|
Trending Topics
|
UNRWA in Gaza Has Been Replaced
(Foundation for Defense of Democracies) Enia Krivine - The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza has been replaced by over a dozen other aid organizations. UNRWA's decades-long monopoly on aid and services has finally been broken. What's more, the international community now has a model for how to replace UNRWA everywhere it operates, not just in Gaza. UNRWA schools have produced generations of indoctrinated and radicalized Palestinian children. UNRWA staff participated in the horrors of Oct. 7, praised the violence on social media, and Israeli hostages were held captive in UNRWA facilities for months during the war. U.S. taxpayers have contributed over $7 billion to the agency since its creation. Israel's Knesset passed legislation in Oct. 2024 to end coordination with UNRWA, making it difficult for UNRWA (which had used the Jewish state as its base of operations for decades) to continue delivering its services. UNRWA advocates warned that Israel's new law would have catastrophic consequences. It didn't. Other organizations and state actors - without the proclivity towards terror - were willing and able to step in. Basic services performed by UNRWA before the war are now performed by other actors. The UN Development Program (UNDP) is managing waste management. Fuel distribution is managed by the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS). The World Central Kitchen has been effective at delivering food alongside the World Food Program (WFP). The World Health Organization (WHO) is providing medical aid to field clinics and hospitals. The correct way to manage humanitarian crises caused by wars and natural disasters is with organizations that have a temporary mandate to deliver aid. Once the crisis has passed, those services should once again be the responsibility of the state. The writer is the senior director of FDD's Israel Program and National Security Network.