‘’UNWRA was never an aid agency. It was always a political tool to perpetuate the conflict with Israel. That is still its main purpose and this is why it hould be dismantled as soon as possible.’’
This is the assessment made by Dr Adi Schwartz, Research Fellow at the MISGAV Institute at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, during an online briefing organized by Europe Israel Press Association on the topic of the complicity between the United Nations agency for the Palestinian refugees and Hamas.
UNWRA has been very much in the news since the revelation that several of its staff members in Gaza took part in the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel on October 7 in which more than 1,200 people were killed and 240 people abducted.
Speaking at the same briefing, James G. Lindsay, who was from 2000 to 2007 legal advisor and general counsel for UNRWA, noted: ‘’I think it’s pretty much agreed that UNWRA has a role. Even the israeli government has said that they don’t want to end UNWRA today. There’s talk about ending it in Gaza after the war ends, and perhaps later in the West Bank as well.’’
He added, ‘’UNWRA needs to eliminate terrorists and terrorist supporters from its employees. These are employees that are area staff as opposed to international staff. I’ve seen no indication that international staff have been involved in terrorist activit. In Gaza UNWRA consists of about 13,000 employees, of whom approximately 20 or 25 are international staff. That is people who are not Palestinians. Everyone else are called area staff, and they are all almost to a man or woman, Palestinians. So they first have to eliminate. They have to do the vetting. They need to get information from various and sun resources, including Israel, but also including America. And to try to eliminate these people from their ranks, they need to do the same thing with beneficiaries. In other words, why should monies coming from donors go to benefit families that are involved with terrorism or supportive of terrorism?’’
He mentioned that education ‘’is something that I’ve identified as a problem, Education certainly wasn’t included in 1950 when UNWRA came into existence. At that time it was a relief organization. The textbooks used in Gaza and the West Bank come from the the Palestinian Authority. These textbooks contain a lot of material that shouldn’t be in there. Anti semitism, anti peace, pro jihadist type of language, certainly very anti Israel. There is no reason for them to be in there. The material that’s in there in many cases is against the founding principles of the United Nations.’’
There are calls for UNWRA head Philippe Lazzarini to resign, not only in Israel but also in Switzerland, his country of origin, because of his lack of credibility after he said that UNWRA ‘’has no mandate to look at what happens under the Gaza Strip.’’ During its operation in Gaza, the Israeli army has found a Hamas infrastructure built under UNWRA facilities.
‘’I don’t think he (Lazzarini) is doing a good job. I think he should resign. The problem is that these people become identified with the Palestinian cause,’’ said Lindsey.