UNRWA Ban: Why’s Israel Afraid of the Aid Agency?

UNRWA is one of the UN organs that was established shortly after Israeli occupation of Palestine in 1948 to aid the Palestinian refugees and it has continued its aid operations to date. The organ is active in 5 regions including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria for aids to the Palestinian refugees. But now Tel Aviv is resolved to ban its activities to turn the screws on the Palestinian refugees.

UNRWA activities in Gaza

UNRWA has been providing some relief activities in the areas of education, health care and other basic services to Palestinian refugees and their children, who now number nearly 6 million, since the 1948 war and the occupation of Palestine. According to the figures provided, Palestinian families covered by UNRWA in Gaza constitute the majority of the 2.3 million population in the Strip.

Israeli anti-UNRWA ellegaions denied 

The Israeli parliament, locally called Knesset, has passed two bills to ban UNRWA. In this regard, the Israeli foreign ministry announced in a statement last month that it was canceling the 1967 cooperation agreement that provided the legal basis for Tel Aviv's relations with UNRWA and labeled this UN institution to be illegal. The basis for this decision of the Israeli regime is a series of allegations, all of which UNRWA has denied. Here are some of these allegations and the reasons for their denial:

Israeli allegation 1: 1,200 Hamas members are UNRWA members: UNRWA refutes, with evidence, Israeli intelligence claims that 1,200 UNRWA employees in Gaza (10 percent of the Gaza workforce) are affiliated with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times both reported separately that UNRWA cannot confirm that Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad members are affiliated with the organization.

Israeli allegation 2: Deepening UNRWA relations with Hamas: UNRWA has announced in a statement that its relations with Hamas are a natural and obvious relationship, because Hamas has been responsible for administering Gaza since 2007, and UNRWA is in contact with Hamas to manage its activities and assist Palestinian refugees, and this relationship is not a secret issue. The UN has also stated in specific statements that it does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization as does Israel and its ally the US, and UNRWA's relationship with Hamas is a specific relationship and within the framework of international law.

Israeli allegation 3: Seizure of UNRWA aids by Hamas: UNRWA authorities have rejected allegations made by Israeli about the seizure of UN aid by Hamas members, stating that there is a strong monitoring and review system to watch aid in Gaza and that there is no information, report or evidence of systematic diversion of UN aid in Gaza by Hamas.

Behind-the-scenes aims

It seems that the Israeli regime is seeking some aims behind anti-UNRWA accusations: 

Collapse of UNRWA: UNRWA Spokesman Janathan Fowler in comments to the AFP confirmed the the pressures on the organization by Tel Aviv with the aim of pushing it to collapse. He said that if UNRWA operations are banned in Gaza and the West Bank, the humanitarian aid meet its collapse, while humanitarian operation make the backbone of this UN organ. 

Deterioration of humanitarian crisis in Gaza: In a report quoting aid groups operating in Gaza, an Aljazeera report warned that the ban on UNRWA's activities could set up further obstacles to addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In this case, this ban is expected to exacerbate the existing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as most of the more than 2 million people living in Gaza are covered by UNRWA's aid.

Silencing UNRWA: It should also be taken into account that UNRWA, at the same time as the Gaza war, transmitted documented reports on the situation in Gaza to the world, and this institution is considered a credible international authority for assessing the situation in Gaza during the past 15 months of war. For example, in one of its latest reports, the aid agency announced that 88 percent of school buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed by unceasing Israeli aggression since October 7, 2023. Such reports have aroused the ire of Tel Aviv, and in this regard, the Israelis are trying to prevent information about the dire situation in the Gaza Strip by banning UNRWA. 

Israeli feeling of threat from UNRWA: Hamad Abu Rezgh, a writer at Khaleej Online news outlet, in a report on UNRWA ban suggests that Israel essentially finds foundation of this aid agency a mistake as it finds it a threat to its existence. As Israelis think, survival of UNRWA in addition to proving the Palestinians' right means continuation of Palestinian demand for liberation of their lands while Tel Aviv is afraid of legitimization of the Palestinian right to return. So, it sees UNRWA an organization legitimizing the Palestinian demand for return to their land. Therefore, the Israelis are seeking to put the skids under this operations of this international organization.