Israel, by brazenly stealing Palestinian property and driving its people out and creating the world’s largest open-air prison in Gaza, has made it clear that it is not going to compensate the refugees.
Members of the UN Security Council, wanting to alleviate the terrible humanitarian conditions in which Palestinian refugees lived in tents in countries bordering Israel, helped create the UNRWA, which began operations in 1950. Donors to the UN agency included the US until President Donald Trump took office and cut off aid. These actions, which continued in part under the Biden administration because of enormous pro-Israel pressure in Congress, whetted the appetite of members of the now extreme right-wing Israeli government who had always hoped that the Palestinian refugee problem would simply disappear on its own.
The UNRWA provides humanitarian assistance to nearly 6 million Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. It is the main source of humanitarian support for the Palestinians. Its services include the provision of basic needs such as education, food, healthcare and fuel distribution. The closure of the Agency may inevitably lead to the withdrawal of basic services to the Palestinians. UNRWA is not a political body—it refrains from any political action and strictly follows the regularly approved UN mandate.
The mandate of the Agency, as defined by the UN General Assembly, is to provide assistance to “Palestinian refugees.” This term was defined in 1952 as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.” Palestinian refugees include both those who meet this definition and the descendants of those who meet this definition.
For years, Israel and its supporters have pressured the humanitarian agency, trying to get it closed, forcing countries not to fund it, or making false and often ridiculously trumped-up accusations against the UNRWA or its staff. The latest fiction that several local UNRWA staffers were involved in the October 7 (2023) Hamas attacks on Israel has been recently debunked by a high-level Investigative Committee set up by the UN secretary-general. The UN investigation, published in April, found no evidence of wrongdoing by UNRWA staff, noting also that Israel had not responded to requests for names and information and “has not reported any specific concerns about UNRWA staff to the UNRWA since 2011.”
But despite Israel’s failure to convince the world of the validity of its accusations, and despite pressure from Israel’s allies not to approve the ban, 92 of 120 Knesset members voted in favor of banning UNRWA from working in Israel, and 87 supported banning government agencies from any contact with the agency, effectively barring it from operating in the occupied territories.
Foreign ministers from Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Britain jointly criticized the proposed ban, saying it could have “devastating consequences” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This move comes shortly after Israeli authorities confiscated land in East Jerusalem, where the UNRWA headquarters is located. The Israeli authorities plan to build 1,440 housing units on the site, which is illegal under international law. But Israel and its rulers simply don’t care about international law—they consider themselves above it.
While the international community was debating, under enormous pressure from Israel, whether and how much to allocate funds to this important UN agency, no one expected the Knesset to act so callously, in such heartless, brazen defiance of the entire international community and vote in its highest legislative chamber to ban UNRWA from providing simple humanitarian aid to Palestinians in dire need. It appears that the Israelis not only want to gratuitously appropriate Palestinian property, they want to destroy these people, to simply starve them to death.
For decades, Israel has demanded that the world, including its enemies, recognize its right to exist. But Palestinians also have a legitimate right to defend themselves. Yet by banning the UN agency, Israel weakens its own legitimacy and becomes an international pariah.
There are many proverbs in folklore that apply to what Israel, a UN member state bound by the UN Charter, plans to do to UNRWA. “Do not spit in the well from which you drink” and “do not cut off the branch on which you sit” are two examples that seem to perfectly illustrate the folly of a country that worries about its legitimacy while opposing the only international UN organization that gave it the right to exist. But the UN can also change its decision, which it made long ago in sympathy with Jewish refugees from WWII Europe.
What Israel does in this conflict it calls an “existential war” is actually weakening its own status in the world community. When someone else’s land is stolen and a new country is created on someone else’s property, the last thing you want is to strengthen those who question your own existence. And yet, that is the vast majority of the world community.
Thus, when the now racist Netanyahu government tries to solve the Palestinian refugee problem by exterminating the Palestinians, this move may have the opposite effect. As a UN member state that bans the UN agency for now, Israel is helping to strengthen the demands of its adversaries and forcing the international community to seriously consider its membership in the global body that once recognized it. Apparently, it is indeed true that, when God wants to punish someone, he simply takes away their mind.
Viktor Mikhin, corresponding member of RANS, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”
