The close relationship exposed between Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees and the Hamas leadership in the October 7 massacre has not yet led the government to change its attitude toward the agency, and cooperation continues through conventional channels.
Among other things, transferring aid to UNRWA and from there to Hamas and not to civilians without agency personnel (many of them Hamas members) lifting a finger to arrest them. Similarly, Israel grants UNRWA an excise tax exemption worth millions at the expense of the Israeli taxpayer.
After years of trying to stop this cooperation between the government and the organization, MK Sharan Haskel, chairman of the UNRWA reform lobby, decided to work in reverse, blocking the organization's activity or reforming it through the funding countries.
UNRWA flag at UN headquarters in New York, photo: AFP
The move is taking shape
Next Tuesday, the lobby will convene in the Knesset, where experts on the Palestinian issue and UNRWA will be invited, as well as ambassadors of more than ten countries, to whom the review of the intellect and other parties will be presented. The objective: to demand a halt to the organization's funding, or to influence through those countries to change the organization's educational activities, to stop incitement education in hundreds of educational institutions funded by UNRWA, and to stop the recruitment of workers in Gaza from among Hamas associates.
Not only that, but the fact that this organization perpetuates the "refugee" status of 70 percent of Gaza's residents is the engine for perpetuating the conflict in Israel.
MK Sharan Haskel. Try to curb the organization's activities, photo: Dudi Vaknin
According to current figures, the World Refugee Agency, which deals with refugees around the globe, takes care of 108 million refugees worldwide and employs 20,5 workers, compared to 9.30 million Palestinian refugees and <>,<> employed in Gaza and the West Bank.
"I founded the lobby in 2015 and since then I have been working to warn the authorities in Israel and around the world and recruit partners to find a solution to the problem of perpetuating Palestinian refugees," Haskel told Israel Hayom. "For the past eight years, the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry have refused to change their position and attitude regarding UNRWA, which was in fact a cover for Hamas activities.
"I went on delegations to warn parliamentarians and try to stop funds transferred from various countries into the organization and remove the mask from UNRWA, and most of the parliamentarians with whom I spoke and briefed did not know that UNRWA is actually controlled by Hamas and that it is one of the main problems in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Direct contact between UNRWA and Hamas. Terrorists of the terrorist organization in prison, photo: IPS spokesperson
She has visited the European Union and Brussels since October 7, and is expected to make further visits to the Netherlands, France, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland in the coming months for the same purpose. On Tuesday, she intends to reveal to Knesset ambassadors the information accumulated following the massacre about the fact that UNRWA-funded schools and hospitals have become Hamas military bases.
"The goal is to transfer UNRWA under the World Organization and revoke the special status for Palestinian refugees, but there is a long way to go. Therefore, in the meantime, I am concentrating on reforming UNRWA's education system – adopting the Emirati education system, which has undergone a change towards tolerance, as opposed to the existing system that educates children to be soldiers of hatred and anti-Semitism. The second stage is to replace the Gazan manpower of Hamas associates with international manpower," says Haskel.
Mind at the meeting with the ambassadors, photo: Amit Feder
Meanwhile, in light of the IDF Spokesperson's announcement of close cooperation between UNRWA and Hamas and UNRWA being an operational arm of the terrorist organization, Lavi wrote to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich this week demanding that he cancel the exemption from excise tax for UNRWA.
In a letter to the Minister of Finance, the organization's chairman, Avichai Boaron, stated, "According to official data from the Tax Authority received by my office, between 2015 and 2020 alone, UNRWA transferred to the Gaza Strip more than 49 million liters of diesel, the value of which is more than NIS 143 million."
MK Avichai Boaron, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Looking for alternatives
Yesterday, a diplomatic source clarified that "Israel will strive to find an alternative to UNRWA the day after." However, at this stage, it is not yet known how long it will last, UNRWA will continue to be the entity managing civilian life in the Gaza Strip. "Right now they are doing positive work, perhaps for the first time in the organization's history," the official explained. "They are distributing food, water and medicine, and they are the only entity that knows how to do so at the moment," he said.
On the other hand, regarding the long term, the senior Israeli official said: "UNRWA is the only refugee agency that has been passing on the status of refugees for the fifth generation. There is no other such thing. It perpetuates the conflict and therefore there must be an alternative."
UNRWA center in Rafah, photo: AFP
The political source clarified that Israel does not and does not act to refer the residents of Gaza to other places in the world. He defined the proposals of Ministers Smotrich, Ben-Gvir and Gamliel to promote voluntary immigration as "baseless illusions. Not a million or 5,000," he said.
"Even if it wanted to, Israel has no ability to make Gaza residents move to another country," the official said.
Ariel Kahane participated in the preparation of the report
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