In his July 3 column for the New York Times, Nicholas Kristoff explains How Biden Has Gotten in the Way of Fighting Starvation in Gaza. Kristoff writes that Biden has often “seemed weak” in responding to the war in Gaza — “upset over the humanitarian toll but not acting firmly to reduce it” — but he was “uncharacteristically decisive” in the case of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
After Israel alleged involvement in terrorism by staff members of the United Nations agency at the center of efforts to avert starvation in Gaza, Biden swiftly suspended funding for the agency. Congress then extended the funding freeze.
Kristoff points out that ”the factual basis behind accusations against the agency has proved elusive,” since two investigations have not found significant evidence and show a pattern of “wild accusations” being made by Israel against UNRWA.
Kristoff quotes Philippe Lazzarini, the leader of UNRWA, who told him:
“UNRWA is staggering under the weight of relentless attacks. There is a political objective to strip the Palestinians of their refugee status, to weaken their further aspirations for self-determination.”
Kristoff says that in January, Israeli officials claimed that 12 of the agency’s 30,000 employees participated in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Kristoff’s view is that
UNRWA acted responsibly: It terminated 10 of the accused employees (the two others were dead), called for independent investigations and repeated its condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the abhorrent attacks of Oct. 7.
Kristoff warns that “far-right Israeli politicians are pushing to abolish UNRWA, which provides schools, clinics and other services in the region.”
A bill in the Israeli Parliament that would ban UNRWA as a terrorist organization easily passed a first reading, leading to international condemnation. Doctors Without Borders called the move “an outrageous attack on humanitarian assistance,” and the European Union described UNRWA as “crucial and irreplaceable.”
Kristoff recently visited UNWRA’s headquarters in East Jerusalem and reports:
the ground is charred where violent Israeli protesters attacked the compound and twice set it on fire. During the arson attacks, a crowd chanted in Hebrew, “Let the U.N. burn.”
Kristoff describes being in an UNRWA vehicle on the West Bank when they were turned back at an Israeli checkpoint while other vehicles were allowed through. He says Israel has blocked UNRWA officials from their work by delaying their visas, and “nearly 200 UNRWA aid workers have been killed by bombings and shootings in Gaza.”
He replies to an unproved accusation by Israel that “about 10 percent of the 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza are Hamas members and that UNRWA schools incite hatred.”
In my visits to the West Bank and Gaza over the years, UNRWA has seemed to me a force for reducing unrest, not inflaming it. Its schools are one reason Palestinians are relatively well educated in the Arab world. Its programs empower women, and its payroll helps keep the Palestinian economy afloat.
An UNRWA coordinator in the Jalazone refugee camp on the West Bank told Kristoff:
UNRWA helps financially, gives education and medicines and makes an area more stable. If we didn’t have UNRWA schools, it would be a nightmare for everyone.
Kristoff also quotes a former French foreign minister, who exonerated UNRWA of allegations that it was complicit with Hamas and said “UNRWA is irreplaceable and indispensable” and “pivotal in providing lifesaving humanitarian aid.”
Kristoff comments:
It’s perhaps understandable that Israelis, traumatized by the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, would aim to destroy a U.N. agency serving Palestinians. But that would help neither Israel nor anyone else, and the United States’ defunding of UNRWA exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in the occupied territories.
In conclusion, Kristoff advises Biden to “acknowledge his misstep.”
As famine threatens Gaza, the United States should be backing the agency at the center of efforts to fight starvation, not undermining it.
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UPDATE:
The U.S. has been UNRWA’s largest donor, accounting for nearly 30% of its donor contributions. In 2023, the US donated as of June $206.8 million in two installments. www.unrwa.org/...
Free link to Kristoff’s op-ed is HERE.
Information about UNRWA:
UNRWA was created by the UN General Assembly on December 8, 1949, to provide basic support, including food, healthcare and education to tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees.
More than 700,000 Palestinians were forcefully displaced leading up to Israel’s creation in 1948, which Palestinians remember as the Nakba, or “the catastrophe”.
UNRWA operations are spread across the occupied West Bank – including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
It supports some 6 million Palestinian refugees who live in and outside Palestine. It acts as a quasi-state providing direct services, such as schools, primary health centres and other social services. It also provides loans to Palestinians.
It does not run refugee camps as maintaining law and order and security is not part of its mandate.
Since Israel launched its war on Gaza on October 7, approximately a million Palestinians from Gaza have been sheltering in UNRWA schools, clinics and other public buildings.
UNRWA schools and buildings operate beyond capacity to provide shelter to internally displaced Palestinians who have few safe spaces to go to.
Nearly the entire population in Gaza now relies on UNRWA for necessities, including food, water and hygiene supplies.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/7/6/israel-war-on-gaza-live-27-killed-in-wave-of-israeli-attacks-on-enclave?