Israel’s charges against 12 employees of the UN aid agency for the Palestinians, the main aid operation in Gaza, are the latest episode in a decade of friction between Israel and the group.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA, is one of the oldest UN agencies, established in 1949 to care for Palestinian Arabs who had fled or been forced from their homes during the wars around creation of the State of Israel in the late 1940s. When a separate UN agency for refugees from other conflicts was later established, UNRWA remained independent.
For Palestinians and their supporters, the group remains an essential lifeline for millions of descendants of those refugees, whose status and future were never resolved in negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders. It is one of the largest employers in Gaza, employing 13,000 people, mostly Palestinians.
Many of them live in underdeveloped urban neighborhoods – also known as refugee camps – in cities across the Middle East. In Gaza, they make up the majority of the population and UNRWA plays a central role in providing education, social services and — during the current war — aid and shelter.
“Because their refugee status has never been resolved, they continue to be refugees,” said Chris Gunness, a former UNRWA spokesman.
“These are some of the most vulnerable people in the Middle East,” he said. “They badly need a UN agency to provide them with emergency and humanitarian services.”
For Israel, however, the group and its advocacy are an obstacle to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Many Palestinians want the refugees to return to their old homes in what is now Israel. Israel fears that such immigration would undermine Israel’s Jewish character. The Israelis say that UNRWA’s existence separate from the wider UN refugee protection system prevents them from properly taking root elsewhere in the Middle East.
“UNRWA became a central mechanism to maintain a permanent question mark over the existence of a Jewish state,” said Einat Wilf, the co-author of a book on UNRWA. The organization helps promote “a nationalism that is focused solely on the idea of return and revenge,” he added.
This wider dispute is the backdrop for regular clashes over what UNRWA schools teach their students and UNRWA’s relationship with Hamas.
Israel says UNRWA’s school programs encourage opposition to Israel’s existence, a claim rejected by UNRWA, which accuses the group of falling under the influence of Hamas.
In the wake of the latest scandal, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Saturday called on UNRWA to stop its work in Gaza after the end of Israel’s military campaign there. He added that he would seek support for this goal from the European Union, the United States and other countries.
UNRWA has repeatedly emphasized its neutrality, sometimes criticizing Hamas and calling on the militants to use its facilities to store weapons. According to the agency’s website, it has disciplined and even fired staff for engaging in inappropriate political activities. UNRWA also shares lists of its employees with regional governments, including Israel.
In 2021, UNRWA reinstated its Gaza director, Matthias Schmale, after he was seen to have praised the “enormous sophistication” of Israeli incursions into Gaza during a brief war that year. Late last year, the group accused Hamas of “removing fuel and medical equipment from the agency’s compound in Gaza City,” before later removing the posts after a backlash.
In 2005, then UNRWA head Peter Hansen said it was possible that UNRWA staff included members and supporters of Hamas, given the scale of support for Hamas in the wider Gaza population, but said they were working in accordance with its values UN. work.
But experts say that despite the tensions, some Israeli security officials privately acknowledge the benefits of UNRWA’s existence.
“The view of the Israeli security establishment has long been that UNRWA is ultimately preferable to what they think the alternative might be without it,” said Ann Irfan, author of a book on UNRWA and Palestinian refugees. “It provides services that would otherwise under international law actually fall under the jurisdiction of the occupying power.”
Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed reporting from Haifa, Israel.
