Israel’s ban on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), is set to come into force on Thursday, January 30, 2025.
Israeli authorities have accused the agency of undermining its national security, claiming several UNRWA staff took part in the October 7 attacks on southern Israel.
However, UNRWA Commissioner General, Philippe Lazzarini said yesterday that UNRWA has been the target of a “fierce disinformation campaign” to “portray the agency as a terrorist organization.”
Lazzarini warned that the agency’s ban will leave a gaping hole in humanitarian services, at a scale that can only be filled by a “Palestinian state.”
In a post on social media, UNRWA said that the UNSC members had expressed grave concern over Israel’s plans to shut down its office in occupied East Jerusalem, which would prevent it from providing “essential services” to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
However, one permanent member of the UNSC, the US, did not express such concern.
US Deputy Ambassador to the UN, Dorothy Shea, told the council meeting that there were other humanitarian organisations that could do UNRWA’s job.
The claim comes as the Trump administration said that it supports Israel’s decision to close UNRWA’s office in East Jerusalem – a move condemned by the UN, aid groups, and several governments.
US funding to UNRWA was suspended last year until March 2025 after Israel accused 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, without providing evidence.
Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Slovenia and Spain have told the UN Security Council (UNSC) that they “deeply deplore” the Israeli parliament’s decision to “abolish” UNRWA’s operations in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The group said in a joint statement to the UNSC that it condemns Israel’s withdrawal from the 1967 agreement between Israel and UNRWA and any attempt to “obstruct its capacity to operate and carry out its UNGA mandate.”
The bloc also demanded the “suspension of the entry into force” of the Israeli laws banning UNRWA, which they said did not comply with international law and the UN Charter. “We support UNRWA as part of our humanitarian commitment and our firm defence and respect of international law, including international humanitarian law,” they said.
UNWRA Ban Thought To Satisfy Israeli Far-right
According to Akiva Eldar, an Israeli Political Analyst, the ban on UNRWA, satisfies Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition’s desire to push Palestinians out from Gaza.
“UNRWA is for Israel a kind of a message that demonstrates the Palestinian vision of the right of return and going back to Israel, and by getting rid of UNRWA, it seems that you remove this two-state solution … dream.”
Akiva Eldar
The right of return refers to the Palestinian demand to return to the homes they were expelled from during the creation of Israel in 1948.
The Analyst noted that Netanyahu and US President, Donald Trump have different interests in Gaza.
“Israel [is having] second thoughts about the theory that [it] can get rid of Hamas, … that Israel can reoccupy Gaza, [that it can] bring back the settlers and put an end to the terrorism and to the conflict.
“Now I think that Netanyahu is heading to Washington next week and he will hear that his friend over there in Washington has a completely different interest and Netanyahu has very little to offer him.
Akiva Eldar
Eldar said that Trump wants to end the war in Gaza while what “Netanyahu is trying to do is to satisfy his partners in [his] coalition by somehow having one or 1.5 legs in Gaza” at the same time he ensures the Israeli captives are released.
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