As Israel bans UNRWA, why doesn't it use Egypt as a base of operations? Because Egypt doesn't want UNRWA, either ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Thursday, January 30, 2025

As Israel bans UNRWA, why doesn't it use Egypt as a base of operations? Because Egypt doesn't want UNRWA, either

Today there are lots of articles in the press about how awful it is that Israel has banned UNRWA from operating on its territory, because of its history of pro-terrorist activities and its own employees participating in and celebrating October 7.

The articles complain how UNRWA is essential to getting aid to Gaza, as the other UN organizations in the area (WHO, WFP, UNOPS) are deemed inadequate.

If we take that assumption at face value, then why can't UNRWA operate out of Egypt? You know, the Arab country bordering Gaza?

UNRWA has an interesting and mostly unknown history in Egypt. When UNRWA was established, it attempted to have a presence not only in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria but also in Egypt, Libya and Iraq, as potential places for Palestinian refugees to go.

Egypt cooperated with UNRWA, but didn't allow it to work in Egypt proper. It insisted that all Palestinian refugees to move to Gaza, then under Egyptian control. Within Egypt proper, it gave no residential rights to Palestinians. (Over the years, this support varied; Nasser allowed Palestinians to attend Egyptian universities, for example, but these rights were given and taken away periodically over the years, and have steadily decreased.)

The reasons given are familiar: Egypt pretended to do this for the Palestinians' own sake, so as not to compromise their "right of return." But in fact, this gave Palestinians in Egypt a protection gap - Egypt does not allow UNRWA to operate on its territory but also did not recognize the Palestinians as refugees eligible for UNHCR protection. Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Egypt who did not move to Gaza were left to fend for themselves without access to education, medicine or any government services.

In 1965, the Arab League signed the Casablanca protocol where they promised to give residential rights to Palestinians. Egypt was one of the countries that ignored this agreement that it signed.

The protection gap for Palestinians and only Palestinians exists today in Egypt with the tens of thousands of Gazans who managed to escape in the first months of the war by paying large bribes to Egyptian officials. As their six month visas have expired, they have no recourse for protection - and a large reason for this is because Egypt does not allow UNRWA to operate on its territory.

Israel actually dismissed UNRWA once before, in 1952, when it said that UNRWA was not needed to support refugees from the war who were fully Israeli citizens and eligible for normal Israeli social benefits. The contrast with Egypt couldn't be clearer.

The offices that Israel is closing today are in east Jerusalem that they inherited in 1967. These are just offices; if Egypt would allow, UNRWA could relocate by renting office space in Cairo or El Arish and coordinate all aid to Gaza from there.

But Egypt does not allow that. And no reporters seem to be curious as to why that is.