Bucking global pressure, MKs overwhelmingly back legislation against UN Palestinian refugee agency over staffers’ terror links; PM’s office: Ready to work with world on Gaza aid
Despite widespread international opposition, lawmakers voted overwhelming on Monday evening to approve two bills essentially barring the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants from operating in Israel, and severely curtailing its activities in Gaza and the West Bank.
During the opening plenum session of the Knesset’s winter legislative session, MKs voted 92 to 10 to approve a law barring UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory, and 87-9 in favor of another measure curtailing UNRWA’s activities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by banning state authorities from having any contact with the agency.
Without coordination with Israel, it will be almost impossible for UNRWA to work in Gaza or the West Bank, since Jerusalem would no longer be issuing entrance permits to those territories or allowing coordination with the IDF. Israel also currently controls access to Gaza from Egypt, with Israeli forces deployed along the border between them.
UNRWA — short for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — provides education, health care and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Responding to the “unprecedented” vote, UNRWA warned that the legislation “sets a dangerous precedent,” breaches the UN charter “and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law.”
“These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell… and are nothing less than collective punishment.” the agency said in a statement.
“It’s outrageous that a member state of the United Nations is working to dismantle a UN agency which also happens to be the largest responder in the humanitarian operation in Gaza,” Juliette Touma, spokeswoman for UNRWA, told AFP.
According to the Ynet news site, the Foreign Ministry had warned of the dangers of passing the UNRWA legislation, stating that Israel could be found in violation of the UN charter and be expelled.
Ahead of the vote, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that passing the bills would be a “catastrophe,” while European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell stated that they “would have disastrous consequences.”
Immediately prior to the vote, the US made clear to Israel that it was deeply concerned by the legislation, with State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller telling reporters that humanitarian assistance was not getting to the people in Jabalia in northern Gaza, where the Israeli military has stepped up its campaign, and that Washington would not accept that.
A State Department spokesperson told The Times of Israel that the US was “deeply troubled” by the legislation, saying that it could force the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees to discontinue all of its operations in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also previously expressed concern over the bills, stating that the “enactment of such restrictions would devastate the Gaza humanitarian response” as well as the provision of “vital” services in East Jerusalem.
British Foreign Minister David Lammy expressed London’s “profound regret” over the legislation, stating that “the allegations against UNRWA staff earlier this year were fully investigated, and offer no justification for cutting off ties with UNRWA.”
Lammy added that banning the organization would not be in Israel’s “interests.”
In a seeming response to the international criticism, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel was prepared to work with international partners, both in the 90 days before the legislation takes effect and afterward, to ensure that humanitarian aid would still reach Gazan civilians.
“UNRWA workers involved in terrorist activities against Israel must be held accountable. Since avoiding a humanitarian crisis is also essential, sustained humanitarian aid must remain available in Gaza now and in the future,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement issued in English.
“In the 90 days before this legislation takes effect – and after – we stand ready to work with our international partners to ensure Israel continues to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security,” Netanyahu’s office said.
While Israel has worked to gradually limit UNRWA’s role in the delivery of humanitarian aid, in favor of the World Food Program, UNICEF and other agencies, UNRWA is still heavily involved in the Strip’s humanitarian operation, running shelters, clinics and warehouses.
An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the security establishment and professional staff cautioned political leaders against passing the legislation in the middle of the war against Hamas in Gaza without a viable replacement in place.
While some Israeli political leaders recognized the humanitarian risk and the international backlash that would result, “the political cost of opposing the legislation became too significant to endure,” the official said, explaining that the IDF itself spent months building a campaign that ties UNRWA to Hamas.
The Knesset’s approval of the two bills in their second and third (final) readings came only days after UNRWA confirmed that a Hamas Nukbha commander killed in an Israeli strike, who led the killing and kidnapping of Israelis from a roadside bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7 last year, had been employed by the agency since July 2022.
Israel alleges that more than 10 percent of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza have ties to terrorist factions, and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror.
In February, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and gunmen hiding out in UNRWA schools.
Israeli lawmakers celebrated the legislation’s passage on Monday evening. Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, the sponsor of the bill prohibiting UNRWA from operating within Israel, tweeted: “UNRWA terrorists, your story ends here; enemies have no right to exist in the State of Israel.”
“UNRWA will not operate in the territory of the State of Israel, their perks will be canceled, their entry into Israel will be prohibited, complete severance of ties,” exulted opposition Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky, the sponsor of the second bill.
“That’s it, it’s over. UNRWA is out,” cheered Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, calling the bills’ passage an “historic and significant move for the security of the country” against terrorists operating “under the auspices of the United Nations.”
“UNRWA employed terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre and is educating young Palestinians about terrorism and hatred of Israel,” said Energy Minister Eli Cohen.
“Terrorists and supporters of terrorism have no place in the State of Israel,” argued Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf.
“I congratulate and thank the members of the Knesset from across the political spectrum for passing the laws that tonight put an end to the ongoing disgrace of cooperation with UNRWA,” said far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
“Whoever harms the security of the State of Israel, the State of Israel will harm him,” he added.
MK Benny Gantz’s centrist National Unity party also supported the legislation, and criticized Netanyahu for missing the votes against what it described as “an organization that was part of the Hamas apparatus and whose employees took part in the October 7 massacre.”
During a debate in the Knesset plenum ahead of the votes, Arab lawmakers railed against the laws, with Hadash-Ta’al MK Aida Touma-Sliman claiming Israel was carrying out “genocide” in Gaza.
“No Palestinian wants to be a refugee,” she yelled, adding that “the majority of Gazans are now refugees.”
Likud MK Tally Gotliv had to be physically restrained by Knesset ushers after approaching the podium during a speech by Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi, in which he railed against what he termed “fascist” legislation.
“The Palestinian people will be freed from the occupation,” Tibi screamed, as right-wing MKs called for him to leave the Knesset.
Israel had been extremely critical of UNRWA long before the Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, saying that its near uniqueness in the world — granting refugee status not just to the first generation of refugees but to their descendants — perpetuated the conflict and a culture of dependence among Palestinians.
At the same time, some Israeli politicians and officials saw the relief that the agency provided as a means of keeping the Gaza Strip, and parts of the West Bank, from deeper poverty and thus greater violence and terrorism.
As reported by The Times of Israel