[Salon] UNWRA and Israel - ArabDigest.org Guest Post

UNWRA and Israel Summary: with the war in Lebanon expanding and the killing of civilians intensifying in Gaza UNRWA faces looming expulsion from the Strip and the Occupied West Bank as Israel continues its anti-UN campaign. We thank Joshua Levkowitz for today’s newsletter. Joshua is a Middle East analyst and researcher based in Istanbul. His work has been featured in The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and Al-Monitor, among others. On 8 October United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres raised the alarm in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over draft Israeli legislation that would block the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from being able to carry out its crucial humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip and the Occupied West Bank. Guterres warned that “it would be a catastrophe in what is already an unmitigated disaster.” A week earlier he had been banned from entering Israel in an extraordinary attack by the foreign minister Israel Katz who claimed the secretary general had not been forceful enough in condemning Iran’s missile assault on 1 October. Guterres, Katz said, had displayed "his anti-Israel policy since the beginning of the war.” On the anniversary of the October 7 attacks, the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee had approved two bills that would cut all ties between UNRWA and Israeli authorities. Since its founding in 1949, UNRWA has been responsible for Palestinians who were displaced from their homes in the wake of Israel’s creation. It is the sole UN agency with a mandate specific to a group of refugees. But the two draft laws, which passed initial approval by an overwhelming margin in the Knesset in July, seeks to evict the agency from territories under Israeli control and to remove its privileges and immunities. The EU has expressed its “grave concern” while the US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield says she is “deeply concerned” by the initiative. For years, Israel has accused UNRWA of not being neutral. For example, they have argued that UNRWA-run schools support militancy through lesson plans on Palestinian figures whom Israel considers terrorists. Israel’s primary concern, however, is that UNRWA enables Palestinians to pass their refugee status to each generation which they see as an existential threat. Activists protest against UNRWA outside its offices in Jerusalem, March 27, 2024 [photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90] In the months after the Hamas attack that saw 1,200 people killed (with a still unknown number by Israeli counter-fire) and 255 taken back to Gaza as hostages, the Israeli government accused some of UNRWA’s employees of collaborating with Hamas in the attack. The claim was devastating and led to the United States freezing funding for the agency, with 17 other countries joining the Americans in suspending their support just as UNRWA was grappling with the massive humanitarian crisis, the worst in its history, that the war was creating. With the exception of the US - which provided roughly 30 % of the UNRWA budget in 2023 and historically was its biggest donor - every other country that had halted funding resumed its support once a UN investigation found that Israeli authorities had not provided “any supportive evidence” to back up its allegations of UNRWA links to Hamas. The Netanyahu government’s efforts to evict UNRWA if successful would further worsen the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza with the potential to cause a second catastrophe in the already besieged Occupied West Bank. In Gaza UNRWA would be unable to provide shelter, food, and healthcare to people in need. Children there would lose their chance of ever returning to school. "It is part of a broader campaign to dismantle the Agency, seeks to strip Palestinians from their refugee status, and change – unilaterally – the parameters for a future political solution,” said UNRWA’s head Philippe Lazzarini in a UN Security Council briefing. But even with these efforts to dismantle UNRWA, the right of return for Palestinian refugees is still enshrined in international law, including UN Resolution 194. The legislation also hamstrings UNRWA’s ability to provide services. For example, UNRWA is currently a key part of the ongoing vaccination campaign amid the polio epidemic in Gaza. Should the legislation become law Israel, as the occupying force, would be responsible for the remainder of the campaign something it is highly unlikely the IDF would undertake. More generally, the legislation would set a dangerous precedent for international law, as it violates Israel’s obligation under the UN Charter to which it is a member state. In other conflicts governments may cite the Israel precedent and call to eliminate any UN presence that proves to be against their interests further weakening the organisation. The Knesset winter session begins on 28 October where it is anticipated the bills will become law with consequences that will further immiserate the Palestinian people as Israel continues to show its disdain for international norms and the rule of law. Members can leave comments about this newsletter on the Arab Digest website