Netanyahu calls for the closure of UNRWA
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the United Nations’ Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA must be shut down.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations in New York City on Sept. 20, 2023. Credit: Avi Ohayon/GPO.
“It’s time for the international community and the UN itself to understand that UNRWA’s mission must be terminated,” Netanyahu told visiting UN delegates, according to a statement from his office.
“It seeks to preserve the issue of Palestinian refugees. We must replace UNRWA with other UN agencies and other aid agencies if we want to solve the Gaza problem as we plan to do.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier on Wednesday described UNRWA as “the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza” and appealed to all countries to “guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s lifesaving work.”
The United States is the biggest donor to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and has temporarily paused its funding – along with several other countries – after Israel accused some agency staff of taking part in the October 7 attack by Hamas militants.
“I was personally horrified by these accusations,” Guterres told the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
“Yesterday, I met with donors to listen to their concerns and to outline the steps we are taking to address them.”
The accusations became public on Friday when UNRWA announced it had fired some staff after Israel provided the agency with information.
Guterres said on Sunday that of 12 people implicated, nine were fired, one is dead and the identity of the remaining two was being clarified.
At a meeting of the UN Security Council on Gaza on Wednesday, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths stressed the importance of UNRWA.
“To put it very simply and bluntly: our humanitarian response for the occupied Palestinian territory is dependent, completely dependent, on UNRWA being adequately funded and operational,” Griffiths told the 15-member council.
“UNRWA’s lifesaving services … to over three quarters of Gaza’s residents should not be jeopardised by the alleged actions of a few individuals. It is a matter of extraordinary disproportion,” he said.
US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council that her country’s decision to temporarily pause funding was made independently from other donors.
“Let me be clear, it was not a punitive measure. But it is a wake up call. We need to see fundamental changes at UNRWA to prevent this from happening again,” she said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the delegation of ambassadors how UN workers have aided Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
“The UN has not been a stellar organization when it comes to dealing with Israel,” he told them. “It’s often unbelievably tilted. It has the UN Human Rights Commission, so-called Human Rights Commission that devotes an enormous part of its resolutions against Israel, and nothing against Iran or Yemen or other arenas of savagery and aggression.”
“I think it’s time that the international community and the UN itself understand that UNRWA’s mission has to end,” said Netanyahu. “UNRWA is self-perpetuating. It is self-perpetuating also in its desire to keep alive the Palestinian refugee issue. And we need to get other UN agencies and other aid agencies replacing UNRWA if we’re going to solve the problem of Gaza as we intend to do. There are other agencies in the UN. There are other agencies in the world. They have to replace UNRWA.”
“UNRWA is totally infiltrated with Hamas,” he added. “It has been in the service of Hamas and its schools, and in many other things. I say this with great regret because we hoped that there would be an objective and constructive body to offer aid. We need such a body today in Gaza. But UNRWA is not that body. It has to be replaced by some organization or organizations that will do that job.”
An Israeli intelligence dossier, seen by Reuters on Monday, includes accusations that some UNRWA staff took part in abductions and killings during the October 7 raid that sparked the Gaza war and alleges 190 UNRWA employees have doubled as Hamas or Islamic Jihad militants.
The Palestinians have accused Israel of falsifying information to tarnish UNRWA.
UNRWA employs 13,000 people in Gaza, running schools, its primary healthcare clinics and other social services, and distributing humanitarian aid.
“The humanitarian system in Gaza is collapsing,” Guterres said.
“I am extremely concerned by the inhumane conditions faced by Gaza’s 2.2 million people as they struggle to survive without any of the basics.”
Israeli forces carried out air strikes in Gaza on Wednesday as Hamas studied a new proposal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in the enclave.
Witnesses said Israel had stepped up air strikes on Gaza City in the north and bombarded parts of Khan Younis in the south.
AAP/TPS
