The Government of Israel sees the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) as an enemy.
On the one hand, because with its humanitarian work it hinders the strategy of making life unbearable for those who live in the occupied Palestinian territory to the point that they finally decide to abandon it, leaving it in the hands of Tel Aviv.
On the other hand, because its very existence makes visible the survival of the six million people it assists and protects;
people to whom the Israeli Government flatly denies the right of return, aware that recognizing it would mean the collapse of the Zionist dream of creating a State for the Jews.
Hence its declared intention to eliminate it.
With this idea, and with the direct collaboration of Washington, he wants the UN to modify the concept of refugees, reserving it only for the survivors of the more than 700,000 Palestinians who were forced to flee the Nakba (1948).
In this way, instead of the aforementioned six million, there would only be about 400,000.
A figure that would not justify the need to have an Agency and that could even hypothetically lead Israel to accept his return, assuming that it would not substantially modify the demographics of historical Palestine.
In parallel, there are countless obstacles that Israeli governments place on UNRWA's daily activity, as well as attempts to dissuade donors (the Agency does not have its own budget and depends entirely on voluntary contributions; which results in a deficit increasing structural), without forgetting that since it began its punishment operation, the Israeli army has already killed more than 150 of its employees in Gaza.
Tel Aviv's most recent step is framed along these lines with its complaint that Agency workers have been involved in the attacks carried out by Hamas on October 7.
A complaint, based solely on confessions from Palestinian prisoners in the hands of Israel, which has immediately led to the cancellation of their contracts and the start of an investigation by the UN (not UNRWA) to determine the appropriate responsibilities.
A complaint that, without waiting for the outcome of the investigation, has also led Germany, Australia, Canada, the United States, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland to suspend their contributions.
This may be the last straw to prevent UNRWA from continuing its work.
With its calculated gesture, making it coincide with the ruling of the International Court of Justice that portrays it as a potential genocidal person, the Government of Israel seeks to apply punishment not only to the Agency (there are 12 employees potentially responsible for these acts out of a total of 13,000 in Gaza), but also to the two million Gazans who vitally depend on UNRWA, as well as securing the support of governments that were looking for an excuse to stay on the sidelines, even if it means appearing as accomplices in a massacre that shames us.
There can be no ambiguity at this point, either we are with António Guterres or we are with Benjamin Netanyahu.
Jesús A. Núñez Villaverde
is co-director of the Institute for Conflict Studies and Humanitarian Action (IECAH).
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
Keep reading
I am already a subscriber
_