Israel's job to replace UNRWA, UN claims

(JNS) — The United Nations said in a letter Tuesday that finding a replacement for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which Israel banned for its terror ties, was Jerusalem’s responsibility.

“If UNRWA is no longer able to operate it would be the responsibility of the Israeli authorities to replace its services that it delivers to civilians, in education, in health, and all sorts of other areas,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters. 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ chef de cabinet, Courtenay Rattray, wrote to an Israeli foreign affairs official on Tuesday, saying, “I would note, as a general point, that it is not our responsibility to replace UNRWA, nor do we have the capacity to do so.”

Her letter was in reply to one sent by Israel’s Foreign Ministry to the U.N. General Assembly explaining it would no longer work with UNRWA but “will continue to work with international partners, including other United Nations agencies.”

“Israel expects the United Nations to contribute to and cooperate in this effort,” the letter said.

Israel terminated relations with UNRWA a week after the Knesset, by a vote of 92 to 10, passed legislation on Oct. 28 banning the organization’s operations in the Jewish state.

“UNRWA may be defined by a single word—failure,” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told a meeting of the General Assembly on UNRWA on Wednesday. “This idea that UNRWA could not be supplemented is absurd.”   

Israel has long criticized UNRWA’s operations in Gaza as controlled by Hamas. That criticism sharpened after the Oct. 7 massacre and revelations that UNRWA employees took part in the slaughter. 

The curriculum in UNRWA-run schools also has been repeatedly exposed for its glorification of jihad and antisemitism.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Monday, “UNRWA, whose employees took part in the Oct. 7 massacre and many of whose workers are Hamas operatives, is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip, not part of the solution.”

Danon tweeted on Monday, “Despite the overwhelming evidence we submitted to the U.N. that substantiates Hamas’ infiltration of UNRWA, the U.N. did nothing to rectify the situation.”

U.N. officials have painted the banning of its organization in apocalyptic terms. 

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday that the Israeli move would have “disastrous consequences.” 

“Millions of Palestine refugees fear that the public services on which their lives depend will soon disappear,” he said. “They fear that their children will be deprived of education; that illnesses will go untreated; and that social support will stop.”