Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: unrwa

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Thursday, March 03, 2016

Another @UNRWAUSA worker shows her hate for Israel (before hiding it) (UPDATE)

Yesterday, I reported that UNRWA-USA communications director Laila Mokhiber took down her Twitter account after it was found to have anti-Israel posts that violate UNRWA's standards.

It appears that nearly all of UNRWA-USA workers have now made their Twitter feeds private, frightened by what others would have discovered that would embarrass their already embarrassing agency.

But not before I took some screenshots from the feed of one of them.

Nada El-Eryan, grants officer at UNRWA USA, is another UNRWA worker in America who proudly shows how anti-Israel she is.

Tweeting under the handle "nadabrain" she has written or retweeted:

Nada does not mention UNRWA as her employer on Twitter, and she says that what she tweets are not the views of her unnamed employer.

But she does describe herself as a "Palestinian American activist" which pretty much shows how she cannot be considered objective.

Her timeline also makes it clear she works for UNRWA even if she doesn't want to say so explicitly.

My coworkers celebrate birthdays in the best ways ever! I ❤️ Pierre Krahenbuhl! Thank you to everyone… https://t.co/h7wW95lifW
— Nada E. (@nadabrain) July 20, 2015

If Laila Mokhiber was forced to close her Twitter account by supporting "Israeli Apartheid Week," then Nada El-Eryan has shown that she is equally partisan while celebrating her association with UNRWA on Twitter. And this is directly against UNRWA's stated mandate.

By the way, UNRWA-USA 's Twitter account has a public list of 74 (!) Twitter accounts for chapters of the anti-Israel "Students for Justice in Palestine."

A very strong indication of where UNRWA's sympathies lie.

(h/t JethroSteve)

UPDATE: Bob Knot did his Facebook magic again on Nada El-Eryan. Check out all of these anti-Israel groups and events she supports:

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UNRWA-USA communications director tweets hate for Israel (UPDATE)

(See update below)

Remember how UNRWA pretends to be non-partisan?

UNRWA-USA communications director Laila Mokhiber sent out this tweets showing her support for "Israeli Apartheid Week:"

Not exactly objective, is it?

As soon as Avi Mayer tweeted about it, she protected her account from being seen publicly:

And soon thereafter, it was gone!

And this is a communications director who openly supports hate for Israel! Even though she no longer tweets under her name, she still has her hate and she still has her job.

How long is UNRWA going to keep pretending that it is non-partisan?

UPDATE: Mokhiber's Facebook presence is still online at the moment and it shows plenty of other anti-Israel activity and support for terrorists:

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From the Kuwait News Agency KUNA:

Speaking at the New America think-tank to shed light on the status of Palestinian refugees, Pierre Krahenbuhl said there is "clear and indisputable" evidence that the Israeli blockade, which came into force in 2007, has caused an "intolerable situation" for 1.8 million people living in one of the most crowded places on earth.

Organ failure among children and the "increasing rate of suicide" among the population is not natural in society, he said, but rather a "man-made situation." He added: "If there is one thing in short supply -- it is hope."

I cannot find any other reports on his talk, which did indeed happen yesterday, so perhaps the context is skewed by the not too reliable KUNA, but it sounds like Krahenbuhl is blaming Israel for Gaza children suffering from organ failure.

I have not seen any statistics on organ failure among Gaza children being any higher than anywhere else. Israeli hospitals treat many Gaza children and train Gaza doctors. As I documented last week, one Gaza child's death from kidney failure died because of inter-Palestinian politics while Israel was ready to treat her.

Israel does not block medicines or medical equipment. It does not block doctors from going to Gaza. It routinely allows Gaza children to leave to obtain care not only in Israel but in PA hospitals and abroad as well. It does not limit food into Gaza either. So what exactly is Israel doing to cause this alleged wave of organ failures?

It appears that UNRWA is engaging in another anti-Israel slander.

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When UNRWA tried to resettle Palestinian refugees

The 1952 UNRWA annual report includes sections on all areas where it had operations - Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

And Iraq.

And Libya.

And, for the last time, Israel.

We've discussed Israel before. In UNRWA's words, "Late in June, an agreement was concluded with Israel whereby that Government assumed responsibility for the care of the remaining 19,000 refugees in that country as of 1 July, 1952." Israel naturalized its Palestinian Arab refugees, unlike most Arab nations.

But why did UNRWA have operations in Iraq and Libya?

Because, back in its early days, UNRWA actually tried to help resettle refugees anywhere it could, much like UNHCR has done ever since.

Here's what it said:

5. IRAQ

73. There are approximately 5,000 refugees under the care of the Government in Iraq. UNRWA has an office in Baghdad which serves as a placement centre and a point of contact with technical assistance experts working on Iraq's great schemes of economic development.

74. The Agency understands that the doors of the country are open to Palestinians with skills who wish to go there without prejudice to their political position. In fact, the Government advises that there has already been some movement of this nature. This opportunity for refugees to improve their living conditions is of special interest to the Agency in connexion with the new programme plans for large scale vocational training.

6. LIBYA

75. The Agency is advised that there are opportunities for refugees in Libya and has received many requests for help from Palestinians who wish to go there. The new Government of Libya has suggested that initially 1,200 families of agriculturists and artisans might be taken care of. The Agency has already made preliminary surveys and is now ready for active operations.

So what happened?

The 1953 report is not available online any more. The 1954 report added no new information but it stilll mentioned them.

The 1955 report shows that UNRWA still supported the idea of the refugees moving elsewhere, even if it was starting to give up on finding those places themselves:

A total of 221 refugees who had secured immigration visas through their own efforts had their fares paid by the Agency and received installation grants during the year under review. They went to Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Kuwait, Liberia, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Tanganyika, the United States of America and Venezuela.

The 1956 report showed that UNRWA similarly helped about a thousand refugees move to some 13 countries including the US, UK and Canada.

But by 1957, UNRWA gave up, as quoted here:

[I]n spite of the fact that many are establishing themselves in new lives, the refugees collectively remain opposed to certain types of self-support projects which they consider would mean permanent resettlement and the abandonment of hope of repatriation. They are, in general, supported in this stand by the Arab host Governments. On the other hand, the Government of Israel has taken no affirmative action in the matter of repatriation and compensation. It remains the Director's opinion that, unless the refugees are given the choice between repatriation and compensation provided for in resolution 194 (III), or unless some other solution acceptable to all parties is found, it would be unrealistic for the General Assembly to believe that decisive progress can be accomplished by UNRWA towards the "reintegration of the refugees into the economic life of the Near East, either by repatriation or resettlement" in line with General Assembly resolution 393 (V) of 2 December 1950.

The idea that the refugees themselves opposed resettlement in other countries is one of those factoids that UNRWA asserted from the beginning but without ever actually doing a survey. By 1957, the organization simply decided that the Arab world would never integrate the Palestinians, so all pressure would henceforth be directed at Israel for accepting the mythical "right of return."
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The "resettlement" that was envisioned by the UN and that was part of UNRWA's mandate was simply swept under the rug. And UNRWA silently stopped providing monetary support for refugees to move outside its areas of operations, a policy that remains in place today.

Nowadays, UNRWA actually tries to use the fear of more Arab refugees going to Europe as an excuse to raise money to keep them stateless and living in miserable camps in the Middle East - the exact opposite of what a proper refugee agency would do.

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Palestinian privilege: The "right" to free housing, forever

From UNRWA's Instagram feed:

[Ibrahim says:] Three years ago, there was very cold night and the power's cut off. My daughter, a university student, lit a candle so she could study. The candle caused a fire. A miracle rescued us and we coped with burned walls until UNRWA completely reconstructed the house. Now our house will be safe. "

Over 8000 Palestine refugee families in the West Bank like Ibrahim have houses that need rehabilitation. #shareyourwarmth

If your house burns down, unless you have insurance, you are out of luck.

But when Palestinian houses burn down, they can call on the United Nations to rebuild those houses. For free.

Ibrahim is not a refugee by any stretch of the imagination.

He owns and lives in a house.
He is living under the government of his people, the Palestinian Authority.
His house is in within the borders of British Mandate Palestine that he is supposedly a "refugee" from.
Obviously, he never fled oppression - his grandfather fled a home a few miles away, perhaps out of fear of fighting or because he didn't want to be under Jewish rule.
Ibrahim probably has a job, and if not there is nothing stopping him from getting one.
The lack of power in his house that resulted in the events that led to the fire had nothing to do with Israel.

But since Ibrahim is a Palestinian, this homeowner - who lives in a state recognized by over 130 nations - can demand the right to having his house rebuilt at the world's expense. UNRWA happily asks for donations to help Ibrahim and people like him.

Thousands of people whose homes burn down every month have no such recourse.

What makes Ibrahim so special?

Because he has Palestinian privilege.

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UNRWA offices torched by grateful Palestinians

Dafaa News reports that an UNRWA office in Shuafat was torched on Monday night.

No details on why the Palestinians are so grateful to the agency that has given them billions of dollars for free.

This news of Arabs torching a UN agency has been silenced. UNRWA of course doesn't mention it (I emailed them for comment, no response.) I could not find this story anywhere else in Arab media.

How many other similar stories just disappear because no one has any interest in publicizing them?

(h/t Yenta)

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UNRWA gets money from a terror-linked bank (EoZTV)

UNRWA opened a girls' school this week. Nothing wrong with that.

But there is something very wrong with the Arab bank that funded this school.

Watch the details in the latest edition of EoZTV.

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.@UNRWA admits the West Bank is a great place to live (but tells the world the opposite)

From an UNRWA job posting:

The Director of UNRWA Operations acts as UNRWA’s representative in the West Bank where s/he directs UNRWA’s programmes... for a population of more than 750,000 registered Palestine refugees.

The Director leads UNRWA’s responsibility for addressing the needs of Palestine refugees in the West Bank whose limited rights, restricted movement and an Occupation contribute to their marginalized existence.

The job description itself says that Israel oppresses Palestinians whose lives are miserable.

Employees are required to take the Palestinian side of the issues:

Client Orientation: Considers all those to whom services are provided to be “clients” and seeks to see things from clients’ point of view; establishes and maintains productive partnerships with clients by gaining their trust and respect...

But, the posting emphasizes:

UNRWA is a United Nations organization whose staff are expected to uphold the highest standards of integrity, neutrality and impartiality.

How, exactly, can people be neutral when they are explicitly told to empathize with one side?

While UNRWA employees are told to push the narrative of how awful life is for Palestinians, the UNRWA website that tries to attract employees completely contradicts the description of "limited rights, restricted movement and an Occupation:"

Working for UNRWA in the West Bank is challenging and rewarding. Jerusalem is a family-friendly duty station.

Public transportation is very common in the West Bank. Local residents use either buses, taxis, or their private cars when commuting to the various locations in the West Bank, which are generally easily accessible.

... An increasing number of cafes, restaurants and hotels have wireless internet connections.

Generally speaking for international staff, living in the West Bank is a remarkable experience with many highlights including the kindness and generosity of the people and the incredible array of sites to explore that are of historical and religious significance. ... This duty station is otherwise known for its accessibility to modern facilities including shopping centres, gyms, and swimming pools in Jerusalem and Ramallah. There are also many coffee shops and bars that provide special menus in a fabulous atmosphere.

While UNRWA writes reports about how terrible the water situation is in the West Bank, they tell employees to enjoy the fabulous swimming pools available to all Palestinians.

While UNRWA tells the world that checkpoints are oppressive, it tells its employees that travel through those checkpoints for local residents is easy.

The entire reason that NGO workers love to work in the West Bank is because it is safe, because they have easy access to all the amenities of modern life - and because Israel won't do anything to them when they write report after report on how terrible life is there.

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Lebanese protesting UNRWA service reductions, man sets himself on fire

file photo

UNRWA was forced to reduce its traditional payment of 100% of medical expenses for Palestinians in Lebanon:

Under the new arrangement, which came into effect with the new year, every Palestinian refugee receiving medical services or hospitalization through UNRWA must pay 5 percent of their bill at hospitals run by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, and 15 percent at government hospitals. Previously, UNRWA covered all expenses.

Furthermore, the new system calls for the suspension of coverage to Palestinians who have Lebanese nationality or other Palestinians with dual citizenship.

Popular committees, local bodies and Palestinian civil society groups all said they would not accept the new system, arguing that medical services should be developed further, rather than cut back

Thousands protested the fact that they will have to pay for a small part of their medical bills.

And one young man set himself on fire.

A 23-year-old Palestinian national Tuesday set himself on fire outside a clinic managed by the U.N. refugee agency in the southern district of Tyre over aid cuts.

Mohammad Omar Khodeir self immolated to protest aid cuts by UNRWA in the Burj al-Shamali Palestinian refugee camp.

Khodeir suffers from thalassemia, a hereditary blood disorder, but couldn't afford hospitalization costs.

A Palestinian official said the situation at the camp has been desperate since last year, and warned UNRWA of the consequence of cutting their aid.

“We all feel the danger,” he said.

A third official warned of strikes at all UNRWA offices inside Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps to protest the aid cuts.

Protesters in the Ain al-Hilweh camp closed the medical clinic and several UNRWA schools today, thereby making it harder for people to get services. This is a repeat of a pattern of anti-UNRWA protests that go back to the 1950s as Arabs demand 100% of their expenses paid, forever.

UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness has not tweeted about any of this even though the protests started last week.

.@UNRWA's Youth Ambassador: "I spit on Israel"

In 2013, UNRWA declared "Arab Idol" winner Mohammed Assaf to be its "Youth Ambassador" where he would "promote peace, security and other universal values."

Since then he has released music videos and sent out messages on social media that extolled Palestinian terror and violence.

UNRWA, which claims that it is dedicated to neutrality and peace, responded to Assaf's support of violence and widespread criticism of Assaf with a strong statement: it extended his contract as Youth Ambassador so he can continue to spout his hate.

Assaf is doing exactly that:

Mohammed Assaf, the Palestinian winner of Arab Idol was answering questions from fans in a skype phone-in when he received comment from an Israeli caller.

"You should come to Israel...you have Israeli blood," the fan said.

Assaf did not hold back in his response.

"I spit on you and Israel," the singer replied, before returning to answer other fans' questions.

"I don't want to talk about this issue too much. The person who said that wanted to provoke me and it's known that the issue of Palestine and the Palestinian people is one of my top priorities," Assaf told The New Arab.

"At the end of the day, any artist could be subject to a similar incident, however what happened with me is a isolated incident that will no affect my relationship with my fans."

Here's video of the incident:

Well, asking Assaf to visit Israel and saying that he has Israeli blood is obviously a huge insult to any self-respecting UN representative. How can anyone fault him for responding to such a provocation?

Certainly UNRWA doesn't.

Assaf also recently addressed the incitement in his videos, saying "Israeli journalists write about me in the media and accuse me of inciting, they tried to ban my song on YouTube, but I consider this the price we pay because we sing for the homeland and believe the Palestinian National mission."

By the way, before Assaf became famous, he was harassed and arrested by Hamas over 20 times in Gaza in order to discourage his singing career. Apparently, Assaf and Hamas have reached a tacit agreement that what he is doing now is quite acceptable to the terror group.

It certainly is to UNRWA.

(h/t Bob Knot)

What @UNRWA doesn't want the EU to know

On September 11, UNRWA's Chris Gunness asked the UN's real refugee agency this question:

Do any colleagues in #UNHCR @LDUNHCR @melissarfleming or peeps know how many #Palestinians r among those arriving in Europe & elsewhere ? RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) September 11, 2015

UNRWA was trying to formulate a new strategy to gain funds, namely an argument that funding UNRWA would reduce the number of Syrian refugees to Europe. It felt that Europeans, frightened of the influx of refugees, would hang onto any shred of hope that they can significantly reduce their numbers by throwing money at UNRWA.

Gunness never got that answer publicly. But he says that the argument has resonated and UNRWA has received funds from its donors that possibly could have helped other Syrian refugees:

“It costs seven times more to deal with Palestinian refugees once they get to Europe and beyond than for UNRWA to deliver services to them in the region – which is where they would prefer to be. We are seeing a growing acceptance of this argument among our larger donors."

Well, I found the answer to Gunness' question. And it is no wonder he hasn't publicized it.

According to the Action Group of Palestinians in Syria, only 36,000 people of Palestinian ancestry have reached Europe over the past four years. The BBC says that between one and 1.5 million migrants have arrived in Europe in 2015 alone. There were an additional 626,000 applications for asylum in Europe in 2014. I don't have the numbers for 2012 or 2013.

Which means that the most generous estimate of "Palestinians" among migrants to Europe is about 2%.

Throwing money at UNRWA, even if you accept the flawed argument that Palestinians would stay in the Middle East because of UNRWA services, will barely affect the numbers of refugees coming to Europe.

UNRWA knows this very well, but it wants to justify its existence as a separate agency to UNHCR, which actually tries to solve refugee problems and deserves the vast majority of funding.

One more thing: UNRWA worked together with the American University of Beirut on a report on people of Palestinian ancestry in Lebanon and how they are being treated in Lebanon. The AUB press release includes this:

The report analyzes the vulnerability assessment data carried out and comes at a time when this data on this subgroup is crucial. The Palestinian refugees from Syria are a protracted refugee population who do not have access to re-settlement programs or protection offered by UNHCR. As such, and according to the report, without continuing international support, the social and economic conditions of this group will only deteriorate.

Because UNRWA exists, these people cannot expect a real solution to their problems.

The actual report, with UNRWA's name on it, does not mention this fact. UNHCR is not mentioned in the report at all.

UNRWA is trying to sell itself as a solution to refugee problems when even its own research partners realize that UNRWA is only working to perpetuate and forever increase the number of "refugees."

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.@UNRWA's Chris Gunness again violates his organization's stated neutrality standards

Chris Gunness, UNRWA's spokesperson, tweeted this yesterday:

Demand @BBCNews use the words #IsraeliOccupation in its coverage of #Christmas in #Bethlehem. Amazing lack of context needs correction RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 24, 2015

I believe that this is the story that Gunness is referring to, about how the IDF is coordinating with Bethlehem officials to ensure that Christmas celebrations can be successful, despite the Arab violence that is scaring people away:

At the end of the story the reporter indeed says "Palestinians resent Israel's continued occupation of land they want for a future state." But the focus of the report wasn't on Palestinian suffering as every single other media report is, so Gunness found the report to have an "amazing lack of context."

(The BBC itself had such a story on Wednesday about a Bethlehem carpenter who is losing business because of the separation barrier that has now been in place for many years.)

I again quote Gunness about UNRWA's supposed neutrality:

Where we find credible allegations of neutrality violations among our staff, we investigate and where it's appropriate we take disciplinary action up to and including dismissal. And that process is audited by our major donors.

In other words, this person who claims that "UNRWA’s neutrality is the family's silver" has again violated that very mandate.

UN Watch also noticed this and issued a press release (not on their website as of the time of this writing):

GENEVA, Dec. 25, 2015 -- A Geneva-based watchdog agency called on U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power to take remedial measures against UNRWA and its spokesman Chris Gunness for engaging in partisan advocacy—breaching its neutrality promise under the 2015 UNRWA-U.S. Framework for Cooperation—after Gunness, an ex-BBC reporter, published a "demand" last night that the BBC "use the words 'Israeli occupation' in its coverage of Christmas in Bethlehem.""The neutrality breach here is astounding," said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer. "It's also unprecedented, because there is no other humanitarian agency in the world that publicly lobbies the media on what it should say about one party or another. UNRWA is putting at risk the $400 million support they receive from the U.S., which is conditional on UNRWA staying neutral and impartial." UN Watch noted that Gunness has not asked the BBC to mention murder, persecution and ethnic cleansing of Christians in Palestinian areas and throughout the Middle East, as documented before the UN in compelling testimony by Father Gabriel Naddaf, who noted that "Israel is the only Mideast country not persecuting Christians."