Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the United NationsWorks Agency for Palestine Refugees(UNRWA) last April that “an insidious campaign to end UNRWA’s operations is under way, with serious implications for peace and security”.
Requests by the relief and works agency, responsible for providing welfare and aid to Palestinians, notably in northern Gaza, had been rebuffed. Its staff had been barred from coordinating meetings between other humanitarian agents, along with Israeli officials. UNRWA premises and staff had also been targeted.
This, it transpired, was a foretaste of things to come.
Israel’s campaign against UNWRA has been a sickening reminder of its necessity, in the aftermath of 1948.
Following the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, UNRWA was added to Israel’s “to-do” list.
An international accusation campaign that the UN body employed Hamas sympathisers, activists and direct participants in the attacks, led to many donor countries quickly suspended funding.
The UN was equally swift in sacking several alleged suspects.of the allegations by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, instigated at the request of the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, accepted that claims of bias could be addressed in eight areas, including neutrality of education, installations and staff, and better engagement with the relevant donors.
Importantly, it also noted that “Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence” that the agency employees had been “members of terrorist organisations.”
The “irreplaceable and indispensable” role of the agency in the absence of a political solution between Israel and the Palestinians made it a “pivotal” body that provided “life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services, particularly in health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank”.
The restoration of funding by donor states so irked Israeli officials as to prompt the next phase of the campaign: the Knesset passed a law to effectively cripple the agency’s mandate and work, both coming into effect at the end of January.
Two laws, passed on October 28, 2024, are relevant here. The first prohibits Israeli officials from having any contact with UNRWA, or any individual or agency acting on their behalf.
The secondattacks the of UNRWA; it bars it from operating any representative office, or provide any services, or carry out activities, directly or indirectly, in Israel.
The laws’ interpretation of “sovereignty” does not accept the international position on the status of East Jerusalem, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
In treating East Jerusalem as Israeli territory, UNRWA’s presence to aid Palestinians in the West Bank, as facilitated by its field office, will essentially come to an end.
In addition to all the consequences for Palestinians so heavily reliant on the UN body’s services, there are also logistical matters. How severely will the laws be read?
Not only will UNRWA staff no longer be able to engage in any concrete way with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), staff and its installations risk becoming targets of the IDF.
UN Secretary-General Stéphane Dujarricon January 8 that the UN had yet to receive “any real clarity on how the laws will be applied” from any official Israeli source.
Israel’s laws did draw condemnation from the UN Secretary-General to the ambassadors representing 123 UN member states, to an impotent Biden administration in its dying days.
“In the midst of an ongoing catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza,” warned the Nordic countries in an October 23,, “a halt to any of the organisation’s activities would have devastating consequences for the hundreds of thousands of civilians served by UNRWA”.
This month, Axiosthat US State Department officials also warned the Trump administration transition team about the impending humanitarian catastrophe should the Israeli legislation be implemented to the letter.
“We wanted them to know what is going to happen 10 days into their presidency,” explained one official. “We thought it was the responsible thing to do. It’s a catastrophe waiting to happen.”
Given the form of President Donald Trump in his first term, this may be the wishful utterings of a few troubled souls. Trump delighted in cutting US funding to the agency in 2018. “We are not paying until you make a deal,”the Palestinians at the time.
Algeria prompted theto holdon January 17 on UNRWA’s continued operations after the end of the month. Lazzarini briefed members on the situation that is bound to be influenced, in part, by the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
As part of the agreement, someof humanitarian aid will feature. But any ceasefire,already soured by Israel’s invasion of Jenin in the Occupied West Bank, less than 24 hours after Trump was inaugurated, does little to address the institutional chasm that will be left if UNRWA is forced to cease operating in a meaningful way.
[Binoy Kampmark currently lectures at RMIT University.]