Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Ali Ahmed/Flash90
Palestinian supporters of Hamas protest against the U.S. Middle East peace plan front of the main headquarters the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza City on February 20, 2020
(JNS) — Israel’s Knesset on Monday made it illegal for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to operate in Israeli territory, and for state officials to cooperate with the agency.
The two laws were passed by a large majority following the exposure of UNRWA staff complicity in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, and despite pressure from the United States and other countries against the move.
The Biden Administration was “deeply concerned” about the legislation, according to an unnamed U.S. State Department official cited by Axios. This echoes language used by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken prior to the vote.
Josep Borrell, the E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, tweeted that the new laws “would de facto render UNRWA’s vital operations in Gaza impossible, and seriously hamper its provision of services in the West Bank.” The laws stand “in stark contradiction to international law and the fundamental principle of humanity,” he added.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini posted on social media the legislation “opposes the U.N. Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law.”
However, experts on UNRWA, including former Israeli lawmaker Einat Wilf, who has written an acclaimed book about the agency, dispute that the legislation contradicts international law. Israel is not party to any treaty compelling it to engage with the group or allow its activities, Wilf told JNS.
The two laws are by far the most robust parliamentary push by Israel against UNRWA, the largest donors of which are the United States and the European Union. The agency has for decades has been accused of providing cover and income to Palestinian terrorists while undermining peace efforts.
The law that bans UNRWA activity on Israeli territory, authored by Knesset member Boaz Bismuth (Likud) and six other coalition lawmakers, was passed by a majority of 87 of the Knesset’s 120 lawmakers. Nine MKs present voted against the law, one did not vote. The remaining 23 lawmakers were not present for the vote.
“UNRWA — United Nations Relief and Works Agency will operate no representation, provide no service or hold any activity, directly or indirectly, in the sovereign territory of the State of Israel,” the law co authored by Bismuth states.
The second law, passed by 92-10, states: “No state authority, including entities and individuals who legally hold public office, will engage in any contact with UNRWA or its representatives.” This legislation was co-authored by MKs Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beiteinu), Dan Illouz (Likud) and Ron Katz (Yesh Atid).
“UNRWA will not operate in Israel, their benefits will be canceled, their entry to Israel will be banned. Total Disconnect,” Malinovsky wrote on social media following the votes.
According to its website, UNRWA employs some 30,000 staff, most of them Palestinians, including 13,000 in the Gaza Strip. It also has staff in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. UNRWA also operates in Jordan and Lebanon.
Being banned in Israel could end UNRWA’s work in Jerusalem and greatly complicate its operations in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, where the organization is at least partially dependent on Israeli cooperation.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 massacres in Israel, in which Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and abducted another 251, evidence surfaced about the complicity of UNRWA staff in those atrocities and other acts of terrorism.
According to Israel, over 450 terrorists belonging to terrorist organizations in Gaza, mainly Hamas, are also employed by UNRWA. UNRWA’s Lazzarini has flatly denied these allegations.
On Sept. 29, Hamas admitted that Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amin, chairman of UNRWA’s Teachers’ Association, was its commander in Lebanon. The agency had suspended Abu al-Amin in March, yet after his death denied knowing he was involved in terrorism.
UNRWA-employed Arabic teacher Yusef Zidan Suleiman al-Hawajara was recorded bragging to a friend on Oct. 7 about capturing a female hostage. (“We have female hostages, I captured one!” he says in a recording released by the IDF.)
In July, Israel’s foreign ministry published a list of names and ID numbers of 108 UNRWA employees Israel accuses of being Hamas terrorists. It was a “small fraction,” a Foreign Ministry official wrote, of a much larger list including hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members who also worked for UNRWA. The wider list could not be released due to security considerations.
Former Hamas leader in Lebanon Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin (circled) at an undated UNRWA event. Source: UN Watch.
On Oct. 13, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a letter about the agency to Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Defense Minister Yoav Galant. In the letter, which demanded Israel increase the amount of aid being let into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, they noted that they were “deeply concerned” about the Knesset bills.
UNRWA had a budget of about $1.1 billion in 2023. Eighteen countries suspended funding to UNRWA following the Oct. 7 attack, including the United States, which provides roughly a third of the organization’s budget. The United States froze its donations to UNRWA until March 2025. Only it and New Zealand have not yet reinstated their funding.
As of Tuesday morning, it was unclear how donor countries would respond to the Israeli move.
“We will have to look at how UNRWA donors respond. In the past week, they have been threatening Israel to not take this move, but it will be interesting to see whether or not they enforce Israel’s decision,” Anne Herzberg, legal adviser at the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor organization, told JNS on Tuesday.
According to Herzberg, while the Israeli move is a blow to UNRWA, it will not end the agency.
“While Israel can prevent UNRWA from operating on its own territory, they can’t block the organization from operating in Lebanon, Jordan or other countries,” she noted.
“In my opinion this move won’t be the end of UNRWA, but I would hope that responsible governments such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or Germany take this as an opportunity to engage in significant investigations,” she added.
While it has been obvious for years that Hamas is stealing money from UNRWA and using its installations, the organization has refused to put safeguards in place, she said, emphasizing that the agency itself is to blame for the Israeli move.
“If UNRWA indeed plays such a vital role, then the international community must implement reforms as well as bring criminal charges not only against UNRWA employees who participated in Oct. 7 but also officials who not only allowed Hamas to exploit UNRWA’s facilities and money but looked the other way,” she told JNS.
“In addition to UNRWA there are another 13 U.N. agencies operating in Gaza and 23 in Judea and Samaria; there are other actors who could step in to fill the role that UNRWA has been playing,” she continued.
“It’s not so much about getting the humanitarian aid in, it’s really about what is being done to protect that system in Gaza with Hamas in control, and rather than trying to find solutions, the United Nations and other aid organizations tried relaxing or even eliminating vetting processes,” she added.
Through UNRWA, the United Nations employs a unique refugee definition to Palestinians. The agency defines as refugees not only those who fled the 1948 war, but their descendants in perpetuity until a “just solution” emerges for their status. The United Nations employs a different definition for all other refugees, who cannot pass the title to their descendants and often lose it when they are naturalized elsewhere.
This has perpetuated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict according to many critics, including Hillel Neuer, the founder of U.N. Watch.
“What the Knesset did yesterday is extremely significant,” Neuer told JNS on Tuesday, though he too said that the new legislation would not close UNRWA down.
“The legislation will require closing UNRWA’s facilities in Jerusalem. Israeli officials are barred from dealing with UNRWA representatives operating in the West Bank and Gaza, it will make UNRWA’s operations more difficult, I don’t think it will necessarily close them,” he said.
However, he added, the move by Israel had a greater significance.
“Beyond the concrete consequences, a very important message was sent, which is ‘no more,’” he said. “No more will Israel tolerate an agency that has a pathological agenda. The aim of UNRWA is not distributing aid, it is teaching Palestinians that they will dismantle Israel,” he continued.
“Terrorists factions say openly that UNRWA is witness to the injustice they suffered. They want to undo this injustice, and Oct. 7 is the continuation of UNRWA. The message of UNRWA is to encourage Oct. 7,” he said.
Neuer explained that back in 2011, UNRWA knew that the head of its teachers’ union in Gaza, Suhail al-Hindi, was a Hamas official and did nothing.
“They allowed him to be the head of the teachers union, he was elected to the Hamas politburo in Gaza. Eventually in 2017 he was asked to resign and go away quietly. When they were pressured to suspend him, 8,000 teachers in Gaza rallied and shut UNRWA down for three months off and on,” Neuer said.
With regard to Lebanon, “UNRWA knows that its staff supports Hamas in Lebanon,” he added. “We sent information that the head of their teachers’ union in Lebanon was a Hamas official. Israel eliminated him last month. Last week, Israel eliminated an UNRWA truck driver and he was the head of the Hamas terrorist squad that on Oct. 7 assaulted [the Kibbutz] Re’im bomb shelter,” he continued.
“If this were a normal agency, the head of the agency would resign,” he added.
As for what comes next, there is still some uncertainty, he said.
“Immediately, there is no direct impact to UNRWA in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. The direct effect is on UNRWA in Jerusalem. Israel will have to think about the schools and facilities and provide alternatives. Israel already provides all governmental service to Arabs in eastern Jerusalem and there is no reason why they can’t do the same for Shuafat,” he continued.
“The more complicated thing is the prohibition on dealing with UNRWA in Gaza and Judea and Samaria. It is not clear what will happen next, it’s not entirely clear. There will be a few months for the law to go into effect and there will be a lot of pressure on Israel to somehow freeze the law. I don’t think Israel should surrender,” he said.
“The important thing to remember is that Palestinians are prisoners of assistance that keeps them in permanent dependency. UNRWA dooms Palestinians to a cycle of dependency. It calls itself an aid agency but it is a Palestinian war agency. The whole point of UNRWA is to tell Palestinians that their future is to dismantle Israel,” he concluded.
