The UN body for Palestine, established in 1949, is banned from operating in Israel
The US said on Monday it was "deeply concerned" about the bill under consideration.
Jerusalem: Israel’s parliament on Monday approved a bill that bans the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) from operating in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem, despite objections from the US. Lawmakers passed the bill with 92 votes in favour and 10 against.
UNRWA has come under strong criticism by Israel over the years, which has increased even more since the start of the war in Gaza following deadly Hamas attacks on October 7 last year. According to experts, the ban on the UN agency – which has provided essential aid and assistance to Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere for more than seven decades – if implemented, would be a setback for humanitarian operations in Gaza. UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma condemned the vote.
“It is outrageous that a UN member state is trying to eliminate a UN agency which is also the biggest responder in the humanitarian operation in Gaza,” she told AFP.
“It would be a disaster if implemented, as it could have an impact on the humanitarian operation in Gaza and many parts of the West Bank,” she added. She said the agency is a major provider of “shelter, food and primary healthcare” in war-torn Gaza.
Before the vote, the United States said it was “deeply concerned” about the bill, reiterating the agency’s “critical” role in distributing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.
Washington warned Israel on October 15 that it had 30 days to increase the amount of aid reaching the Gaza Strip or it would consider halting some military assistance.
Also on Monday, Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy expressed “deep regret” that Israel was “considering winding down UNRWA’s operations”. In January, Israel accused a dozen UNRWA staff of involvement in an October 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the region’s deadliest war. Several investigations found some “neutrality issues” at UNRWA, and determined that nine staff “may have been involved” in the October 7 attack, but found no evidence for Israel’s main allegations. Yuli Edelstein, a Likud party MP and one of the bill’s sponsors, said while introducing the motion in parliament, “There is a deep connection between the terrorist organisation (Hamas) and UNRWA and Israel cannot tolerate this.” “There is no place for enemies in the heart of the capital of the Jewish people.” Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem, including the eastern part, as its indivisible capital.
– ‘Serious concern’ over ban –
The ban would effectively prevent UNRWA from working in Israel and also target its operations in east Jerusalem, where it currently provides some essential services such as sanitation, education and healthcare in some neighbourhoods.
“There is a big difference between the way UNRWA is viewed by some in the international community and the way people in Israel view the agency,” Israeli lawmaker Boaz Bismuth, who co-sponsored the bill, told AFP.
UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies have accused Israeli authorities of restricting aid flows to Gaza, where the war has displaced nearly all of the territory’s 2.4 million people at least once.
The agency itself has suffered heavy losses, with at least 223 of its staff killed since the war began and two-thirds of the agency’s facilities in Gaza damaged or destroyed.
The war in Gaza began with an attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,206 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israeli retaliatory strikes have killed at least 43,020 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, figures considered reliable by the United Nations.
Over the weekend, foreign ministers from several Western countries condemned the proposed law targeting the UN agency in a statement.
“We, the Foreign Ministers of Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United Kingdom, express our grave concern at legislation currently under consideration by the Israeli Knesset, which aims to revoke [UNRWA’s] privileges and immunities,” the statement said.
UNRWA was founded in 1949 to support Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.
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