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UNRWA Is in Trouble

(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) James G. Lindsay - The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is in trouble. Recent Israeli reports that certain personnel were deeply involved in Hamas's Oct. 7 attack on Israel; that more than 450 employees are "military operatives" within Hamas and other terrorist organizations; and that numerous UNRWA institutions were used as cover for Hamas arsenals, warehouses, military installations, and computer servers, have triggered unprecedented anger toward UNRWA. For decades, UNRWA has declined to make meaningful reforms with regard to prohibiting the employment of or provision of services to members and supporters of terrorist organizations. Donor nations should demand - on threat of suspension of financial support - that UNRWA immediately implement a system to vet all current area staff and initiate a vetting process to ensure that terrorists, their supporters, and their immediate families do not receive UNRWA benefits. UNRWA applies a unique definition of "refugees" - different from every other refugee context globally - based on patrilineal lineage to persons displaced from their homes in the 1947-49 war, regardless of their current citizenship. The result is that UNRWA's 5.9 million registered refugees include millions of beneficiaries who would not merit inclusion based on the universally recognized definition of refugees. Donor countries should demand that continued financial aid to UNRWA be contingent on aligning the agency's definition of "refugee" with the language in the UN Convention on Refugees. The move would strike millions from UNRWA rolls and allow huge savings in the agency's operations. UNRWA schools continue to expose students to antisemitic, anti-peace, jihadist, and other inflammatory or unbalanced material. All expressions of antisemitism and other content incompatible with UN principles should be removed from educational materials employed in UNRWA schools. Donor nations should insist that continued funding of UNRWA schools and their personnel is contingent on vetting all resources used in schools by a team of independent experts. Yet even the most robust reform process will not fix what ails UNRWA in Gaza if the territory remains under the influence of Hamas and other terrorist groups. For this reason, Israel's success in achieving its principal war aim - dismantling Hamas's military capacity and political governance - is essential for ending the group's regime of fear imposed on the people of Gaza, and is a prerequisite for any serious effort at UNRWA reform there. Should the agency and its allies prove resistant to change, dissolution could then become the default option. The writer served as legal advisor and general counsel to UNRWA.
2024-05-28 00:00:00
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