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(JNS) Israel’s Knesset on Monday made it illegal for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to operate in Israeli territory, and for state officials to cooperate with the agency.
The two laws were passed by a large majority following the exposure of UNRWA staff complicity in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, and despite pressure from the United States and other countries against the move.
The Biden Administration was “deeply concerned” about the legislation, according to an unnamed U.S. State Department official cited by Axios. This echoes language used by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken prior to the vote.
Josep Borrell, the E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, tweeted that the new laws “would de facto render UNRWA’s vital operations in Gaza impossible, and seriously hamper its provision of services in the West Bank.” The laws stand “in stark contradiction to international law and the fundamental principle of humanity,” he added.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini tweeted that the legislation “opposes the U.N. Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law.”
However, experts on UNRWA, including former Israeli lawmaker Einat Wilf, who has written an acclaimed book about the agency, dispute that the legislation contradicts international law. Israel is not party to any treaty compelling it to engage with the group or allow its activities, Wilf told JNS.
The two laws are by far the most robust parliamentary push by Israel against UNRWA, the largest donors of which are the United States and the European Union. The agency has for decades has been accused of providing cover and income to Palestinian terrorists while undermining peace efforts.
The law that bans UNRWA activity on Israeli territory, authored by Knesset member Boaz Bismuth (Likud) and six other coalition lawmakers, was passed by a majority of 87 of the Knesset’s 120 lawmakers. Nine MKs present voted against the law, one did not vote. The remaining 23 lawmakers were not present for the vote.
“UNRWA—United Nations Relief and Works Agency will operate no representation, provide no service or hold any activity, directly or indirectly, in the sovereign territory of the State of Israel,” the law co authored by Bismuth states.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, addresses the United Nations Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, on Oct. 9, 2024. Credit: Loey Felipe/U.N. Photo.
The second law, passed by 92-10, states: “No state authority, including entities and individuals who legally hold public office, will engage in any contact with UNRWA or its representatives.” This legislation was coauthored by MKs Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beiteinu), Dan Illouz (Likud) and Ron Katz (Yesh Atid).
“UNRWA will not operate in Israel, their benefits will be canceled, their entry to Israel will be banned. Total Disconnect,” Malinovsky tweeted following the votes.
According to its website, UNRWA employs some 30,000 staff, most of them Palestinians, including 13,000 in the Gaza Strip. It also has staff in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. UNRWA also operates in Jordan and Lebanon.
Being banned in Israel could end UNRWA’s work in Jerusalem and greatly complicate its operations in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, where the organization is at least partially dependent on Israeli cooperation.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 massacres in Israel, in which Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and abducted another 251, evidence surfaced about the complicity of UNRWA staff in those atrocities and other acts of terrorism.
From left: Knesset members Elazar Stern, Oded Forer, Yulia Malinovsky and Yehudah Glick. Credit: Adi Yossef.
For example, UNRWA worker Faisal Ali Mussalem al-Naami and a colleague were captured on video loading the body of Israeli Yonatan Samerano into a vehicle in Sderot.
According to Israel, over 450 terrorists belonging to terrorist organizations in Gaza, mainly Hamas, are also employed by UNRWA. UNRWA’s Lazzarini has flatly denied these allegations.
On Sept. 29, Hamas admitted that Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amin, chairman of UNRWA’s Teachers’ Association, was its commander in Lebanon. The agency had suspended Abu al-Amin in March, yet after his death denied knowing he was involved in terrorism.
UNRWA-employed Arabic teacher Yusef Zidan Suleiman al-Hawajara was recorded bragging to a friend on Oct. 7 about capturing a female hostage. (“We have female hostages, I captured one!” he says in a recording released by the IDF.)
In July, Israel’s foreign ministry published a list of names and ID numbers of 108 UNRWA employees Israel accuses of being Hamas terrorists. It was a “small fraction,” a Foreign Ministry official wrote, of a much larger list including hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members who also worked for UNRWA. The wider list could not be released due to security considerations.
Former Hamas leader in Lebanon Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin (circled) at an undated UNRWA event. Source: UN Watch.
On Oct. 13, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a letter about the agency to Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Defense Minister Yoav Galant. In the letter, which demanded Israel increase the amount of aid being let into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, they noted that they were “deeply concerned” about the Knesset bills.
UNRWA had a budget of about $1.1 billion in 2023. Eighteen countries suspended funding to UNRWA following the Oct. 7 attack, including the United States, which provides roughly a third of the organization’s budget. The United States froze its donations to UNRWA until March 2025. Only it and New Zealand have not yet reinstated their funding.
As of Tuesday morning, it was unclear how donor countries would respond to the Israeli move.
“We will have to look at how UNRWA donors respond. In the past week, they have been threatening Israel to not take this move, but it will be interesting to see whether or not they enforce Israel’s decision,” Anne Herzberg, legal adviser at the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor organization, told JNS on Tuesday.
According to Herzberg, while the Israeli move is a blow to UNRWA, it will not end the agency.
“While Israel can prevent UNRWA from operating on its own territory, they can’t block the organization from operating in Lebanon, Jordan or other countries,” she noted.
“In my opinion this move won’t be the end of UNRWA, but I would hope that responsible governments such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or Germany take this as an opportunity to engage in significant investigations,” she added.
While it has been obvious for years that Hamas is stealing money from UNRWA and using its installations, the organization has refused to put safeguards in place, she said, emphasizing that the agency itself is to blame for the Israeli move.
“If UNRWA indeed plays such a vital role, then the international community must implement reforms as well as bring criminal charges not only against UNRWA employees who participated in Oct. 7 but also officials who not only allowed Hamas to exploit UNRWA’s facilities and money but looked the other way,” she told JNS.
“In addition to UNRWA there are another 13 U.N. agencies operating in Gaza and 23 in Judea and Samaria; there are other actors who could step in to fill the role that UNRWA has been playing,” she continued.
“It’s not so much about getting the humanitarian aid in, it’s really about what is being done to protect that system in Gaza with Hamas in control, and rather than trying to find solutions, the United Nations and other aid organizations tried relaxing or even eliminating vetting processes,” she added.
Through UNRWA, the United Nations employs a unique refugee definition to Palestinians. The agency defines as refugees not only those who fled the 1948 war, but their descendants in perpetuity until a “just solution” emerges for their status. The United Nations employs a different definition for all other refugees, who cannot pass the title to their descendants and often lose it when they are naturalized elsewhere.
This has perpetuated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict according to many critics, including Hillel Neuer, the founder of U.N. Watch.
The reason the United Nations insists on providing services through UNRWA instead of the U.N.’s many other aid outfits is that “the whole point of UNRWA,” which was established in 1949, “is to continue the war of 1948 and to dismantle Israel,” Neuer told JNS earlier this month.
