It's time to declare UNRWA as a terrorist organization

The Trump administration recently reported that it supports the Israeli government's decision to cut off all contact with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

This comes after the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) approved a ban on the UN agency's activities in Israeli territory last October. The separation between Israel and UNRWA will take effect on January 30.

Palestinians, eternal "refugees"

It’s important to note that the UN operates two refugee agencies: one for Palestinians (UNRWA) and another for all other refugees, called the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This creates a unique situation, as there have been, and continue to be, conflicts of equal or greater severity than the Palestinian-Israeli one, resulting in tens of thousands, and in some cases millions, of refugees.

In this regard, it’s also worth noting that under the UNRWA mandate, Palestinians are the only group allowed to pass on their refugee status by inheritance. For example, Bella Hadid, the American billionaire and daughter of Palestinian tycoon Mohammed Hadid, is considered a refugee. All quite unusual.

Not only are Palestinians the only group in the world with the unique status of being perpetual refugees, but their troubles also began when the Arabs living in the area (who became known as Palestinians from the 1960s onward) and the armies of several neighboring countries attempted to carry out a genocide against the Jews in 1948, following the declaration of the State of Israel’s independence.

It’s also important to clarify that UNRWA is an agency funded primarily by contributions from various countries around the world; it is not a private organization. Additionally, some of its members have been linked to terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and there are suspicions that some may have participated in the October 7 massacre.

UNRWA and antisemitic indoctrination

But that’s not all. UNRWA has also faced criticism for allegedly indoctrinating children in its schools in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem to hate Jews. This was confirmed by Dor Shahar, a Gazan who converted to Judaism and moved to Israel, in statements to VOZ.

Shahar recalled that during his childhood in an UNRWA school, a man once came into the classroom to indoctrinate them. "He told us that he was going to teach us a special class (...) and he started saying that Jews are murderers (...) that they had stolen our grandparents' lands, that all of Israel is Palestine, that we must shed our blood to get our lands back, that Jews were Muslims and became infidels, that they have three legs, and that the most important commandment is to kill a Jew," he said.

"UNRWA is equal to Hamas"

A notable statement came from MP Boaz Bismuth (Likud), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party, after the Knesset voted to ban UNRWA’s activities in Israel. "This is a call for justice, a wake-up call that draws a clear red line: anyone who dares to aid terrorism and acts like a terrorist has no right to exist in the State of Israel, now or in the future. UNRWA is equal to Hamas, period," he said.

Likud parliamentarian and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Yuli Edelstein argued at the start of last year's Knesset debate that there is evidence of UN members collaborating with Palestinian terrorists.

"In the committee's deliberations on the law, a video was presented showing the involvement of UNRWA members in the kidnapping of a corpse to the Gaza Strip and other evidence of their collaboration with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza. In addition, it was shown that the commander of the massacre at the Re'im shelter (a kibbutz attacked on October 7), where 16 Israelis were killed and from where four abductees were taken into Gaza, was an UNRWA terrorist," Edelstein said, clearing up any doubts about the agency's true nature.

UNRWA, a terrorist organization in disguise

One could argue that UNRWA is nothing more than a terrorist organization disguised as an aid agency for Palestinian refugees. It serves as another cog in the machine working to destroy Israel. Therefore, both the Jewish state and the free world must recognize it as a terrorist organization and treat it accordingly.

Banning a terrorist group from operating in a sovereign country is the least one could expect from a nation that values its survival.