War Day #115: 10% of UN Group Support Terror, Nothing to see here, folks

Monday, January 29

I’ve been working on writing an indictment of UNRWA, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency.

I was going to write about the on-the-street suspicions that some UNRWA staff were implicated in October 7. I was going to talk about how it’s known that some UNRWA employees housed (and mistreated) Israeli hostages; how some were involved in Hamas weapons storage. I was going to talk about the dangers of employing UNRWA hate-filled educators in Gazan schools.

I was going to ponder the inexplicablility of funding an organization that, amidst all the world’s many many refugees, services only Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. I was going to wonder why the UN has another refugee organization —UNHCR— which addresses all the world’s refugees except Palestinians. And why all the other refugees in the entire world lose their refugee status when they move to a new country — and only Palestinians not only keep their refugee status forever, they pass it on to future generations apparently forever.

And then today the story broke. 10% of UNRWA employees have known links to Hamas. (I’m guessing that means 30% minimum by the time they’re done reporting.) But even if it’s only the ten percent the Wall Street Journal is reporting…

Ten percent!

Ten percent of a United Nations aid organization are terrorists or in bed with terrorists.

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/at-least-12-u-n-agency-employees-involved-in-oct-7-attacks-intelligence-reports-say-a7de8f36

Already the backlash is beginning.

Of the twelve already confirmed with Hamas October 7 links, two UNRWA staffers kidnapped Israelis. Two more were at the site of the massacres. Still others helped Hamas with weapons acquisitions. At least one abductee was held captive by an UNRWA teacher. (Hostages were apparently moved around in Gaza through various UNRWA, aka Hamas, facilities.) Seven of the 12 now under investigation were UNRWA primary school teachers.

(And then we wonder why the vast majority of Gazans support Hamas? Maybe next time the world installs an aid organization we should entrench one without terrorist ties, just for novelty’s sake.)

The U.N.’s credibility is also at issue here, especially since UNRWA reports were cited in Friday’s trial of Israel at The Hague. (If the entire UN is corrupt, perhaps we should declare a mistrial?)

What UNRWA is supposed to do, with its budget of $1.6 billion for the 5.9 million Palestinian refugees in not just Gaza, but also the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, is provide food, health care, and education.

What it has also done is prolonged the conflict.

For decades, it has prevented Palestinian refugees from successfully integrating, stirred up a steady diet of anti-Israel hatred in UNRWA schools, and perpetuated Hamas’ promise of eventually reclaiming all of Israel. It is the only refugee organization in the world that extends aid to descendants of the originally displaced, and then descendants of descendants of those descendants.

That is why the Palestinian ‘refugee’ population is the only refugee population in the world that is growing instead of shrinking, and currently stands at an absurd number of more than 5 million ‘refugees’ (up from 700,000 in 1948.)

And this seems to me a conflict of interest. UNRWA’s job should be to put themselves out of business by helping Palestinians get into permanent situations. (Why, oh why, are there refugee camps 75 years later? By 1952, all but two World War ll displaced persons camps were closed. Why hasn’t UNRWA helped the Palestinians out of refugee camps, 75 years later?)

A new U.N. Watch report, to be released and discussed in Congress tomorrow, reportedly shows how a Telegram group of over 3,000 UNRWA teachers in Gaza celebrated the October 7th Hamas massacre. The message group’s administrators (conveniently identified by name and UNRWA contract number) praised Hamas publicly for murdering Israelis.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/united-nations-unrwa-israel-hamas-gaza-international-court-of-justice-south-africa-a806157a

After Israel brought evidence that twelve UNRWA employees participated in October 7, the U.S. State Department announced a pause in funding UNRWA pending an investigation. Other countries quickly followed suit.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/28/world/middleeast/gaza-unrwa-hamas-israel.html

UNRWA funding is being temporarily paused, finally, by the U.S., Canada, Australia, UK, Finland, Italy, Scotland, the Netherlands, Estonia, Japan, Austria, Romania. The EU is also threatening to discontinue funding. The US is UNRWA’s largest donor at $222 million in 2022, with the Netherlands at 20 million, Canada at $19 million, UK at $14 million, Australia at almost $14 million, Finland at almost $8 million, Italy at $7 million, Japan at $4 million, Estonia at under a million.

Norway and of course always-reliably-anti-Israel Ireland, have announced they will continue their funding of UNRWA.

https://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/overall_donor_ranking_2022.pdf

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged donor countries not to withdraw their support, claiming that it was unfair to penalize the entire organization and all Gazan civilians who benefit from UNRWA just because of a few.

But the rot in UNRWA goes well beyond the dozen employees who were fired. Like, 10% worth. I’m guessing more.

https://m.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-784111

But most indicting:

Hamas (Hamas!) criticized UNRWA for dismissing employees who participated in October 7, saying it was due to "Zionist accusations” and that it is not within UNRWA's purview "to declare political positions regarding the conflict."

https://m.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-784007

Should we really continue to let Hamas call the shots here?

Do we really want our U.N. funds to be supporting terrorists?

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