UNRWA Support for Hamas Waning [Op-Ed]

“We have been warning for years: UNRWA perpetuates the refugee issue, obstructs peace, and serves as a civilian arm of Hamas in Gaza.” [Foreign Minister Israel Katz]

Israeli Jews hold placards against the UNRWA in Jerusalem on Monday, February 5, 2024. Photo by Debbie Hill/ UPI

UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) is a United Nations organization established on December 8, 1949, which is responsible for Palestine refugees. UNRWA is one of the largest organizations of the United Nations, providing relief, health and education assistance to the so-called Palestinian refugees.

Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada and several other European countries announced they were suspending funding for UNRWA after it was revealed that some of its staff were directly involved in the massacre on October 7, by taking hostages or distributing ammunition. The report was based on Israeli and US intelligence, including cell phone location tracking and intercepted phone conversations. Some UNRWA workers also recorded their exploits in videos they circulated. In total, around 190 UNRWA staff are estimated to be Hamas or Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militants, around 1,200 staff have ties to Hamas, and thousands of other staff are close to members of terrorist groups in Gaza.

According to the current decisions, UNRWA’s funding will run out by the beginning of March 2024. Finland is one of the organization’s 20 largest financiers, and still in accordance with its programs, Finland’s general support to UNRWA is €5 million as of 2019. The situation is in no way surprising, because according to Israeli Foreign Minister Katz, “we have been warning for years: UNRWA continues the refugee issue, prevents peace and acts as the civilian branch of Hamas in Gaza.”

UNRWA has provided food, medicine and social and other services to Palestinians for decades. Unfortunately, UNRWA has never taken steps to prevent aid to extremist groups; in some cases it has openly collaborated with terrorists.

Hamas can direct UNWRA’s international funds, for example for food or electricity, to store weapons and create propaganda against Israel or the USA.

There have been widespread reports of terrorism in UNRWA-controlled areas, including sniper attacks on UNRWA-run schools, bomb and weapons factories in UNRWA camps, transport of terrorists to their target areas in UNRWA ambulances, and even UNRWA workers directly involved to terrorist attacks against civilians.

Hate education and training of child soldiers

The New York Times revealed in 2000 that UNRWA allowed Hamas to use its schools as “summer camps” so that 25,000 Palestinian children could receive paramilitary training, including instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails and roadside bombs.

Hate education has been practiced in UNRWA schools for decades and grade by grade with the support of school-age Palestinian Authority study programs and textbooks. This indoctrination and the continuous comprehensive repetition of the Palestinian narrative from generation to generation makes peaceful coexistence with the Israelis very difficult and slow to achieve.

In a recent report on UNRWA’s textbooks, in addition to the educational materials, examples are also given of how UNRWA’s teachers and other employees praise 7/10 genocides on social media. For its part, Finland has supported this activity not only through UNRWA, but also by being the main financier of the Palestinian Authority’s school system, study programs and textbooks. Finland’s liaison office in Ramallah monitors and supervises the use of funds also on site.

In the past, it has already become clear that Hamas has turned the Gaza Strip into a huge military training camp for jihadist warriors, in which approx. 17,000 Palestinian boys aged 15-21 have participated. The training includes the handling of various weapons and explosives and motivation to eliminate Israel. At children’s summer camps supported by UNRWA, young children are taught war games and handling weapons in addition to radicalism. David Bedein, head of the Center for Near East Policy Research, has found out how UNRWA schools shape children into Gaza’s “civilian army.” The research institute points out that UNRWA states on its own website that the curricula are decided by Hamas and that military training is part of the curriculum.

In terms of higher education, it should also be mentioned that The Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) is a radical Islamist institution that has been a base of Hamas since its inception. At the university, Hamas engages in political, ideological and military activities and used the IUG’s laboratories, students and lecturers to develop and manufacture weapons, including long-range rockets. IUG has enjoyed EU support for many years, as evidenced by the university’s integration into EU-funded projects and student and teacher exchanges, even though the EU considers Hamas a terrorist organization. Along with UNRWA and the EU, it has also been supported by UNICEF, WHO and UNDP.

UN refugee organizations

The UN has two separate refugee organizations: the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, UNRWA. UNRWA was established in December 1949 and UNHCR in December 1950. With the establishment of UNHCR, UNRWA became unnecessary and its existence was unfounded. However, it was not disbanded, and the two agencies continue to exist side by side with a clear division of labor: UNHCR is responsible for all refugees around the world except Palestinians, and UNRWA is responsible only for Palestinian refugees.

Most so-called “Palestinian refugees” are not refugees as defined by the International Refugee Standard as “Internally Displaced Persons” (IDPs), because they did not leave their country in 1948, but were displaced within it. As for the 2.2 “Palestinian refugees” in Jordan, they are also not refugees because they received Jordanian citizenship. UNHCR would not recognize them as refugees because they are citizens of their country of residence.

UNHCR and UNRWA therefore define refugees in different ways. In 1948, there were approximately 700,000 Palestinian refugees. According to UNRWA, there are now 5.4 million. This exponential growth is due to UNRWA automatically applying refugee status to all patrilineal descendants of 1948 refugees, regardless of their status and country of residence.

UNRWA also handles its statistics in a creative way. Lebanon’s most recent census found that two-thirds of the refugees listed in UNRWA reports were simply fictitious. UNRWA has an interest in increasing the numbers – it’s good business because UNRWA’s budget per refugee in 2016 was four times higher than UNHCR’s: $246 compared to $58.

UNHCR looks for “permanent or durable solutions” to the plight of refugees, including “local integration” and “resettlement” and after doing this, moves to some other crisis center in the world. UNRWA does the opposite.

UNRWA provides assistance in Gaza, it provides direct financial and material support to the terrorist organization Hamas.

Although the Palestinians benefit from UNRWA, the organization benefits more from the refugees it “creates” because they are the foundation of the organization’s existence. Thus, UNRWA has no incentive to solve the Palestinian refugee problem, its termination would make the agency redundant.

The interests of the refugees and UNRWA are so intertwined that UNRWA is staffed mainly by local Palestinians – more than 23,000 – and only around 100 international UN professionals. While UNHCR and UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Fund) avoid employing locals who are also recipients of agency services, UNRWA does not make this distinction.

Along with hate training and training of Hamas child soldiers, UNRWA has faced several scandals. During the 2014 Gaza war, rockets were found in UNRWA schools and in at least one case were returned to Hamas. In 2019, UNRWA Director Pierre Krähenbühl resigned amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement, abuse of power and suppression of dissent. Three major European donors (Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium) announced within a few days of the publication of the 2019 corruption scandal that they had stopped funding UNRWA. A month later, New Zealand did the same. As a result of the scandal, UNRWA Deputy Director Sandra Mitchell and Chief of Staff Hakam Shahwan resigned.

Conclusions

Israeli Protesters hold placards as they demonstrate outside the UNRWA offices, in Jerusalem February 5, 2024. (photo credit: AMMAR AWAD/REUTERS)

US President Trump once cut funding to UNRWA, while President Biden restored it. A number of reforms to UNRWA’s operations were made conditional on US funding. These reforms include combating anti-Semitism and incitement in the curriculum, ensuring the impartiality of staff, and ensuring that UNRWA facilities and staff are not used for the activities of terrorist organizations. The continuation of hate education, the 7/10 terror and the military facilities found in Gaza’s schools, hospitals and mosques dashed hopes for reforms.

UNRWA is part of the problem and not part of the solution. The agency handles the refugee issue politically in a way that distances possible future solutions. The international community should find a new model for delivering humanitarian aid to those who really need it.

Personally, I would see that UNRWA could well be abolished. The 30,000 or so local workers who do its humanitarian work – at least formally – could well be transferred – excluding those belonging to the military wing of Hamas – to the Palestinian Authority’s health, education and welfare sectors. What about the so-called to the Palestinian refugees, it was good to finally integrate them to their current locations, for example, through the relatively efficiently functioning UN refugee organization UNHCR. The current acute humanitarian crisis can also be facilitated by the UN Development Program (UNDP) and other organizations relatively quickly.

My previous writings on the topic include:

• YK pidätti UNRWAn johtajan virastaan 
• UNRWA:n eettinen haaksirikko [Op-Ed]
• Israeli Vs Palestine Refugees – In, Out and No Return
• Yli 80% Palestiinalaisista kannattaa 7/10 joukkotuhontaa: Osasyynä Suomenkin tuki vihakoulutukseen
• EU rajoittamassa Palestiinalaishallinnon vihakoulutuksen rahoittamista
• Palestiinalaisten uudet oppikirjat jopa aiempaa vihamielisempiä
• Hamasin kesäleirin ”rauhankasvatusta”
• Lasten vihakoulutus jatkuu Gazassa
• YK:n tukema lapsisotilaiden [viha]koulutus Gazassa uhkaa supistua
• Erilaiset nukkeleikit
• Hamasin terrorileirit nuorisolle

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The Finnish version of this article first appeared in the online publication of Ariel-Israelista suomeksi.