Knesset bans UNRWA in Israel

(JNS) — Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Monday passed by a large majority two laws that prohibit UNRWA from operating on Israeli territory and make it illegal for state officials to be in contact with representatives of that controversial U.N. aid agency for Palestinians.

The Knesset passed the laws, which followed exposures about UNRWA staff’s complicity in the Hamas massacres of Oct. 7, 2023, despite pressure by the United States and other countries to desist for fear that it would complicate humanitarian projects in Gaza and beyond.

Axios quoted an unnamed U.S. State Department official as saying that the Biden Administration was “deeply concerned” about the legislation, echoing language that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had used ahead of the vote.

Josep Borrell, the E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, tweeted that the new laws “would de facto render UNRWA’s vital operations in Gaza impossible, and seriously hamper its provision of services in the West Bank.” The laws stand “in stark contradiction to international law and the fundamental principle of humanity,” he added.

UNRWA’s chief officer Philippe Lazzarini tweeted that the legislation “opposes the U.N. Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law.” 

Experts on UNRWA, including Israeli former lawmaker Einat Wilf who has written an acclaimed book about the agency, dispute that the legislation contradicts international law. Israel is not party to any treaty compelling it to engage with the group or allow its activities, she told JNS.

The laws are by far the most robust parliamentary push by Israel against UNRWA, whose biggest donors are the United States and the European Union. UNRWA for decades has been accused of providing cover and income for Palestinian terrorists while undermining peace efforts.

The law that bans UNRWA activity on Israeli territory, authored by Boaz Bismuth of Likud and six other lawmakers from coalition parties, passed thanks to a majority of 87 lawmakers out of the Knesset’s 120. Nine lawmakers who were present at the Knesset plenum voted against the law. Another did not vote despite being present at the Knesset plenum. The remaining 23 lawmakers were not present and did not vote.

“UNRWA—United Nations Relief and Works Agency will operate no representation, provide no service or hold any activity, directly or indirectly, in the sovereign territory of the State of Israel,” the law coauthored by Bismuth states.

The second law states: “No state authority, including entities and individuals who legally hold public office, will engage in any contact with UNRWA or its representatives.” It was coauthored by three lawmakers—Yulia Malinovsky of the opposition party Yisrael Beitenu, Dan Illouz of Likud and Ron Katz of the Yesh Atid opposition party of Yair Lapid. Ten lawmakers voted against it and 92 in favor.

“UNRWA will not operate in Israel, their benefits will be canceled, their entry to Israel will be banned. Total Disconnect,” Malinovsky wrote on X about the significance of the law’s passing.

UNRWA has some 30,000 staff, most of them Palestinians, including 13,000 in the Gaza Strip alone, according to its website. It also has staff in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. UNRWA operates in Jordan and Lebanon, too. 

Being banned in Israel could end UNRWA’s work in Jerusalem and greatly complicate its operations in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, where the organization is at least partially dependent on Israeli cooperation.

In the wake of the Oct. 7 massacres in Israel, in which Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and abducted another 251, evidence had surfaced about the complicity in those atrocities and other acts of terrorism by UNRWA staff.

Footage taken that day in Israel showed UNRWA worker Faisal Ali Mussalem al Naami and a colleague loading the limp body of Israeli Yonatan Samerano onto a car.

According to Israel, over 450 terrorists belonging to terrorist organizations in Gaza, mainly Hamas, are also employed by UNRWA. UNRWA’s chief officer, Philippe Lazzarini, has flatly denied these allegations.

On Sept. 29, Hamas admitted that Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amin, a chairman of UNRWA’s Teachers’ Association, was its commander in Lebanon. In March, UNRWA suspended Abu al-Amin, yet after his death denied knowing he was involved in terrorism.

UNRWA-employed Arabic teacher Yusef Zidan Suleiman al-Hawajara was recorded bragging to a friend about capturing a female hostage. (“We have female hostages, I captured one!” he said in a recording released by the IDF.)

In July, Israel’s foreign ministry published a list of names and ID numbers of 108 UNRWA employees accused of being Hamas terrorists. It was a “small fraction,” a Foreign Ministry official wrote, of a much larger list including hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members who also worked for UNRWA. The wider list could not be released due to security considerations.

On Oct. 13, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a letter about the agency to Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Defense Minister Yoav Galant. In the letter, which demanded Israel increase the amount of aid being let into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, they noted that they were “deeply concerned” about the Knesset bills.

UNRWA had a budget of about $1.1 billion in 2023. Eighteen countries suspended funding to UNRWA following the Oct. 7 attack, including the United States, which provides roughly a third of the organization’s budget. The U.S. froze its donations to UNRWA until March 2025. Only it and New Zealand have not yet reinstated their funding.

Through UNRWA, the United Nations employs a unique refugee definition to Palestinians. UNRWA defines as refugees not only those who fled the Arab-initiated war against nascent Israel in 1948, but their descendants in perpetuity until a “just solution” emerges for their status. The United Nations has a different definition for all other refugees, who cannot pass the title to their descendants and often lose it when they are naturalized elsewhere.

This has perpetuated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to many critics, including Hillel Neuer, the founder of U.N. Watch.

The reason the United Nations insists on providing services through UNRWA instead of the U.N.’s many other aid outfits is that “the whole point of UNRWA,” which was established in 1949, “is to continue the war of 1948 and to dismantle Israel,” Neuer told JNS earlier this month.