Dan Senor devotes the current edition of his Call Me Back Podcast to a timely discussion of UNRWA’s collaboration with Hamas. Senor calls on the Times of Israel’s Haviv Rettig Gur to explain what this requited love affair is all about. I have posted the podcast below. The show notes link to the UN Watch report “UNRWA Hate Starts Here: How UNRWA Teachers Indoctrinate Palestinian Children and Promote Terrorism and Antisemitism.” Senor also cites the work of Einat Wilf. I think he has her 2020 book (with Adi Schwartz) The War of Return in mind. She wrote specifically about UNRWA in this 2013 column.
Wilf herself recommends the excellent January 30 Israeli government briefing below. She seeks to highlight the remarks at 18:10 that elaborate on a point made by Gur in the podcast: “UNRWA’s problem is not bad apples. It’s systemic rot.”
In Mosaic’s daily email update this morning, senior editor Andrew Koss draws attention to the podcast and writes:
To anyone who has paid careful attention to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) over the past many years, it is not surprising that some of its employees were active participants in the events of October 7. The real news is that the evidence is so overwhelming that the U.S. and at least seventeen other countries have responded by suspending further contributions to the organization. [Power Line editor adds: They are highly likely to resume after a decent interval.] What’s more, UNRWA has fired some of its employees and is conducting a further investigation, as opposed to its usual strategy of issuing indignant denials.
But UNRWA’s problems go far deeper than entanglement with Hamas. To get a better sense, I spent some time yesterday perusing the organization’s website. The FAQ section now includes attempts to rebut some of the common criticisms leveled against it, most importantly that it approaches the Palestinian refugee problem in a way no other refugee problem has been addressed since the UN’s founding. The answers are, needless to say, exercises in misdirection and question-begging.
Yet there is some good news here. Such answers suggest that substantive attention is being paid to the aggravating role UNRWA plays in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Since UNRWA only exists due to the support of the United Nations and the largesse of mostly Western countries, that’s a step in the right direction.
I then spent some time reading the requirements for refugee status. The organization defines Palestine refugees 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,” as well as descendants of such persons on the male line. It also stipulates that its current activities are limited to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank (including east Jerusalem), and the Gaza Strip. I found no mention in the regulations about religion, ethnicity, or current citizenship.
During the Israeli War of Independence, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem were entirely cleansed of Jews—a population of many thousands. Surely a few of them, and many of their descendants, now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. So far as I can tell, given the stipulations just discussed, these Jews are eligible to apply for refugee status with UNRWA. What were to happen if they applied? For one, it might help to expose the organization’s hypocrisy, which has brought much suffering on Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Koss invites those with relevant knowledge to respond by email sent to editors(at) mosaicmagazine(dot)com.
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