital work has become integral in maintaining the cohesion of Palestinian society, not just in Gaza and the occupied West Bank but in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, too. In spite of this – or, some critics allege, because of it – Israel’s military has frequently targeted UNRWA facilities in Gaza. More than 230 of the agency’s staff members have been killed since October 7.

By undermining the agency in Palestine and spreading a chill factor among governments, aid groups and banks that facilitate the UNRWA’s operations, Israel is further disempowering and impoverishing Palestinians and undercutting legitimate ways to provide for their basic needs. There are few other ways to interpret this ban.

There are now fewer than 90 days to go until the new Israeli laws take effect. This leaves time for Israel’s international partners to persuade the government to change course. The US, Israel’s greatest supporter, has already urged Mr Netanyahu’s government to “pause the implementation of this legislation” – though most American calls for moderation throughout this war have gone unheeded. Failure to do so will mean those countries that fund a vital UN agency – an arm of the international community – may want answers about exactly what evidence has prompted this attempt to cripple one of the few lifelines Palestinian refugees have left.

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