The Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, on Monday approved a bill aimed at banning the activity of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Israel, which will directly affect its activity in the Gaza Strip, where the organization is established. provides the bulk of humanitarian aid to more than two million inhabitants. The text received the support of 92 deputies, both from the ruling coalition and the Israeli opposition; only ten voted against.
The Israeli Parliament resumed its work this Monday after a break for the Jewish holidays and one of the first texts put to the vote was the bill relating to UNRWA, which Israel accuses of having links with Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas, in addition to denouncing that several of its employees participated in the attacks of October 7, 2023 against the south of the country, during which more than 1,200 people died and 251 were kidnapped. An independent investigation commissioned by the United Nations concluded several months ago that Israel had not presented sufficient evidence to support the accusations.
The law approved this Monday evening will affect all UNRWA operations in the occupied Palestinian territories (West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza), since it will prevent its international employees from obtaining visas and work permits for locals; in addition to access to its offices, including its headquarters in the eastern part of Jerusalem, from which all activities are coordinated.
The legislation is Tel Aviv’s latest attack on the United Nations, with whose representatives and agencies the Israeli executive has openly clashed since the start of the Gaza war. Recently, the Israeli government declared the UN Secretary General “persona non grata” and banned him from entering the country.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed concern and warned that the UNRWA ban crosses “a red line” and that there will be no solution to the conflict “without fairly resolving the refugee issue”, according to a press release published by the Wafa manager. news agency before the law was approved.
The Palestinian presidency denounced that it was a “violation of international law and a provocation against the entire international community”, recalling that UNRWA was created “in accordance with a resolution of the UN”. This 1949 resolution stipulated that the agency would provide assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees until a “just and lasting” solution to their situation was found.
In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to leave their homes and places of origin after the establishment of the State of Israel. Currently, there are around six million refugees in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, as well as in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. UNRWA provides education, health care and assistance to these people, and operates 58 refugee camps (mainly in Gaza and the West Bank).
The foreign ministers of Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom issued a statement expressing concern over the bill approved Monday and another on which Parliament will vote. “UNRWA provides essential and life-saving humanitarian assistance and basic services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and across the region. Without their work, the provision of this assistance and services, including education, health care and fuel distribution in Gaza and the West Bank, would be severely hampered, if not impossible, with devastating consequences on an already humanitarian situation. critical and rapidly deteriorating, particularly in the north. Gaza,” they warned on October 26.
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, also asked Israel to “reconsider” the approval of these laws: “We urge the Israeli authorities to reconsider their decision to avoid interruptions in vital services of UNRWA and guarantee the continuity of UNRWA action. and unhindered humanitarian access to the Palestinian refugees for whom it was created,” he underlines in a statement cited by the EFE Agency.
