(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Matthew Levitt- Both the U.S. and the EU, the two single largest contributors to UNRWA, have banned the military and civilian "wings" of Hamas. Yet on October 4, 2004, UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said, "I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime." In several documented cases, Palestinian terrorists have exploited employment with the UN and other agencies to support their groups' activities. Nahed Rashid Ahmed Attalah, UNRWA's director of food supplies for Gaza refugees, admitted to using his UN vehicle on multiple occasions during summer 2002 to transport arms, explosives, and activists of the Popular Resistance Committee to carry out terrorist attacks. Attalah also confessed to contacting members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Syria "in order to obtain money for transferring arms to the Gaza Strip as assistance for the PRC." In August 2002, Israeli authorities arrested Nidal Abd al-Fatah Abdallah Nazal, a Hamas activist who worked as an UNRWA ambulance driver, who admitted using his ambulance to transport "arms and messages to Hamas activists in various cities, exploiting the freedom of movement granted to him" as a UNRWA employee. As a member of the Quartet, the UN has a special obligation to uphold the commitment outlined in the Roadmap to dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. The U.S. should work with the UN to develop, apply, and monitor a set of professional standards to ensure that UN offices, equipment, and personnel are not exploited for terrorist purposes.
2004-10-14 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive