Afrasianet - Hassan Nafaa - Netanyahu wants to undermine UNRWA because he wants to liquidate the Palestinian cause once and for all, which he can only achieve by removing the issue of Palestinian refugees from the agenda of the international system.
Therefore, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is subjected to a systematic campaign aimed at discrediting the global organization and degrading its status. In preparation for its complete undermining and preventing it from carrying out its humanitarian mission, a campaign led by Israel, managed by the global Zionist forces, and supported by the United States of America and other countries, this campaign reached its peak following the attack launched by Hamas on Israel on 7/10/2023, where the Israeli government issued a statement in which it officially accused UNRWA of participating in planning and executing this attack, by providing logistical and information support to the Palestinian resistance factions, and by allowing these factions to exploit UNRWA buildings and equipment for non-civilian purposes.
UNRWA denied these allegations in full and in detail, and Israel failed to prove the authenticity of any of them, and an independent committee was formed headed by Catherine Colonna, the former French Minister of Foreign Affairs, which conducted a thorough investigation into these allegations, and published its report, which clearly indicated that Israel did not provide a single concrete evidence that any UNRWA staff personally participated in the 7/10/2023 attack, or was organizationally associated with Hamas or any other faction of the Palestinian resistance, or was involved in the smuggling of weapons used In a 7/10 attack or otherwise. The Wall Street Journal then published a report in which it noted that a CIA official questioned the veracity of the Israeli claims.
U.S. citizens filed a lawsuit in a court accusing UNRWA of transferring funds to Hamas, but the court ruled that the case was dismissed, on the grounds that UNRWA enjoys judicial immunity as an integral part of the UN's institutional structure.
Some U.S. media outlets have also published press reports that Israel has claimed before the judges of the International Court of Justice that it has evidence to prove that some UNRWA employees are members of Hamas, but the Israeli government has failed to provide proof of this claim.
The United States and other Western countries have joined forces with Israel in this unjust and unjustified campaign, which has helped to amplify it and contributed to tarnishing the image of UNRWA in the minds of many, and some of these countries have even taken punitive measures against it, such as reducing the volume of voluntary contributions made to it or withholding them altogether.
Because it is an institution that is purely humanitarian, and is supposed to be appreciated and respected by all, it is natural that a campaign of such ferocity would raise strong doubts about the truth of the motives and objectives behind it, which are widely believed to be purely political goals and motives that are difficult to separate from the war of genocide and ethnic cleansing that Israel has been waging against the Palestinian people for more than two years, because it is directed in the same direction and leads to the achievement of the same results, especially since the extremist Netanyahu government took advantage of the "Al-Aqsa Flood" and found it in it An opportunity that should be seized to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, force the Palestinians to leave, annex the West Bank, and liquidate the axis of resistance.
To understand the true dimensions and implications of this systematic campaign, it should be remembered that the establishment of UNRWA was organically linked to the tragic results of the 1948 war.
During this war, Israel, according to Israeli historians and academics who have personally reviewed the official records of the Israeli archives, committed mass massacres and ethnic cleansing operations that resulted in the flight of huge numbers of Palestinians, at least 750,000 people, most of whom sought refuge in neighboring Arab countries. In the face of this tragic situation, the United Nations General Assembly, which had previously adopted a resolution to divide historic Palestine into two states, was forced to adopt a resolution in paragraph 11 of which stipulates that "the return of refugees wishing to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbours shall be allowed and compensation shall be paid for the property whose owners decide not to return, and for any loss or damage to such property, in accordance with the rules of international law and the principles of equity" (resolution 194 of 11 December 1948).
Because the conditions of these refugees were deteriorating due to Israel's insistence on refusing to return to their homes, the General Assembly decided, a year after the occurrence of this great humanitarian tragedy, to establish the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which aimed to "provide food, educational, health and operational relief services" to these refugees in their places of residence (Resolution 302 of 8/12/1949), on a temporary basis until Resolution 194 was implemented, especially since Israel had pledged to implement it during the discussion About its membership in the United Nations.
It may be useful to remind readers that the General Assembly's decision to admit Israel as a member of the United Nations (resolution 273 of 11 May 1949) was conditional on its undertaking to respect and implement resolutions 181 and 194. The resolution stated that "having taken note of the statements and undertakings made by the representative of the Government of Israel... It was decided to admit Israel as a member of the United Nations."
Referring to the minutes of the sessions that preceded the voting session on this resolution, it was found that Israel's representative in the General Assembly said in one word, "The Government of Israel accepts the Charter of the United Nations and undertakes to implement the relevant General Assembly resolutions," and in other sessions, he mentioned Resolution 194 by name, which confirms that the right of return was not only a Palestinian political demand, but was also an integral part of a legal framework under which Israel was accepted as a member of the international system, which means that it continued to reject The implementation of this resolution violates the conditions of membership in the United Nations and justifies its expulsion if it persists in its absence.
Instead of mustering the strength of the international community to force it to choose between continuing to refuse to implement Resolution 194 or losing its membership in the United Nations, then, more than 75 years after the decision of return, Israel is working to exterminate the refugees and settle their cause, rather than allowing them to return, not only through a war of genocide and a second ethnic cleansing, but also by trying to erase and eliminate the physical presence of the UN organization responsible for providing humanitarian care To them!!
After the establishment of UNRWA, Israel reluctantly accepted its existence as an international reality that it could not change, and then allowed it to operate within the territories it controlled after the 1948 war. Because most of its field activities before the 1967 war were carried out in neighboring Arab countries, there was no justification or room for friction, and therefore the relationship between them at that time was characterized by limited administrative cooperation, despite Israel's political position rejecting UNRWA in principle, on the grounds that its existence in itself reminds the world of Palestinian refugees and keeps the Palestinian cause alive in the minds of public opinion, but this situation changed radically after the 1967 war, when UNRWA became operating under the authority Israel has been accusing UNRWA of fueling the Palestinian identity that incites hatred of Jews, through the curricula used in the schools it manages.
As mass resistance to the occupation escalated, especially during the 1987 and 2005 intavadas, Israel began to accuse UNRWA of tolerating political activities organized by Palestinian factions and allowing it to use its buildings and facilities for non-civilian purposes, but it was unable to provide evidence to back up these accusations. As the far right began to take root in Israel, successive governments began to strive to liquidate the Palestinian cause once and for all, especially after Trump came to the White House.
During his first term, the Israeli government doubled down on its pressure on the Palestinian cause. UNRWA has begun to besiege it further, seeing it as part of the problem rather than a solution, and even publicly demanding its abolition and assignment of its functions to the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. Netanyahu was able to deal a major blow to the agency when he succeeded in convincing Trump to withhold funding from it altogether. Because the United States has been contributing nearly a third of the Agency's total budget, its activities and programmes have been shrinking to the point of sometimes failing to meet some of the basic needs of refugees.
When Trump returned to the White House for a second term, the "Al-Aqsa Flood" had hit Israel a full year ago, and the right-wing controlled it had decided to seize the opportunity to wage a war of genocide and ethnic cleansing against all Palestinians in the Strip, and therefore UNRWA schools, hospitals, and care and service centers affiliated to it, which had already turned into refuge centers for Palestinians, were not able to protect them, but were legitimate and desirable targets for the Israeli war machine, which explains the death of 392 UNRWA cadres. In addition to 73 of its local employees, 88% of its educational, health and relief facilities and institutions have been destroyed, which are unprecedented numbers in the entire history of the international organization. If it were not for Israel's absolute confidence that the American veto is always ready to protect it from expulsion from the United Nations and from being subjected to any kind of sanctions, it would not have been so brutal and arrogant and would not have committed so many crimes.
Netanyahu wants to undermine UNRWA by killing some of its employees, intimidating those who survive and drying up its financial resources at the same time, because he wants to liquidate the Palestinian cause once and for all, which he can only achieve by removing the issue of Palestinian refugees from the agenda of the international system.
This may be understandable by a person who is required to appear before the International Criminal Court. But what is stopping the rich Arab countries from rushing to save UNRWA to keep the Palestinian cause alive? Is it fear? Or collusion? Or both?.