UNRWA AND HAMAS ARE ONE AND THE SAME

Israel banishes UN ‘terror organization’ from its soil, West has meltdown

No nation would allow a terrorist organization that undermines the security of its host country to operate on its soil. 

 

By James Sinkinson

 

FLAME

Nov 5, 2024 

 

Israeli soldiers enter UNRWA's headquarters in Gaza City on February 8, 2024

Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, overwhelmingly passed two laws last week that ban the U.N.’s Palestinian aid agency, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), from operating in the Jewish state. UNRWA serves as an incubator of terrorism and a key infrastructure agency under Gaza’s Hamas rulers, thus prolonging the subjugation of millions of Palestinians and impeding prospects for peace with Israel.

Israel’s decision to ban UNRWA is a major step towards dismantling the agency, which will reduce Hamas’s threat to the Jewish state and help liberate Palestinians from Hamas’s brutal authoritarian rule.

In truth, UNRWA is fundamentally a terrorist organization itself, its staff and facilities are inextricably bound to Hamas, and operate under Hamas’s control. Millions of dollars of UNRWA funding support the terror group’s priorities. No wonder an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman once quipped that “Hamas has infiltrated UNRWA so deeply that it is no longer possible to determine where UNRWA ends and where Hamas begins.”

Many UNRWA employees are members of Hamas. Some of these employees directly participated in the Oct. 7 massacre, while others supported it wholeheartedly. UNRWA facilities are frequently used by Hamas and other terrorist groups as bases from which to attack Israel. The agency’s schools indoctrinate Palestinian children to embrace Hamas’s goal of hating and killing Jews. Hamas oversees UNRWA’s social-welfare programs.

UNRWA also perpetuates the Palestinians’ 75-year-old refugee crisis, nurturing the myth that, one day, Palestinians will destroy Israel and return to their “native homeland,” territory that few Palestinians have ever set foot in.

Yet, the “international community,” including the United States, wants UNRWA to endure, claiming no one else can do the work it performs. In fact, many aid organizations can deliver the same services that UNRWA does without supporting terrorism.

Rather than condemn Israel for banning UNRWA, the world’s nations could more wisely help the Palestinians by praising Israel’s actions. Better yet, United Nations sponsors should themselves follow Israel’s example and ban the corrupt U.N. agency. Surely, no nation would allow a terrorist organization that undermines the security of its host country to operate on its soil.

Many UNRWA employees are also members of Hamas or other terrorist groups. Israeli intelligence indicates that about 10% of UNRWA’s Gazan employees have ties to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups. Many UNRWA employees enthusiastically supported the Oct. 7 massacre. Indeed, UN Watch uncovered a Telegram group of 3,000 UNRWA staffers who celebrated the atrocity.

UNRWA staffers joined in the Oct. 7 massacre, and many serve as Hamas commandos. At least 12 U.N. staffers participated in the massacre. Some took hostages. One hostage released in the November 2023 ceasefire reported that he was held captive by an UNRWA teacher. Just a few weeks ago, the Israel Defense Forces killed Fateh Sherif, a top Hamas commander who was also an UNRWA employee.

 

 

The 12 staffers at UNRWA who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre.

 

UNRWA facilities frequently house terrorists and their weapons. Israel has revealed more than 30 UNRWA facilities containing terrorist infrastructure, such as tunnel shafts supplied by UNRWA electricity and stocked with UNRWA food aid. Hamas even operated a computer server farm directly under—and connected to—UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters. Israel passed this information on to UNRWA Commissioner Philip Lazzarini, the media and donor countries, but all have chosen to deny or ignore it.

UNRWA teaches Palestinian children to hate and murder Jews. UNRWA schools use textbooks that, according to numerous studies and findings of the United States and the European Union, are steeped in antisemitism and support for terrorism. Children are taught to kill Jews and violently destroy Israel. They are assured that dying as a martyr for this cause is the highest possible honor. How can Israel—or any nation—sponsor an organization with such a curriculum?

UNRWA maintains Palestinians as perpetual welfare recipients. UNRWA defines refugees as not just Palestinians who left Israel during the 1948-49 War of Independence but also their descendants-without-end. UNRWA convinces them their only hope of salvation is a mythical “right of return” to Palestine once Israel is destroyed. Unlike the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which helps millions of other refugees worldwide find new homes and overcome their refugee status, UNRWA offers Palestinians no realistic chance of overcoming their welfare status.

Part of Palestinians’ dependency springs from the fact that 80% of UNRWA’s 30,000 employees are Palestinians themselves—a veritable gravy train. While the agency prioritizes direct benefits like food and education, it neglects job training, and UNRWA itself is the career goal for many. Moreover, the agency’s huge staff assists only 6 million Palestinians, while the UNHCR, with only 20,000 staffers, has assisted 122.6 million refugees globally.

UNRWA is notoriously ineffective as an aid organization. Israel’s decision to ban UNRWA has been condemned by Western countries, including the United States, and U.N. Special Rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese has suggested that Israel be suspended from the United Nations. These critics argue that Gaza is utterly dependent on bloated UNRWA services, which no other organization can provide. Nonsense. Inefficient UNRWA convoys leave thousands of tons of food supplies rotting in the sun and virtually assist Hamas in hijacking its trucks.

Some 13 other aid agencies work in the Gaza Strip, and 23 agencies in Judea and Samaria support the Palestinians. They are fully capable of replacing UNRWA’s services. In Gaza, for example, UNRWA today handles only 13% of the humanitarian aid that enters the coastal enclave. 

UNRWA undermines any attempt to achieve a two-state solution. Countries whose mantra is “two states for two peoples” should cheer Israel’s efforts to shut down UNRWA. The U.N. agency does not cultivate peace with Israel but rather promotes endless warfare against Israel, serving the futile fantasy that Palestinians will someday conquer the Jewish state. Indeed, it’s supremely hypocritical to support both two states and the U.N. agency that effectively sabotages this solution.

If the international community, and particularly Western countries, want a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, they should shut UNRWA down. Put a stop to the corruption and the promotion of murderous martyrdom, and the destruction of the Jewish state.