Israel’s UNRWA Accusations

From the NYT’s via Archive.ph

If you had any doubt this was not a politically motivated move.

The organization provides vital aid to more than five million Palestinian refugees scattered across the Middle East, whose future and status have never been resolved despite years of negotiations.

But to its critics, including many Israelis, the agency is an obstacle to resolving the conflict. Its very existence, they say, prevents Palestinian refugees from integrating into new communities and stokes their dreams of one day returning to what is now Israel — a goal that Israel says it will never allow. And in Gaza, Israel argues, UNRWA has fallen under the influence of Hamas, a claim the agency rejects.

So, UNRWA existence prevents Palestinians from leaving land Israel considers god given. And stokes the belief in a right to return to their own home and land. Apparently this is a right for Israeli’s only?

This is not the first time the United States has cut off money to the U.N. agency. The Trump administration suspended aid as part its efforts to pressure the Palestinian leadership to stop demanding that refugees be allowed to return to Israel.

But the current threat to its funding is considered to be the gravest in its history because it comes at a time of crisis for Gaza.

Amid warnings of famine, the collapse of the health system and the massive displacement of the Palestinian population, UNRWA’s work is considered more important than ever. It helps coordinate the distribution of the supplies of aid — however meager — that arrive each day in southern Gaza, and its schools provide shelter to more than a million Gazans, according to the agency’s statistics.

The funding suspensions may be felt quickly. Unlike other U.N. agencies, UNRWA has no strategic financial reserve. On Sunday, Mr. Guterres said services might need to be reduced beginning in February.

A day earlier, the agency’s commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, warned of impending catastrophe.

“It would be immensely irresponsible to sanction an agency and an entire community it serves because of allegations of criminal acts against some individuals, especially at a time of war, displacement and political crises in the region,” he said

It would be immensely irresponsible to sanction this agency at this time if the concern was legitimately humanitarian. However, if the concern/goal was to get the Palestinians displaced quicker, “encourage” them to accept integration into new communities (displacement) while giving up on their right to return, cutting off the funding for this agency would be exactly the right move.

We understand this is a purely political move. To advance a political agenda.