CNN —
Israel’s parliament passed a resolution banning the nearly 80-year-old United Nations agency that provides essential services to Palestinian refugees, a move that would be devastating for millions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. could have consequences.
On Monday, Congress passed two bills. One prohibits UNRWA from operating in Israel, and the other prohibits Israeli authorities from contacting UNRWA to provide services to Palestinian refugees in areas under Israeli control. It nullifies the 1967 treaty that recognized the
This measure is expected to severely restrict the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Israeli-occupied territory.
After the first law was passed, the bill’s author, Likud member Boaz Bismuth, said: “Those who act like terrorists have no rights in Israel… UNRWA is equal to Hamas, of course.”
The move was pushed through despite fierce opposition from Arab countries in the Knesset and strong international pressure from Western countries. The original law was approved with 92 votes in favor and 10 votes against. The second proposal was approved with 87 votes in favor and 9 votes against.
The vote was swiftly criticized by UNRWA Executive Director Philippe Lazzarini, who said it violated international law and “discredits UNRWA and delegitimizes its role in providing human development assistance and services to Palestinian refugees." It is the latest in an ongoing campaign to
Several countries, including the United States, have expressed deep concern about the controversial ban, which could affect the education, food, health care, and livelihoods of millions of Palestinians who depend on the agency. There is.
Prior to the vote, the US State Department had urged the bill not to pass, citing Israel’s "currently irreplaceable role in Gaza.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously warned Israel that passing the bill “could have implications for U.S. law and U.S. policy.”
Despite these widely expressed concerns, at the time of the bill’s passage, Member of Parliament Yuli Edelstein stated that the move “in no way undermines humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip” and that Israel is committed to international law. He claimed that he was acting within the framework of
Israel has long sought to dismantle the U.N. agency, claiming that some of its staff have ties to Hamas and that schools teach hatred against Israel. UNRWA has repeatedly denied these accusations, stating that there is “no basis for blanket descriptions of ‘the entire facility’ being ‘fully infiltrated.'”
Here’s what we know about UNRWA and the impact of Israel’s ban.
What is UNRWA and what does it do?
UNRWA was established by the United Nations a year after the founding of Israel in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes in an event known to Palestinians as the Nakba (catastrophe).
The agency, which began in 1950 by assisting some 750,000 Palestinian refugees, now serves about 5.9 million people across the Middle East, many in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem. refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
In the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by more than a year of devastating Israeli war, UNRWA serves some 1.7 million Palestinian refugees. It supports approximately 871,500 refugees in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The agency provides a wide range of aid and services to Palestinian refugees and their descendants, including shelter, medical care, food and education. The company is also a major source of employment for refugees, who make up the majority of its more than 30,000 employees across the Middle East, and has representative offices in New York, Geneva and Brussels.
More than 13,000 employees are stationed in the Gaza Strip alone. It employs nearly 4,000 workers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
UNRWA is unique in that it is the only United Nations agency dedicated to a specific group of refugees in a specific region. Although UNRWA’s purpose is to assist Palestinian refugees, UNRWA does not have the authority to resettle Palestinian refugees.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the agency tasked with resettling refugees, but its mission does not extend to the areas in which UNRWA operates.
Israel has long opposed the agency and has been seeking to dismantle it since before October 7 last year, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in Israel. Israeli authorities reject UNRWA’s definition of what kind of Palestinians are eligible for refugee status, stating that descendants of the 1948 refugees are not eligible, and that their ancestral homeland in present-day Israel is not eligible. He claimed he had no right to return.
Israeli lawmakers behind the bill accused UNRWA on Sunday of “teaching children to hate Israel and spreading anti-Semitism.”
“UNRWA…is selling them (Palestinians) a story that they can return to Israel. That will not happen,” Yulia Malinovsky, a lawmaker from the Yisrael Beytenu party, told CNN on Sunday.
But since the war began, Israel has launched an intense campaign to delegitimize UN agencies, including some UNRWA personnel who have been involved in Hamas attacks and participated in various missions. Contains accusations as such.
UNRWA has strongly denied the allegations, but several governments, including the United States, suspended funding to UNRWA earlier this year pending investigations into the allegations. In January, the agency terminated the contracts of those who named Israel and began an investigation into their claims. Most countries have since restored funding, with the exception of the United States, the largest donor.
UNRWA announced that as of October 20 this year, 233 staff members had died. And last month, the agency announced that a UNRWA employee was “shot dead by a sniper on the roof of his home during an overnight Israeli military operation” in El Farah camp in the occupied West Bank. According to UNRWA, a UN agency employee was killed in the West Bank more than a decade ago.
“Amidst all the upheaval, UNRWA is more essential and irreplaceable than ever,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier this month.
The UN Secretary-General sent a letter to Israeli leader and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying the proposed legislation would “suffocate efforts to alleviate human suffering and tensions in Gaza, and indeed in the entire Occupied Palestinian Territories.” said.
“That would be a disaster, in a situation that is already an unmitigated disaster,” Guterres said.
But his calls seem to have fallen on deaf ears. The UN chief has been declared persona non grata, or unwanted, by Israel, and officials there have repeatedly accused Guterres of being sympathetic to Israel’s opponents.
UNRWA is the main humanitarian aid organization in Gaza. Nearly two million Gazans rely on the agency’s assistance, and one million rely on UNRWA shelters for food and medical care in the enclave. For decades, the agency has provided Gazans with everything from food and medical care to education and psychological support.
UNRWA, along with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, is responsible for allocating nearly all UN aid flowing into the Palestinian territories. The agency has 11 food distribution centers in Gaza serving 1 million people, more than half of whom UNRWA estimates live below the dire poverty line of US$1.74 per person per day. has been done.
The agency also supported the implementation of an emergency polio vaccination campaign in Gaza in collaboration with other United Nations agencies to stop the spread of the infectious virus, which can cause paralysis. Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the third phase of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza had been postponed due to escalating violence in northern Gaza.
In the West Bank, UNRWA provides 19 refugee camps, more than 90 schools, and many health services, including antenatal care. The agency is distributing basic food supplies, loans, as well as emergency cash grants and shelter, according to its website.
If UNRWA is unable to do so, it is unclear who will take on the task of providing assistance to the millions of Palestinian refugees who rely on UNRWA. Israel has previously attempted to dismantle the agency and called for its responsibilities to be merged with UNHCR.
The US State Department told CNN that the ban would make it impossible for UNRWA to operate, leaving a “vacuum” that it would be Israel’s responsibility to fill.
Aida Touma-Suleiman, an Israeli-Arab politician and member of the Arab-majority Hadash party, said: “The bill stems from the Israeli right’s long-standing ambition to strip Palestinian refugees of their status.” Ta.
“Israel is effectively creating new refugees every day, questioning the legitimacy of its very status,” Touma-Suleiman told X.
On Monday, foreign ministers from seven countries – Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK – called on Israel to suspend the bill, expressing “serious concerns” about its impact.
“UNRWA is providing essential humanitarian assistance and basic services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and across the region,” the foreign ministers said in a joint statement.
The United States also opposes the ban, despite halting funding to UNRWA. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a letter to two Israeli government officials earlier this month that the Biden administration is “deeply concerned” about the matter.
