Sunday, February 18, 2024
Elder of Ziyon
UNRWA sent a document nearly 5,000 pages long as "evidence" to the International Court of Justice in support of South Africa's case to declare Israel as guilty of genocide.
This "evidence" is mostly public UNRWA reports submitted to the UN since 1967. But those documents happen to include official Israeli responses as well.
And those responses show that the UN and UNRWA cannot pretend not to have been aware of Hamas abuse of their facilities, of aid, and how their own employees were Hamas members. Because Israel told them.
In July 2014, Israel wrote:
In 2013, Gaza terror elements, headed by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, continued efforts to strengthen their military capabilities, in particular increasing the size and range of their rocket arsenal (long-range rockets, up to 110 km).Much effort was also put into the building of offensive tunnels constructed some 20 m underground and crossing the Gaza border into Israel. In 2013, two tunnels were discovered and demolished: one near Nir Oz (January 2013) and another near Ein Hashlosha (October 2013). The tunnels were constructed using approximately 24,000 concrete slabs (allowed by Israel into Gaza for the building of humanitarian projects) and were tall enough inside to allow people to stand fully upright as they travelled along them. The purpose of the tunnels is to allow the infiltration of terrorists from the Gaza strip into Israeli civilian villages and cities in order to carry out terror attacks. Hamas invests tens of millions of dollars into the construction of these terror tunnels instead of investing the money in schools,
2015:
[B]uilding materials worth tens of millions of dollars were diverted by Hamas for the construction of cross-border tunnels, which were used to attack Israel during the summer 2014 conflict.
2017:
Instead of focusing on relief and humanitarian assistance, UNRWA chooses to promote a controversial political agenda. One example is the agency’s proactive campaigns supporting the so-called “right of return” for millions of Palestinians. The question of Palestinian refugees has not been agreed between Israel and the Palestinians and can be resolved only through direct bilateral negotiation between the parties. It is unacceptable for a United Nations agency to actively promote the agenda of one side of the conflict. UNRWA advocacy in this regard is inappropriate and undermines efforts to achieve a political solution.Unfortunately, along with UNRWA use of humanitarian funding for the purpose of political campaigns, we have witnessed through the years many examples of misconduct by the agency and its employees. Recently, UNRWA personnel have even been found within the ranks of the internationally designated terrorist organization, Hamas. In February 2016, Israeli authorities revealed that the Chairman of the UNRWA Staff Union in the Gaza Strip and Principal of the UNRWA boys elementary school for refugee children, Suhail al-Hindi, had been elected to the political bureau of Hamas. This is the same al-Hindi who was suspended in 2011 by UNRWA after meeting with the Hamas leader, Ismail Hania. His suspension lasted only three months, after which al-Hindi was allowed to return to his prior position. Likewise, Muhammad al-Jamasi, the head of the UNRWA engineering department, was also reportedly elected to the Hamas political bureau.At first, UNRWA denied the allegations regarding its employees. Only after being confronted with irrefutable evidence of their terrorist connections did the agency suspend al-Hindi and al-Jamasi, providing no further information on the circumstances of their dismissal. Moreover, only when publicly questioned about the incident by Israel’s Mission to the United Nations did the UNRWA Commissioner-General confirm al-Hindi’s dismissal. Even then, the UNRWA Commissioner-General attempted to reduce the offence, claiming that al-Hindi had been dismissed because he “ran for an elected office”.These are just two recent examples of UNRWA misconduct. The agency’s employees have often engaged in egregious acts, including calls to commit acts of violence against Israelis on social media. The indications that UNRWA employees are working on behalf of Hamas, while others are inciting violence, raise serious questions about the agency’s monitoring and vetting processes.
2018:
The discovery of a second terror tunnel, operating directly under the classrooms of children, is not an isolated incident, but rather part of Hamas’ systematic effort to exploit the organs of the United Nations. However, UNRWA deliberately chooses to omit any direct mention of Hamas’ responsibility and of its common practice to misuse United Nations and civilian infrastructure. It is of utmost importance to ensure that all United Nations-affiliated agencies, and especially UNRWA, remain neutral and safeguarded from abuse by terrorist organizations.Despite the reality on the ground, we have seen time and time again the public statements and tweets of UNRWA exempting Hamas of its responsibility and lacking condemnation of the main role of Hamas in those events. Moreover, UNRWA policies only encourage Hamas to keep using civilians, including UNRWA students, for the sole purpose of inciting violence and thus distracting the world from Hamas’ decade-long control of the Gaza Strip and its detrimental impact on the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the area. As we have seen in the past months, especially regarding the riots on the Gaza border, the public statements of UNWRA clearly indicate its growing leniency towards advocacy in the service of Hamas, rather than focusing on relief and humanitarian assistance in the best interest of the Palestinian people in Gaza. By doing so, UNRWA only exacerbates the unnecessary human suffering of innocent Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
These stories were muted in the media and downplayed or ignored in UNRWA's own reports.
It is no surprise that UNRWA has Hamas employees, or that UNRWA schools have been used for terror purposes.
(h/t Irene)
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