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Switzerland: Stop Supporting Terror!
By: Rabbi Leo Dee
The UN was established in October 1945 in order to bring sustainable peace to the world after the horrors of the Second World War. In fact, the Genocide Convention was the first human rights treaty adopted by the UN in December 1948 and it signified the commitment to ‘never again’ allow the atrocities that were committed by the Nazis across Europe.
Scroll forward 77 years. In 2022, the UN approved 15 anti-Israel resolutions last year, versus 13 resolutions criticizing other countries. Saudi Arabia, China, Lebanon, Turkey, Venezuela and Qatar, which have some of the lowest human rights records in the world, faced no resolutions at all.
The Swiss Parliament has long been aware of the anti-Israel bias of the UN. Recently, a Member of Swiss Parliament, David Zuberbühler, said: “It’s an open secret that schools run by the United Nations Relief Works Agency, UNRWA, continue to glorify terrorism, incite violence, and promote antisemitism.” In the words of the Swiss Foreign Minister, Ignazio Cassis, in May 2018: “UNRWA is part of the problem, not part of the solution…. UNRWA is perpetuating the refugee problem, not solving it… and the fact that we’re paying for it is perverse”.
However, Switzerland, together with the rest of Europe, US and the UK, continue to fund UNRWA to the tune of over $1bn per year. There are seven times more UN staff in Gaza – mostly Palestinians – than refugees in the largest refugee camp in the world (Cox Bazar in Bangladesh). The number of UN staff in Gaza is approximately equal to the number in Geneva and New York combined!
UNRWA’s sole achievements have been the radicalization of Palestinian children and keeping Palestinians in “refugee camps” for four generations. Some of the Israeli hostages taken on 7th October were kept in UNRWA schools, and these schools are also used as bases for terror across Gaza. UNRWA allows Hamas and other radical militant groups to carry out arms training and missile fire near its premises, using civilians as human shields.
The Executive Director of UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, explains that UNRWA has “taken what were a few 100,000 refugees back in 1948 and made them into 6 or 7 million. And they’re doing everything not to resettle them. If someone from Gaza wants to flee and go to America or to the West, UNRWA will say “No, you are always a refugee and you always need to go back to pre-1967 Israel.”
We understand that Hamas is holding innocent Gazan citizens hostage in its war against Israel and the West. Dismantling their terror apparatus is not sufficient to end the influence of radical Islam and international discrimination that treats Palestinians as “eternal refugees”. In order to bring peace to Gaza, UNRWA would have to make the following significant changes to its operations:
- Cancellation of the UNRWA school curriculum, which is based on glorifying Jihad, martyrdom, and “the right of return by force of arms”.
- Disarmament of the UNRWA schools and cessation of the paramilitary training of students. Firing all employees affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah, in accordance with laws of donor nations that forbid aid to any UN agency that employs members of a terrorist organization.
- Introducing the same UN standards that apply to all other refugees worldwide, in order to allow the resettlement of fourth and fifth-generation refugees from the 1948 war, who have spent seven decades relegated to refugee status.
Last month, a large majority in the Lower House of the Swiss Parliament took a strong moral stance and voted to defund UNRWA, but the Senate did not approve it. They seem to believe that UNRWA is helping the Palestinian citizens of Gaza, but they are mistaken. October 7 and the missile attacks against Israel almost daily since then should be a wake-up call to the world that the UNRWA is complicit in promoting terrorism. The UN has clearly rescinded on its foundational principles. It has ceased to be a force for peace in the world and has become a substantive vehicle for promoting and financing Jihad and terror.
Switzerland currently commits $21 million every year to the funding of UNRWA and is licensing its illegal behavior. When will the Swiss Senate be brave enough to lead the world in defunding UNRWA and removing one of the greatest obstacles to peace in the Middle East?
Rabbi Leo Dee is an educator living in Efrat. His book “Transforming the World: The Jewish Impact on Modernity” has been recently republished in memory of his wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina, who were murdered by Hamas terrorists in April 2023.
