The last few weeks have not been good for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). They were, therefore, good for humanity.
Two senior UNRWA staffers indicated in a New York Times article that the UN agency will shut operations in Judea and Samaria, as well as in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has declared UNRWA to be a terrorist organization and bans it in the Jewish state effective Jan. 28.
The United States should follow suit on Jan. 20, the day Donald Trump is sworn in as president.
UNRWA employees raided, raped, murdered and abducted Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, thus becoming a foreign terrorist organization or FTO. The US should classify it as such, bankrupt it and destroy it.
Let’s review the case:
It is now beyond dispute that UNRWA employees took part in the Oct. 7 massacre, rape and kidnapping of 1,200 men, women and children. In August, the UN agency issued a mealy-mouthed admission of this.
Months before, in April, the Israeli government issued a report detailing UNRWA’s participation on Oct. 7. As of the date of the report, Israel identified 12 UNRWA employees for whom they had photographic and other evidence. That does not mean there were only 12 UNRWA employees involved, only that 12 were caught on camera.
Of the 12, seven were teachers, two were school counselors, and the others were humanitarian-aid warehouse managers.
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On Oct. 7, 2023, UNRWA “social worker” Faisal Ali Mussalem al-Naami was caught on camera dragging the body of 21-year-old Jonathan Samerano. He murdered Samerano in the rear of an SUV.
•A little more than a year later, on Oct. 24, 2024, the Israel Defense Forces eliminated Mohammad Abu Itiwi. He was a Hamas commander who led one of the assaults on Oct. 7, murdering and abducting Israeli civilians who were already fleeing from the Nova music festival. His day job? He drove UN-associated vehicles for UNRWA.
•In another case, an UNRWA teacher was caught holding hostages for 50 days in brutal conditions.
•At least 30 more UNRWA staff members served in support roles for Hamas on Oct. 7. There is a mountain of evidence; Israel has 1,000 team members assigned to the job.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the evidence against UNRWA as “highly, highly credible.”
UNRWA’s admission should make this an open-and-shut case. Yet nothing involving the United Nations ever is. To satisfy the skeptical, let’s peel back the next putrefied layers of this onion.
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Israel details 485 UNRWA employees who are (or were) active members of Hamas’ armed military wing, including commanders. Documented cases are too numerous to list here, but they include educators and school principals who were Hamas commanders. Israel warned UNRWA of the problem before Oct. 7, yet the agency did nothing.
The next layer of the onion includes UNRWA employees who are actual members of foreign terror groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad or others but not confirmed members of the military wings. According to Israel, nearly 1,470 people fall into this category.
The United Nations does not consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization and permits Hamas members to work for UNRWA. “Oh, I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll, and I don’t see that as a crime,” said former UNRWA commissioner-general Peter Hansen in 2004.
While UNRWA might not care that its employees work for and collaborate with Hamas and other FTOs, the United States does. The United States classified Hamas as an FTO in 1997.
Another layer of the onion is UNRWA’s history of permitting US-designated FTOs to borrow its facilities. They even let Hamas use UNRWA’s headquarters until Israel destroyed the campus in July.
The next layer of UNRWA’s rotten onion is the funding of terror. UNRWA funds terror in two primary ways. First, it skims donor money. Second, it creates thousands of phantom “jobs” for FTO members who pursue their real career: jihad. UNRWA employees have an improbably high absenteeism rate. Some never show up.
UNRWA has no independent outside auditor. It does not follow GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) or other accepted accounting procedures. It deliberately obfuscates and hides expenses. Billions of dollars are unaccounted for.
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The last layer, for purposes of US anti-terror statutes, is UNWRA’s general support for FTOs. A large percentage of UNRWA’s 30,000-member workforce foments terror even among young children, in violation of United States law. The evidence shows that they engage in these activities in UNNRWA facilities on company time.
From 2007 to 2017, the United States’ contributions to UNRWA totaled $3.6 billion. In August 2018, the United States ended donations to UNRWA. Democrats reversed course in April 2021, donating another $1.2 billion up to the Oct. 7 massacre. It was a significant blunder.
Terrorism is defined in Sec.140(d)(2) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.” (See, 22 USC. Sec. 2656f(d)(2).)
When terror is undertaken by a group like UNRWA, the US Secretary of State, in consultation with the US Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, has the power to declare that a group is an FTO. (See, 8 USC. § 1189.)
If the US were to take this path, it would paralyze UNRWA. The group’s accounts would be frozen. Its assets would be blocked, and it would be unable to use mainstream or Western banking institutions. Private and even sovereign donors would potentially transgress US law by contributing funds. UNRWA’s culpable employees would be subject to extradition and arrest.
Nor is there immunity under US law. Murder, rape and abduction of Jewish civilians remain outside the scope of UNRWA’s official duties.
Following UNRWA’s direct involvement in — and support and funding of, terror — there is no other reasonable conclusion. UNRWA has become a foreign terrorist organization, according to US law. Now is the time to end it.
Rami Chris Robbins is a Jewish-American writer who focuses on Middle East issues. To reach him, write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com