Israel’s parliament passes law banning the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency
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Israel’s Parliament on Monday passed two laws banning a 74-year-old United Nations agency that aids Palestinian refugees from operating within Israel and also severed diplomatic relations with the organization.
These measures threaten the ability of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to provide food, medicine and shelter to nearly 2 million Gazans. displaced due to war in Palestine.
The law challenged Israel’s closest European allies, along with Japan and South Korea, which already have warning on Sunday that banning UNRWA from operating in Israel would have “devastating consequences for an already dire and rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation”.
“If UNRWA goes, you will see civilians – including children, including infants – unable to access food, water and medicine without they need to live”.
The United States is both Israel’s largest diplomatic and military supporter and its largest contributor UNRWAbudget of.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the legislation pushed through the Knesset by not only his far-right coalition allies but also by most Jewish parliamentarians. The dissent of Palestinian lawmakers with Israeli citizenship was voiced in a fierce but brief debate.
The first law did not explicitly prohibit UNRWA from operating in besieged Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The second severance of diplomatic communications between Israel and the agency, however, will disrupt the daily mechanism of delivering humanitarian aid into Gaza and the diplomatic status of UNRWA officials.
Under international law, Israel is obligated to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, which Netanyahu said on X-day that it would continue to do.
UNRWA head Philipe Lazzarini said the vote violated Israel’s obligations under international law. “This is the latest move in an ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role,” Lazzarini said on X. “These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement Monday that he was “deeply concerned” about Israel’s passage of the law, which he warned “could have devastating consequences for Palestinian refugees.” and will hinder the peace process.
“There is no alternative to UNRWA,” Guterres said.
The Israeli government has accused UNRWA of allowing many of its staff to collude with the Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023, when thousands of militants breached the border between Gaza and southern Israel.
It provided little evidence to support its claims, and UNRWA said in August that it had fired 9 employees According to Israeli officials, who may have been involved in the attack that killed 1,200 people and sparked the war in Gaza.
However, right-wing Israeli politicians have long disliked the agency because it included descendants of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war that led to the creation of the state of Israel among its list of deportees. demanding “the right to return”. to the ancestral homeland.
Mr. Netanyahu has previously said that UNRWA “perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem.”
Although the law will not take effect for at least three months, its immediate impact will be felt in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem, home to more than 300,000 Palestinians, in a move not recognized by most of the international community and considers the entire city to be sovereign territory.
UNRWA offices in East Jerusalem were attacked by right-wing activists this year.
UNRWA operates schools, medical clinics and other essential services for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, in addition to supporting 5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
