Unwrapping UNRWA
The Zionist Federation of Australia’s executive meeting featured former Labor MK Dr Einat Wilf speaking on UNRWA.
Einat Wilf Photo: JNS
Einat co-wrote the book ‘The War of Return’ with Adi Schwartz, which explains how UNRWA helps create a permanent Palestinian “refugee” problem.
New ZFA CEO Alon Cassuto introduced Dr Wilf to the meeting, which was held over Zoom.
Dr Wilf spoke extensively about how UNRWA was ‘the’ issue in the Palestinian problem. She has been researching and writing about UNRWA for 15 years, and strongly believes that “UNRWA encapsulates the conflict”.
Dr Wilf said that UNWRA started with the Arab war on Israel in 1947-1949, and the Arabs could have accepted partition then, or anytime since. But UNWRA allows them to continue to reject Israel and seek ‘return’.
She said that, “the entire structure of UNWRA is the problem, it perpetuates the war.” It perpetuates the ideology of ‘return’ by allowing Gazans to continue to be classified as refugees, even five generations later. They live in what everyone considers Palestine, but somehow they are also Palestinian ‘refugees’.
When UNWRA was created, ‘UN’ was added to its name to make it look like a UN entity, though it is really a Palestinian organisation, staffed by Palestinians. The Palestinians did not and do not want to accept that they lost the 1948 war. By creating UNWRA, separately created for Palestinian ‘refugees’ only, they have helped create an endless conflict.
Dr Wilf said that UNWRA educates Palestinian children to hate Israel, to believe that the war continues, that the Jews are a colonial group, Israel will be eliminated, and that they will all return to what has been Israel since 1948.
All other refugees in the world are the responsibility of the UN High Commission for Refugees, a real United Nations organisation. Its role is to resettle refugees. But UNWRA was a temporary solution, which has perpetuated the war by insisting that no one is resettled, that they are still refugees and that they will return. Arab refugees refused resettlement. So now UNWRA say there are 5.9 million refugees, adding more generation by generation, with 75% of Gaza’s population being defined as refugees.
Dr Wilf said the West sending money to UNWRA “releases HAMAS from any responsibility” to actually run Gaza. They should insist that the money goes to building something, not the destruction of Israel. It is not an aid organisation. The West should be funding organisations that accept Israel’s right to exist and that there will not be ‘return’ of ‘refugees’ and their descendants into Israel.
Dr Wilf advised that she may be coming to Australia to speak to the government and DFAT about UNWRA.
After hearing from Dr Wilf, the meeting heard from Ramona Chrapot and Ziggy Enoch, two of the recently returned delegates of the ZFA Young Leaders Mission to Israel. The spoke passionately about their experiences and what they saw, having visited areas that had been affected by the terrorist attack and war. They spoke about how Israeli civil society had stepped up and how the “trauma had resonated with Israeli society.”
