The dissolution of the UN's Palestinian refugee agency has long been a goal of Israel. The repercussions might be catastrophic for everyone.
The Israeli prime minister informed his colleagues, "I met with Nikki Haley, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, last week." "On your behalf as well, I thanked her for her strong statements supporting the state of Israel and opposing the UN's anti-Israel fervour."
He said, "It's time to dismantle UNRWA."
June 2017 marked the start of Donald Trump's presidency. Netanyahu, who previously slept in Trump's son-in-law's boyhood bed, appeared to have countless options. The American president will relocate his nation's embassy to the contested city of Jerusalem in a matter of months, defying decades of foreign policy practice.
Netanyahu would not obtain his objective so easily in the case of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Eight more years would pass.
Legislation banning UNRWA from Israel and any interaction with Israeli officials was approved by the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, on Monday. The agency will not immediately cease operations due to the two legislation. Technically, they also don't stop it from operating in Gaza and the West Bank, which are under Israeli occupation. However, they most likely signify the end of UNRWA's operations as we know them, given the close connection between the agency's capacity to operate there and the Israeli government.
UNRWA serves and aids millions of Palestinians throughout the Middle East, and there are as many reasons for its ban as there are individuals to question.
Many cite claims made by the Israel Defence Forces that a small number of UNRWA's 13,000 staff members in Gaza took part in the October 7 massacre, which resulted in 1,200 fatalities and about 250 hostages. In a nation still recovering from the most horrific assault on Jews since the Holocaust, this has been a strong and unavoidable argument against UNRWA.
.Others interpret the action as another step towards the denial of Palestinian rights and the long-promised, far-off right to return to the towns in Israel that they and their ancestors were forcibly forced from when the Jewish state was established in 1948.
In any event, the UNRWA chief has stated that the bill "will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell."
"Low-hanging fruit"
One of the two bills to outlaw UNRWA was authored by Likud Knesset member Boaz Bismuth, and it was approved 92 to 10. He thought it was imperative to dismantle the agency in the wake of October 7.
He asserted, "I did not see December '49," when UNRWA was established. He added that the argument that UNRWA maintains Palestinian refugee status did not inspire him. "I don't care about any of this. Their involvement in the October 7th massacre was pertinent to my bill, and as a result, they will no longer be employed in Israel.
Twelve UNRWA employees in Gaza were implicated in the Hamas-led onslaught on Israel by the Israeli government in January; further employees were later added to the list. The majority of those involved were sacked by the agency right away. Nine employees "may have" been involved in the October 7 incident, according to a UN inquiry.
In February, the Washington Post obtained CCTV footage from Kibbutz Be'eri in October, claiming it showed one of the UNRWA staff members implicated by Israel bringing the body of an Israeli civilian slain by Hamas terrorists with him.
Even still, UNRWA insists that Israel has never given it proof against its former workers. The agency claims that it has routinely given Israel a complete list of its employees and has accused Israel of torturing and holding some of its employees against their will in order to force them to make false confessions on their affiliations with Hamas.
However, Bismuth stated that "for me, UNRWA equals Hamas"; this opinion is common in Israel. Supporting his party's legislation was just good politics in a nation where Netanyahu is politically dominant over all odds.
According to Aaron David Miller, a long-time American Middle East policymaker who played a significant role in the final major round of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 2000, "UNRWA was low-hanging fruit for this Israeli government."
A lengthy past
UNRWA has existed for almost as long as Israel. Nearly a million Arabs were forced from their homes in what had been British-mandate Palestine due to the turmoil surrounding the establishment of Israel in 1948; the Palestinians refer to this as the Nakba, or "catastrophe."
All of the displaced Arabs should be let to return "at the earliest practicable date," according to the UN General Assembly, which had approved Israel's foundation. UNRWA was established a year later with the goal of "preventing conditions of starvation and distress."
The impractical and far-fetched desire of millions of Palestinians to return to their homes in what is now Israel is symbolised by UNRWA, which Israelis view as an anachronism. When Netanyahu claims that the organisation "perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem," he means that. UNRWA's Swiss commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, has stated unequivocally that the dissolution of his organisation "will not strip the Palestinians from their refugee status."
For a long time, Israelis have accused UNRWA of spreading anti-Israel sentiment in the schools they manage. Examples of anti-Israel bias in textbooks were deemed "marginal" but nevertheless constituted "a grave violation of neutrality," according to a UN-commissioned investigation.
According to Israeli leaders, Palestinians should relocate permanently to their current residence and do not deserve their own refugee agency. If necessary, they will receive assistance from the UNHCR, the organisation in charge of all other refugees worldwide.
According to Diana Buttu, a Palestinian human rights attorney, "What sets Palestinian refugees apart is that they are not looking for safety in a third country." "They wish to return home."
"What else do they desire?"
Saleh Shunnar is familiar with the experience of being a refugee, having been uprooted from his home in Gaza due to the ongoing conflict.
From a tent camp in central Gaza's Deir Al-Balah, he declared, "Israel has always wanted to do this." "There will be no Palestinian refugee cause if UNRWA is shut down. The Palestinian cause was taken away by them.
For many Palestinians, those worries are deeply ingrained. However, Miller, the former American negotiator, stated that worries about the effect on so-called final status talks are "tethered to a galaxy far, far away, rather than to the realities back here on planet earth."
According to him, "I can see why the Palestinians would see this as a methodical first step to undermine the right of return." "But the right of return is far down the long list of obstacles because the issues facing any negotiations over a Palestinian state are so many and so sensitive," he said.
This is especially true now, when a humanitarian crisis threatens to overwhelm so many Palestinians.
Regarding the assistance she receives, Ghalia Abd Abu Amra, a resident of Deir Al-Balah, stated, "These are the simplest of needs." Beyond what they currently have, what else do they wish to take from us? They want to take UNRWA too now that our homes are gone?
Internally displaced Gazans have been living in enormous tent camps, which have gradually taken root. Tarpaulin is made from cloth walls. Wood floors are used in place of mud ones. Tent camps have been turning into residential blocks in the 58 UNRWA-run refugee camps in the Palestinian territories and other parts of the region for decades.
UNRWA serves as a parallel government for millions of Palestinians. Whether in Syria, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan, or the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, it is a large organisation that offers services that governments cannot or will not deliver. Half a million students are taught there. There are 3,000 medical experts working there. It provides food for around two million people.
Australian human rights attorney Chris Sidoti, a member of the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, stated that UNRWA had saved Israeli taxpayers billions of dollars over the past 57 years. "Israel is in charge of providing care, protection, and services to individuals under occupation as the occupying power under the fourth Geneva Convention."
He declared, "You won't have a hoover." "I'm happy with my bill. Because we will not only keep providing them with all of the services they already have, but we will also upgrade them.
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