Aussie taking on UNRWA
"UNRWA has become an inseparable arm of Hamas and a systematic incubator of hate, incitement and terror," says Arsen Ostrovsky.
An Australian oleh is at the centre of the first UNRWA-related lawsuit to be filed over the Palestinian refugee agency’s role in the October 7 Hamas massacre.
Arsen Ostrovsky (pictured), CEO of the International Legal Forum, is working with the National Jewish Advocacy Centre (NJAC) in the United States, which has filed a federal complaint on behalf of a group of survivors of the terrorist attack against UNRWA USA.
It is the first lawsuit seeking to provide accountability for UNRWA’s involvement in the massacre.
The lawsuit describes how UNRWA USA, the largest private donor to UNRWA, materially supported terrorism by “knowingly, actively, and systematically” operating a terrorist-financing scheme in violation of US federal law.
Evidence includes the UNRWA staff who participated in the onslaught, UNRWA allowing its facilities to be used for Hamas control and command centres, and for shielding Hamas’s tunnels.
“UNRWA has become an inseparable arm of Hamas and a systematic incubator of hate, incitement and terror,” Sydney-raised Ostrovsky, who made aliyah in 2012, said.
“We are not talking about ‘a few rotten apples’. The entire organisation is rotten to the core and infested with terror. As their primary non-governmental fundraising platform in the United States, UNRWA USA must be held accountable for helping underwrite the mass slaughter, rape and abductions by Hamas on October 7.”
The plaintiffs in the case include survivors who fled for their lives from terrorists, victims’ relatives, displaced families, and victims such as Lishay Lavi, whose husband Omri Miran was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists after they broke into their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz.
Attorney for the plaintiffs David Schoen said the case is “vitally important in the effort to bring some measure of justice to these victims, by cutting off one source of funding – hopefully an important first step toward the elimination of UNRWA”.
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