UNRWA distributes flour to Palestinian refugees in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip, Nov. 22, 2023. (Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images)

By Luke Tress October 30, 2024 6:03 pm

The United States and United Nations are pushing back against Israeli legislation that will sharply curtail the work of the main U.N. agency serving Palestinians.

On Monday Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passed two bills aimed at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA. One of the bills prohibits all UNRWA activities within Israel, and the other bars Israeli authorities from contact with the U.N. agency.

The legislation, spurred in part by allegations of ties between UNRWA employees and Hamas, will halt the agency’s work in east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed decades ago and considers part of its capital, and drastically limit the agency’s services in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where it has relied on coordinating with Israeli officials.

UNRWA operates schools and provides health and civil services to Palestinians and is a major employer in Palestinian areas. It also operates in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

The agency’s supporters argue that it is a crucial provider of humanitarian aid, especially during the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But Israeli leaders have long criticized UNRWA, and accused it of teaching incitement in schools and abetting terror groups. 

Israel’s opposition to UNRWA has intensified since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel due to the agency’s ties to the terror group. Israeli authorities have said UNRWA staffers participated in Hamas atrocities and that the agency’s sprawling staff includes Hamas members. In February, the IDF said it uncovered a Hamas center underneath, and connected to, UNRWA’s Gaza headquarters.

The bill barring UNRWA activities in Israel passed by a vote of 92-10, and the bill banning state authorities from contact with the agency passed by a vote of 87-9, with lawmakers from both the governing coalition and the opposition voting in favor of both. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the legislation would take effect in 90 days.

Boaz Bismuth, the lawmaker from Netanyahu’s Likud Party who introduced one of the bills, said the majority that voted for it “understood the essential and pressing need to banish UNRWA terrorists from Israel.”

He added, “We sent a sharp and clear message to the world yesterday: Israel is not capitulating to external pressures.”

International opposition has come swiftly: At a Tuesday press briefing, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the administration was “deeply troubled” by the legislation.

“It poses risks for millions of Palestinians who rely on UNRWA for essential services, including health care and primary and secondary education,” Miller said, adding that the United States planned to discuss the legislation’s implementation with Israel.

“We have made clear our concerns over this bill. We have made clear our opposition to this bill,” Miller said.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the laws could have “devastating consequences for Palestine refugees.” And in a statement, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said the legislation was “unprecedented and sets a dangerous precedent.”

“This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to #Palestine Refugees,” Lazzarini tweeted. “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.”

The U.N. Security Council, the U.S. mission to the United Nations, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and international aid groups also denounced the legislation. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the vote “reflects Israel’s transformation into a fascist state.”

Israel’s longstanding objections to UNRWA go deeper than its post-Oct. 7 activity. Under the agency’s terms, Palestinians who left or were expelled from Israel in 1948, in addition to their descendants, are considered refugees, unlike other refugee groups aided by the United Nations. The Palestinians are also the only group with a dedicated U.N. refugee agency; all others are served by a separate U.N. body. Israeli officials have argued that that unique status serves to prolong the conflict. 

“UNRWA did not act as an agency with the purpose of rehabilitation, but as an agency intended to perpetuate refugee status and promote hatred, antisemitism and incitement to terror,” Likud Knesset member Yuli Edelstein, the chair of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said in a statement.

Opposition to UNRWA among Israelis is widespread but not universal, and even its critics acknowledge its practical role. Nadav Tamir, a former Israeli diplomat who currently runs the Israeli office of J Street, the liberal American Israel lobby, called UNRWA’s operations “problematic” but said the legislation doesn’t “serve Israel’s interests.”

He added, “Those who want to end UNRWA’s activities in Israel aren’t even concerning themselves with what will take its place. Apparently most of them want the answer to be — no one.”

But Peter Lerner, a former IDF spokesman who said he was once a defender of UNRWA, says he now feels the agency is “compromised beyond repair.”

Lerner used to emphasize “their importance as a stabilizing factor, and over the years enjoyed many productive conversations with their staff in the West Bank and in Gaza, internationals and locals,” he wrote on X. “Obviously I didn’t think UNRWA was perfect but I definitely saw more pros than cons.”

He added, “In the aftermath of the October 7 massacre I came to the rude awakening of how wrong I was, especially regarding UNRWA’s Gaza operations.”