Time to dismantle UNRWA
The problem with UNRWA then extends far beyond the employees that took part in October 7.
Lost in the debate about funding Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA amid the role some of its employees played in the October 7 massacre is a major elephant in the room – why the organisation still operates.
Every other refugee in the world is serviced by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), whose mandate is to resettle refugees and see their numbers dwindle .
With a budget that dwarfs that of UNHCR, UNRWA acts only for Palestinian refugees, does not resettle them and actually grows their numbers by granting descendants refugee status in perpetuity.
This is how 700,000 refugees in 1948 has become 5.8 million today. Almost half have never stepped foot in Israel, Gaza or the West Bank. Many are born-and-raised citizens of other countries. Millionaire American supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid are considered refugees under UNRWA’s twisted definition.
A sizeable portion are left as a festering scar in refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria to be used as a political tool.
Around two-and-a-half million in Gaza and the West Bank live under Palestinian rule in so-called refugee camps that look more like neighbourhoods with apartments buildings, shops, et cetera – how can they be refugees under their own government?
Because UNRWA tells them they are. It tells them the status quo is temporary and they will one day return to their homes in what is now sovereign Israel. This indoctrination starts in UNRWA schools where teachers that belong to Hamas present antisemitic materials that speak of reclaiming the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. It’s little wonder that Gazan youths are so eager to sign up for Hamas’s terror training summer camps that will one day turn them into fully-fledged terrorists.
The problem with UNRWA then extends far beyond the employees that took part in October 7. It extends beyond the symbiotic relationship between Hamas and UNRWA that sees Hamas using UNRWA facilities to hide personnel and store weapons. It extends beyond membership of UNRWA staff in Hamas, sympathy for the terror group or celebrations of the October 7 atrocities.
The problem is that UNRWA exists at all. For as long as it does, it will remain one of the biggest impediments there is to peace.
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