It’s essential that Israel push UNRWA out of Gaza

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has put together a classified report calling for the removal of UNRWA from the Gaza Strip in the long-term.

The report sets out a three-stage process for shrinking and eventually eliminating UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, from the Strip:

1) Prepare a case detailing UNRWA’s cooperation with Hamas;

2) Reduce UNRWA’s field of activity and find replacement service providers; and

3) Transfer UNRWA’s responsibilities to another entity.

Israel reportedly wants to move slowly, recognizing that the US sees UNRWA as a positive player in humanitarian efforts in the Strip. The ministry hopes to gradually build the case for ousting the organization, linking that goal to discussions on “the day after” Hamas.

UNRWA was born in sin and exists in sin, therefore, it should be dismantled,” said Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies. “It was established because of pressure by the Arab world as a platform to leverage the interests of Arab leaders against the State of Israel using the Palestinian [refugee] issue.”

Israel must convince the US and the international community of UNRWA’s unfitness by pulling together research, much of which has already been performed, on the group. Israel should also highlight what UNRWA’s own people have revealed about it, he said, noting especially James Lindsay.

James G. Lindsay, an American civil servant, worked with UNRWA from 2000 to 2007 and as its general counsel from 2002. For more than a decade, he has called for a close examination of UNRWA’s activities, saying it doesn’t solve the Palestinian refugee problem, but rather perpetuates it.

The Palestinian refugee population is the only one that increases each year. Starting from 700,000 in 1948 it has grown to 5.9 million refugees registered with UNRWA as of mid-2023.

“The idea that we are still talking about Palestinian refugees is not reasonable,” said Michael. “We’re talking about fifth-generation refugees when actually they are not refugees at all.”

The worst aspect of UNRWA is that it’s controlled by Hamas. “All the workers of UNRWA in the Gaza Strip — something like 13,000 — all of them are approved by Hamas,” he said.

In 2020, 58% of UNRWA’s then-$800 million budget (it has since ballooned to $1.6 billion) went to education, with the curriculum in UNRWA-run schools repeatedly exposed for its glorification of jihad and antisemitism. Michael says education isn’t even part of its mandate. 

More than 100 of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists who carried out terrorist attacks and murdered Israeli citizens on Oct. 7 were graduates of UNRWA’s education system, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found.

In another report, it found at least 14 teachers and staff at UNRWA schools publicly celebrated the Hamas massacre and other Hamas attacks on their social media accounts.

“There is no doubt that Hamas uses UNRWA to promote its goals,” Michael said.

As to what will replace UNRWA at war’s end, Michael proposes an international consortium made up of Western and Middle Eastern countries (similar to what the Netanyahu government is suggesting).

Michael says this trusteeship will last for at least five years. During that time, it will train a professional technocratic class from the Palestinian population to run the Strip.

“The process of reconstruction will require very deep changes to Palestinian society and leadership,” Michael said.