UNRWA Collaboration with Hamas

Some in the world, including UN Secretary-General Guterres have expressed shock upon learning members of the UNRWA were directly involved in the Oct. 07 attack on Israel, but the truth is that we should not be shocked at all  For over nine years years many whistleblowers have accused the UNRWA of corruption and of collaborating with Hamas.  Presently, UN Watch Reports that 10% of the UNRWA's employees are directly linked to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad while 50% have close relatives who belong to these groups.  Moreover, they confirm that at least 12 of these employees were directly linked to Oct. 07th attack against Israel.  

Hamas Data Center Under UNRWA Headquarters

Recent, reports have come out that the IDF uncovered a major Hamas Data Center located underground directly beneath the headquarters of the UNRWA (Link to Video).  Reports reveal that this served as a major hub to power the Hamas terror tunnel structure, which was built primarily with material seized from the UNRWA that was supposed to be used to repair buildings and homes damaged by the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.  Various weapons and other war material has also been found in UNRWA facilities throughout Gaza by the IDF.  

Weapons Found Under UNRWA Facility

In testimony before Congress, UNWATCH member Hillel Neuer informed the Congressional body that the UNRWA's claim that it forms schools to teach Palestinian students the importance of tolerance, equality, and human rights has now been exposed as being a lie.  Not only is it confirmed that at least 12 UNRWA employees directly participated in the Oct. 07 attack, but many of its employees, which include school teachers, have promoted material that dehumanizes Jews and praises terrorist attacks against Israel (Link to Video).  For years groups like UN Watch submitted reports of UNRWA school teachers praising Jihad in their classrooms as well as on Social Media.  These reports were continually sent to the UN in 2015, 2017, 2019, & 2021, and yet nothing was done about it.  The reality is this, the UN knew that UNRWA Hamas sympathizers in their ranks and they knew that hatred was being promoted by members of the organization, and they knew that Hamas used these facilities to aid as a cover for their war against Israel, but they chose to do nothing about it.  

During his testimony before Congress, Hillel Neuer displayed his most recent report that exposes how over 3,000 UNRWA employees praised the Oct. 07 attack on Israel.  These exposures have led the U.S. the EU, and 16 other nations to suspend aid to UNRWA.  The UNRWA presently has an annual budget of $1.16 billion, primarily supplied by the U.S. and other Western Nations.  With the UNRWA now being investigated for involvement in the Oct. 07th attack, the U.S., EU, and 16 other nations have suspended all aid to the UNRWA pending the results of the investigation (Link to Video).  However, it remains to be seen if this will have a lasting impact.  When International Pressure did force UNRWA to take action against corrupt and prejudicial employees, UNRWA leaders often responded by criticizing the nations who forced them to take action and smeared the whistleblowers such as UNWATCH as being the real obstacles to peace.  In truth though, the opposite is true.  

UNRWA has not served to help resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict.  If anything, they have helped to prolong it.  The UNRWA serves to perpetuate the conflict by maintaining the refugee status of Palestinians and by giving them false hope that they will one day return to homes in sovereign Israeli territory.  This is why, among all the refugees in the world, only the Palestinians have a dedicated UN agency for their so-called refugees. It is also why UNRWA, unlike the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), keeps the Palestinians as perpetual refugees from one generation to the next, even after they become citizens of other countries.  The reason being is that the UNHCR and UNRWA have a widely different definition for the term "refugee" and widely divergent mandates for dealing with them.   Whereas the UNHCR seeks to resettle refugees so that they are no longer refugees, UNRWA seeks to continually perpetuate Palestinians as refugees.   According to the High Commission's definition, the number of refuges decreases over time, while according to the UNRWA definition, the number increases. If we applied the UNHCR rules to the Palestinians, the refugee number would drop from 5 million to 200,000. As long as the Palestinian refugee problem continues to be treated in what former Congressman Tom Lantos called "this privileged and prolonged manner" it will never be resolved.  Moreover, unless we finally begin to step up and confront the ideology that continually drives these ongoing Jihadist attacks against Israel, sending more money to the UNRWA will only serve to be used to continue the attacks and ultimately serve to prolong the conflict (Link to Video).  

Sources:

"Updated: List of Countries Suspending UNRWA Funding."  UNWATCH.  Jan. 30, 2024.  Accessed from https://unwatch.org/updated-list-of-countries-suspending-unwra-funding/.