Most Fridays are packed with weekend prep, but this Friday was different: Everyone tuned into live broadcasts from the ICJ on whether Israel’s offensive in Gaza constitutes genocide and whether the fighting should be ordered to stop.
Simultaneously, UNRWA announced an astonishing thing: It was opening an investigation into 12 employees suspected of involvement in the Hamas-led October 7 massacre, severing ties with them to “protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance,” said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General.
The world reacts to UNRWA
The UN said it was “horrified” by the news – which did not surprise Israelis much, and the US announced it would halt funding on Saturday, followed by Canada, Australia, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Finland. The US is one of its largest donors, along with Germany and the EU.
On Sunday, and already for the last few days, protesters at Kerem Shalom blocked the entry of goods and humanitarian materials into Gaza, claiming that it is “giving Hamas the oxygen it needs.” UNRWA hasn’t responded directly to this, but it immediately distinguished between the 12 “bad apples” and the organization.
That is the root of the debate, then: Whether the sentiments and intentions that led to these staffers participating in the worst massacre the Jewish people have experienced since the Holocaust – on the UN’s payroll – was a glaring exception or not. The US’ future funding hedges on this, on the conclusions of the probe UNRWA was instructed to conduct.
Israel, and some Republicans, have long suspected the agency, arguing that it acts only to fuel the conflict and that the money going to food, education, and healthcare frees up Hamas to fund its hostilities against Israel.
Established in 1949 after the War of Independence, UNRWA provides schooling, primary healthcare, and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. More than 150 UNRWA staffers have been killed in the war so far. The majority of its 30,000 staff are Palestinians, 13,000 in Gaza alone.
According to the agency, “In the absence of a solution to the Palestine refugee problem, the General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA’s mandate, most recently extending it until 30 June 2023.” The evidence that incitement, Israel-erasure, and antisemitism are prominent in the agency’s educational materials is not new and is a long-standing Israeli accusation.
Hamas said on Sunday, following the string of announcements, that UNRWA “has been subject to blackmail by countries that support Israeli terrorism” and pinned the responsibility back on the international community; neither side is happy with the agency.
Halting funds though, as much as it serves to quench the anger that UN-funded textbooks included antisemitism and incitement against Jews, isn’t the answer.
Though UNRWA will probably need more funds this year, millions of dollars are already pledged to it. UNRWA isn’t going anywhere, and calling for it to be defunded or canceled, as though an agency this large could be disbanded in a way, are both short-sighted, unrealistic calls.
UNRWA isn’t going anywhere, and it is irreplaceable in the level of aid that it provides. What changed this weekend is that it is now irrefutable that it must change course. Palestinians need aid and recognition, now more than ever; they need what UNRWA is supposed to do, but the agency, both as a microcosm and on a larger scale of ideas, will not solve the Palestinian issue.
The hard truth is that any hope for some kind of lasting state of non-war between Israelis and Palestinians rests on many things – one of the most central tenets is education; the narrative approach of Palestinians as antithetical to Israel at their very root, at the heart of their story, is not a long-lasting national directive.
The global trend that has guided the West in humanitarian assistance aid for decades is being called into question: Does it work? Can it? And should we, as a democratic-value-oriented country, be supporting it knowing its failures?
Israel has taken its stance, it is time for the rest to begin asking these questions as well. The lofty goals of the UN body don’t find roots in the sandy terrain of Gaza, but neither the agency nor the need it serves, are going anywhere anytime soon. It is time for some redirection.