Should UNRWA be shut down?
YES
Should the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees be shut down? Yes. Anyone who supports peace and a two-state solution should be the first to demand an end to UNRWA, because its whole point is to tell Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank that their home is not there, it’s within Israel. There’s a direct line between that narrative and what happened on October 7—the terrorists were exercising their “right of return.” To continue supporting UNRWA would mean we want more October 7s and that we want to teach Palestinians in Gaza, and elsewhere, that they shouldn’t invest in building a future where they are.
Has October 7 irreparably damaged UNRWA’s credibility? Anyone with eyes who was remotely interested already knew that UNRWA was complicit with terrorism. It’s not a bug but a feature, because UNRWA’s implicit mission is to dismantle Israel. The events of October 7 brought that goal into focus, because the atrocities and brutalities were so extreme. That UNRWA staff participated also was not new. UN Watch has been tracking the promotion of terrorism by UNRWA staff, teachers and school principals for nine years, and we estimate that thousands of UNRWA staff are engaged in it. And once the IDF went into Gaza, they discovered a lot of evidence.
Has UNRWA always been controversial? Until recently, most people weren’t paying attention to it. Whenever we at UN Watch would submit our reports to the U.S. State Department and seek meetings to discuss them, the department would try to shield the funding. A senior State Department official who had worked with UNRWA told me he knew nothing about any problems in the schools; at the same time, we had found hundreds of examples of UNRWA teachers promoting terrorism and glorifying Adolf Hitler just among those whose Facebook accounts were public. No one wanted to hear about it. At most, an email would be sent to UNRWA saying, “We have some reports about problems,” and UNRWA would say, “We looked into it, we took care of it.” And then if Congress or another country’s government asked questions, the diplomats would say, “We spoke to UNRWA, they’re taking care of it.”
Up until the revelation by Israel on January 26 that at least 12 UNRWA staff members had been involved in the events of October 7, the State Department was still saying UNRWA would play a “central role” in postwar planning. A day later, America suspended its funding. I think the American government was embarrassed and wanted to do something swift and decisive, which they thought would be temporary. But the new funding package contains a ban on money to UNRWA, and this may reflect a new consensus.
Which of its functions, if any, are essential? Feeding people is important, but many other agencies around the world can do it. UNRWA only operates in a small part of the world; elsewhere, there are agencies such as the World Food Programme or the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that can do the work. Right now, refugees inside of Gaza need humanitarian aid— food, medicine, shelter. The UN treats tens of millions of people around the world who need these things.
In the long term, Palestinian entities should manage services. Why should the society be structured so that for 75 years, they’ve lived off UN handouts? It’s completely absurd. They’re very capable people.
“To continue supporting UNRWA would mean we want more October 7s. HILLEL NEUER
What services are still needed for Palestinians outside Gaza? In Jordan, most Palestinians are citizens. So if aid is going to UNRWA to run schools there, America should redirect it to the Jordanian Ministry of Education so they can run the schools. The current way makes no sense. It’s like telling Americans that descendants of Jews who came from Anatevka at the beginning of the 20th century are still Russian refugees and need assistance.
Lebanon is a little different because the Palestinians there are not citizens. But that’s a case of apartheid. They were born and raised for 75 years in Lebanon, they’re Arabs, they’re Muslims. Why don’t they have citizenship? They should have Lebanese citizenship and move on with their lives.
What should happen next? Starting in Gaza, in the short term, America and its allies should redirect all funding to agencies not infested with terrorism, whether it’s the World Food Programme or other nonprofits and NGOs. And then Israel, together with its allies in America and Europe, should say that in the Gaza Strip, we’re done with UNRWA, and we recognize that a Palestinian born in Palestine is not a refugee and that if you live in Gaza, your home is in Gaza, not Tel Aviv. Palestinians who acknowledge that should be given all the money in the world to rebuild.