Israeli Legislation Targets UNRWA Amid Accusations of Terrorist Links

Edited by: Fern Sidman

On Wednesday, the Israeli Knesset passed a preliminary reading of a bill with profound implications for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Proposed by Yulia Malinovsky of the Israel Beytenu party, the bill designates UNRWA as a terrorist organization and aims to abolish the immunities and privileges enjoyed by its employees, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post.  The bill passed its preliminary reading with a 42-6 majority.

The “Bill to Abolish the Immunity and Privileges of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)” seeks to integrate UNRWA under the purview of Israel’s Anti-Terrorism Law. Indicated in the JPost report was that this integration would nullify the organization’s diplomatic immunities, severing Israel’s ties with UNRWA and leading to the closure of its assets within Israeli territory. Foreign Minister Israel Katz will be responsible for enacting the decree that officially revokes UNRWA’s diplomatic immunity.

The roots of the current legislation trace back to 1947, when the United Nations Privileges and Immunities Ordinance was established. This ordinance granted the UN and its officials various legal protections, including immunity from legal action, tax exemptions, and import/export privileges, as was explained in the JPost report. These immunities were designed to facilitate the UN’s humanitarian and diplomatic activities worldwide. However, the new bill, if passed in its final reading, will dismantle these protections for UNRWA within Israel.

The legislative push against UNRWA comes amidst mounting allegations of the agency’s involvement with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization by Israel and other countries. Israeli authorities have presented substantial evidence implicating UNRWA in activities that compromise its humanitarian mission. The JPost reported that among the accusations are the discovery of Hamas tunnels beneath UNRWA schools and the collaboration of UNRWA employees with Hamas operatives, particularly highlighted by the events of October 7.

One of the most damning pieces of evidence was uncovered on February 10, when a 700-meter-long, 18-meter-deep tunnel leading to an underground shelter used by Hamas’s military intelligence was found beneath UNRWA’s central headquarters in Gaza, the report in the JPost noted. According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), this tunnel was supplied with electricity from UNRWA facilities, indicating a direct link between the agency’s infrastructure and Hamas’s military operations. This discovery highlighted the agency’s complicity and raised serious concerns about the misuse of UNRWA facilities for terrorist activities.

In a subsequent raid on UNRWA headquarters, the IDF found large quantities of weapons, including rifles, ammunition, grenades, and explosives. The JPost reported that this raid was prompted by intelligence suggesting that the facilities were being used by Hamas terrorists. Documents and other intelligence discovered during the raid further confirmed that UNRWA offices had been utilized by Hamas operatives.

According to estimates published by the Wall Street Journal on January 29, 2024, approximately 10% of UNRWA’s 12,000 employees are believed to have connections to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. This estimate underscores the deep infiltration of these militant groups within the organization. The Wall Street Journal reported that six UNRWA workers were directly involved in a wave of Palestinian militant attacks that resulted in the deaths of 1,200 people, marking the deadliest assault on Jews since the Holocaust, the JPost report said. Among these employees, two were involved in kidnapping Israelis, while others participated in or coordinated logistics for the assault, including the procurement of weapons.

In response to these grave allegations, a UN inquiry was launched in April to investigate the specific allegations against 12 UNRWA employees implicated in the October 7 massacre. Revealed in the JPost report was that the inquiry led to the identification and termination of contracts for 10 of these employees, while two were confirmed dead, as reported on the UN’s official website. This swift action highlights the severity of the charges and the international community’s concern over the integrity of UNRWA’s operations.

Concurrently, the UN opened additional investigations in March and April into seven more UNRWA employees. The report in the JPost indicated that these inquiries aim to determine the extent of involvement, if any, of UNRWA personnel in terrorist activities and to assess the overall integrity of the agency’s operations.

One of the most significant areas of concern regarding UNRWA is its education system. The JPost reported that according to its official website, UNRWA is responsible for the education of 291,100 students in Gaza and employs 9,443 staff members in its schools. Education constitutes 58 percent of the organization’s budget, reflecting its critical role in the agency’s mission.

However, a joint report presented to the US Congress in March by UN Watch and The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) has raised serious allegations about the content and conduct within UNRWA schools. The report provides “compelling evidence of UNRWA’s gross and systematic violations of neutrality and other UN rules in their hiring of teachers and in their use of curricula,” as was noted in the JPost report. Specifically, it documents instances of incitement to hatred, anti-Semitism, and terrorism within UNRWA educational materials and teaching practices.

The joint report highlights numerous concerning findings about the behavior of UNRWA educators and the content taught in its schools. It documents cases where UNRWA teachers have used social media platforms such as Twitter to glorify Hamas and incite violence against Jews, the JPost report said. Furthermore, the report details how UNRWA school textbooks and educational materials contain content that promotes terrorism, glorifies martyrdom, and denies the existence of Israel.

These findings suggest a systemic issue within the UNRWA education system, where materials and personnel are contributing to an environment of intolerance and Jew hatred. Additionally, the JPost report indicated that the allegations point to a failure to adhere to the principles of neutrality and peace, which are foundational to the UN’s mission.

One particularly troubling example comes from a 9th-grade reading-comprehension exercise in Arabic. The exercise features a story about a Palestinian firebombing attack on a Jewish bus near the city of Ramallah in the Judea and Samaria region of Israel. The JPost reported that the text describes the attack in a celebratory tone, referring to it as a “barbecue party.” Such language not only glorifies violence but also desensitizes students to the brutality of terrorist attacks, presenting them as festive events rather than acts of violence and terror.

Another example from a 9th-grade social studies question perpetuates harmful and false narratives about the causes of health issues in the Gaza Strip and in Judea and Samaria. The question asks, “Why do Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank suffer from numerous deadly diseases such as cancer?” The provided answer claims, “because the Occupation turns vast areas of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank into landfills for its toxic wastes,” as was revealed in the JPost report. This response promotes a baseless conspiracy theory that blames Israel for health crises in Palestinian territories, fostering animosity and mistrust.

UNRWA Commissioner Philippe Lazzarini has consistently defended the organization against these allegations. On June 30, 2021, Lazzarini addressed reports by UN Watch and IMPACT-se, dismissing the accusations of incitement to violence and anti-Semitism as irrational, as was detailed in the JPost report.  He argued that such allegations were politically motivated attacks aimed at undermining UNRWA’s legitimacy and eroding the rights of Palestinian refugees.

Established in 1949, UNRWA has been a critical lifeline for Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, including in the Gaza Strip, where it serves approximately two million people. The agency provides essential services such as education, healthcare, and social support, aiming to improve the living conditions of Palestinian refugees and promote regional stability.

However, Israel’s allegations challenge the integrity of UNRWA’s operations, suggesting that the agency’s resources and infrastructure have been exploited for terrorist purposes, as was revealed in the JPost report. This narrative has fueled the legislative momentum to reclassify UNRWA under anti-terrorism laws, fundamentally altering its operational landscape in the region.

Should the bill pass its final reading, the implications will be far-reaching. UNRWA will lose its operational privileges in Israel, severely restricting its ability to function within Israeli-controlled territories. The agency’s employees will no longer enjoy immunity from legal proceedings, exposing them to potential prosecution under Israeli law, the report in the JPost said. This legislative move could also set a precedent, influencing other countries’ policies towards UNRWA and potentially leading to a broader reevaluation of the agency’s role and operations.

The international community’s response to Israel’s legislative action against UNRWA will be pivotal. Countries and organizations that back UNRWA may express strong opposition, advocating for the protection of its humanitarian mandate. Conversely, Israel’s allies may support the bill, viewing it as a necessary step to curb terrorism.

Yom Yerushalayim Sameach?

By: Rabbi Leo Dee

On April 5,2023, IDF troops stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, to stop armed terrorists bombarding the Kotel below. Two days later, my wife Lucy and two daughters, Maia and Rina, were murdered by Palestinian terrorists on their way to a Pesach vacation. The war named the “Al Aqsa Storm” by Hamas had begun. Six months later, it exploded into the cruellest terror attack in modern Jewish history.

The Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site and Islam’s third holiest site. Technically, the Al Aqsa Mosque is not within the boundaries of our historic Temples, only the Dome of the Rock, which is historically only a monument and not a mosque. Due to the current political situation, Jerusalem has sadly become a place of conflict between Jews and Muslims.

Yom Yerushalayim is a holiday commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem following the victory in the 1967 “Six Day War”. We wish each other “Yom Yerushalayim Sameach”, but is it so “Sameach” (happy)?

The Mishnah (Keilim 1:6) mentions ten levels of holiness within the Land of Israel in ascending order: the walled cities, the city of Jerusalem, Mount Moriah, the area within the surrounding rampart, the Women’s Courtyard, the Courtyard of the Israelites, the Priestly Courtyard, the area between the Altar and the Entrance Hall to the Sanctuary, the building of the Sanctuary, and the Holy of Holies. The attentive reader will notice that eight of these levels are within the Temple compound, currently occupied by the Dome of the Rock and under Jordanian jurisdiction. Despite the fact that we now have sovereignty over 99% or more of Jerusalem by area, since the level of holiness does not rise linearly as we zoom into the Holy of Holies, but rather exponentially, we have less than 1% sovereignty of Jerusalem by holiness.

Yom Yerushalayim is, therefore, not such a happy day.

The last king of a united Israel (i.e. before it split into separate regions) was King Solomon, who reigned for forty years – the most peaceful years in Middle Eastern history – at the beginning of the First Temple period. When Israel was disunited, or occupied by other nations, there was no such peace in our region. When the Christians occupied Jerusalem in the 11th and 12th centuries there were Crusades. Since the Muslim occupation of the Temple Mount in 1187, there have been countless wars and, today, Jihad abounds.

Rashi (on Gemara Rosh Hashanah 18a) writes that there will be peace when the Temple is rebuilt, and this is the clear position of all of our prophets (see for example Zecharia chapter 8).

Three times a day, Jews recite the Amidah prayer. Its latter half spells out the destiny of our nation: returning to Israel, building a judiciary, fighting our enemies, constructing our religious institutions, uniting Jerusalem, and ushering in the Messianic era. It then continues with a prayer “Hear our voices” and follows with the petition to rebuild the Temple. There’s clearly an odd-one-out. What is the destiny in “hearing our voices”?

Perhaps that is the message. Only if we hearken to OUR own voices, expressing our desire to rebuild the Temple, can we get to that stage. Perhaps the blockage is us.

Our brave soldiers are fighting in Gaza and in Northern Israel, but perhaps the secret to Shalom in the world is a 20-acre plot of land lying right in the middle of our capital city. What if our Rabbis, the Prophets and God knew something that we do not? What if the freeing of the Dome of the Rock from its 850-year occupation is the key to peace for us and our region? What if we can partition the Temple Mount fairly between the Al Aqsa Mosque (the Muslim holy space) and the Dome of the Rock (our Temple location)? What if we just need to heed our own prayers and rebuild the Temple to bring peace?

Until such time as we are able to listen to our own pleas to bring back the holiest part of Jerusalem to its Torah-stated purpose, and thereby bring peace to the world, let me wish you a muted “Yom 1% Yerushalayim Sameach”

Joel B. Pollak(Breitbart)

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) secured control of the entire length of the Gaza-Egypt border on Wednesday, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, and discovered some 20 tunnels nearby, as it continued military operations in Rafah.

The IDF also discovered a massive, 1.5-kilometer tunnel complex filled with weapons and other facilities for housing Hamas military operations.

IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters (translation via IDF):

Our troops have located dozens of launchers along the corridor, loaded and ready to fire rockets, and launch pits from which Hamas fired rockets and mortars into Israeli territory. Hamas exploited the Philadelphi Corridor, using it to build this infrastructure just dozens of meters from the border with Egypt so that we would not strike them. This infrastructure was located between 10 and 40 meters from the border, specifically so that Israel would not strike near the fence with Egypt. I remind you that in recent weeks, Hamas has fired about seventy rockets and mortars from the Rafah area.

‏So far, our troops have located about 20 tunnels in the Philadelphi Corridor area. We are investigating these tunnels and neutralizing them. In parallel, the troops continue to conduct operations. These operations are carried out based on intelligence information regarding specific locations in the area.

‏ In recent weeks, our troops uncovered an extensive underground terrorist infrastructure in eastern Rafah, which was 1.5 kilometers long. The entrance shaft to the infrastructure was located about 100 meters from the Rafah crossing. The route branched into several sub-routes and was used by Hamas terrorists for movement, transferring weapons and initiating terrorist attacks. Inside the route, we found large quantities of weapons, including anti-tank missiles, AK-47s, explosives and grenades. The 401st Brigade Combat Team operated in the route and destroyed it.

The IDF is operating in Rafah against the last remaining Hamas battalions. It attacked in the city despite warnings from the Biden administration, which shifted to claiming that Israel was not, in fact, conducting a “major” operation.

On Wednesday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor was consistent with the more limited military operation in Rafah that the U.S. was willing to tolerate.

Control of the Phiadelphi Corridor will enable Israel to block smuggling routes that Hamas has used to bring weapons into the Gaza Strip — and which its leaders could otherwise use as a means of escape, perhaps with Israeli hostages.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

(JNS) The Islamic Republic of Iran is behind a series of terrorist attacks carried out by criminal gangs targeting Israeli embassies throughout Europe since Oct. 7, the Mossad intelligence agency said on Thursday.

The Israeli intelligence agency opened up a  probe alongside European counterparts after an object believed to be a hand grenade was thrown towards the Israeli embassy in Stockholm on Jan. 31.

Following an investigation, detectives concluded that Sweden’s Foxtrot organized crime network carried out the attack on the compound at Tehran’s behest, the Mossad said on Thursday.

Dozens of Iran-backed terrorist plots against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe were uncovered in recent months, many of which used local criminal rings, the agency said.

Two weeks ago, Stockholm police opened an investigation after a patrol heard gunshots near the embassy of the Jewish state. The Mossad said on Thursday that Swedish security forces arrested a 14-year-old suspect in connection with the attack, which was said to have been carried out by a crime group called Rumba and also directed by Iran.

Tehran-backed gangs are also thought to have carried out an attack on Israel’s mission in Brussels, in which two airsoft grenades were thrown.

(Airsoft is a team-based shooting game in which participants eliminate opposing players from play by shooting them with spherical plastic projectiles shot from airsoft guns. Airsoft grenades come in various types and functionalities, including gas airsoft grenades, sound airsoft grenades and airsoft smoke grenades.)

“Iran operates many criminal organizations in Sweden and Europe in general, while taking advantage of the relative advantage of each and sometimes the rivalry between them,” the Mossad statement continued.

Foxtrot and Rumba receive funding and direction from Iran, Jerusalem revealed, adding that they are closely monitored by local intelligence agencies.

In April, Israel renewed calls for other nations to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization and impose “painful” sanctions on Tehran after the regime launched hundreds of missiles and suicide drones at the Jewish state in a direct attack.

Last year, the European Parliament voted in favor of a measure calling for Brussels to designate the IRGC as a terrorist group, but the nonbinding measure was stymied by foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who asserted that such a move was not possible until an E.U. court had ruled on the issue.

Responding last month to Borrell’s claim that the legal conditions have not been met, Charlie Weimers, a Swedish member of European Parliament for the Conservatives and Reformists group, called the top diplomat a “liar.”

“Here, I have the [European] Council’s secret legal opinion. Nowhere in this document does it say that it has to be an authority in the E.U.,” he said. “You know that. You knew the truth. You shamelessly lied to protect the IRGC. We won’t miss you, Mr. Borrell, but I’m sure the mullahs will.”

(The European Council is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. It is part of the executive of the European Union beside the European Commission. It is composed of the heads of state or of government of the E.U. member states, the president of the European Council and the president of the European Commission. )

Some E.U. countries, including Germany, are pushing to classify the IRGC as a terrorist organization based on a Düsseldorf court ruling holding Tehran responsible for an attack on a synagogue in November 2022.