A short history of how @UNRWA turned into a pro-terror organization ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Friday, February 07, 2025

A short history of how @UNRWA turned into a pro-terror organization

I found a 2010 article from former Palestinian Authority minister reminiscing about the good old days of UNRWA schools in the territories when they didn't even make a pretense of upholding UN neutrality standards - and enthusiastically supported terror.

It only changed when Israel controlled those areas after 1967.

It was decided in the regulations of UNRWA that its [school curriculum] policy is the policy of the host country, and therefore it is obligated to follow the Syrian laws in Syria, the Jordanian laws in Jordan, and the Lebanese laws in Lebanon, and thus it is obligated to follow the Palestinian laws in Palestine. In the fifties and sixties, school students (and I am one of them) lived this issue in all its dimensions, and we studied the history of Palestine in the school curriculum, and the morning anthem was Palestinian (Our country, our country.. for it our struggle.. for it our martyrdom.. our country, our country..).

The principals competed in decorating the walls of their schools with pictures of heavily armed soldiers heading to Palestine, fighting battles, tongues of flame and smoke filling the wall, while the soldiers stormed the Zionist settlements, while the Zionists turned their backs in terror. On the wall facing the main door, a map of Palestine covered the wall in every school, until the elementary school students memorized it, and their fingers ran spontaneously in drawing it, completing the morning anthem (From Rafah to Safad.. a map of my country... I drew it in my liver.. I bequeathed it to my son.. For tomorrow is our appointment... Our country, our country..).

The teacher was our role model, the guide, the revolutionary, the orator, the leader of the demonstration and the march... He planted in our hearts the sense of belonging to our occupied homeland, and we would see him the next day, standing on the shoulders leading the people in a revolutionary demonstration rejecting any peace settlement. I saw Ahmed Attia Abu Hashem, Rajab Al-Attar, and Abdul Rahman Al-Jamal in Rafah, and we knew that Muin Bseiso, Izz Al-Din Taha, and Fathi Al-Balawi were in the camps, inflaming the masses with enthusiasm whenever the teacher learned of a conspiracy against our cause, and whenever the anniversary of a disaster that befell our people passed; the Balfour Declaration, the partition, Deir Yassin, the tripartite aggression, the withdrawal of the Zionists from Gaza (March 57)... It was settled in our conscience that we would return, we would return... tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow.

There were delegations coming from Asia and Africa, and sometimes they were students our age, whom we would receive in our schools, and our schools would organize wonderful celebrations for them...
Our teachers trained us to master the arts of reception and farewell and explaining our cause, and we never forgot to explain in detail the injustice of the Nazi or fascist Zionists. We told them about the Haganah and what they did, and about the seven armies and how Lod and Ramla were lost, and UNRWA did not object, and never, never, did it even draw the attention of a teacher, student, mukhtar or guide. Rather, the directors participated in these activities and events until June 5, 1967, when the situation changed, but not the situation of the agency, but the laws that the agency had to abide by, which are the laws of the occupation after the Zionist entity became the host - so it prevented all of that - but we did not hear that the agency had expelled a teacher or student for his fedayeen activity, so the teacher would be absent from his work for the duration of his imprisonment, no matter how long, to return the next day after his release to resume his work.

As a UN agency, UNRWA was always obligated to be neutral and not to attack other UN member countries. Obviously it never did.

One reason was given by John Davis, former head of UNRWA, speaking at a debate on the future of UNRWA at the UN: (The Baltimore Sun, Nov 11, 1959)

Even then, UNRWA had been hijacked by Israel hating, Jew-hating Arabs and any efforts to keep it neutral were seen to be impossible. In the same debate Davis admitted that it was impossible for UNRWA to rehabilitate and resettle Palestinian refugees because their host countries forbade that activity, and that many of the people getting aid were not real refugees. Davis, an American, knew all this but argued that it still did more good than bad and should remain funded.

In 1966, the US started complaining that UNRWA was providing aid to PLO terrorists: (Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle, Jun 24, 1966):

Just like UNRWA provides aid to Hamas today.

In the 1995 book "Refugees unto the third generation" by Benjamin N. Schiff we see that the PLO hijacked UNRWA in Lebanon and used its facilities for terrorist training and storing weapons.