Israel’s parliament has voted to ban a nearly eight-decade-old United Nations agency that provides essential services for Palestinian refugees, a move that could have devastating consequences for millions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
On Monday, the Knesset passed two bills; one barring UNRWA from activity within Israel, and another banning Israeli authorities from any contact with UNRWA – revoking the 1967 treaty that allows UNRWA to provide services to Palestinian refugees in areas under Israel’s control.
The move is expected to severely restrict the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) from operating in territories Israel occupies.
Following the passing of the first law, Boaz Bismuth, a member of Likud, the architect of the bill, said: “Anyone that behaves like a terrorist has no rights in Israel…. UNRWA equals Hamas, period.”
Before the passing of the second law, another member, Yuli Edelstein, claimed the directive “does not in any way harm humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip” and insisted Israel was acting within the framework of international law.
The move went ahead despite heated opposition from Arab members of the Knesset and strong international pressure from Western nations. The first law was approved with 92 votes in favor, 10 against. The second was approved with 87 votes in favor, 9 against.
Several countries, including the United States, have expressed deep concerns about the controversial ban, which could impact the education, food, healthcare and livelihoods of millions of Palestinians who depend on the agency.
Prior to the vote, the US State Department had urged Israel not to pass the legislation, saying the agency plays “an irreplaceable role right now in Gaza.” Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously warned Israel that passing the legislation could “have implications under US law and US policy.”
Israel has long sought to dismantle the UN body, arguing that some of its employees are affiliated with Hamas, and that its schools teach hate against Israel. UNRWA has repeatedly denied these accusations, saying there is “absolutely no ground for a blanket description of ‘the institution as a whole’ being ‘totally infiltrated.’”
Here’s what we know about UNRWA, and the implications of the Israeli ban.
What is UNRWA and what does it do?
UNRWA was founded by the United Nations a year after the 1948 creation of Israel that led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in an event known by Palestinians as the “Nakba” (catastrophe).
The agency, which began by assisting about 750,000 Palestinian refugees in 1950, now serves some 5.9 million across the Middle East, many of whom live in refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In the Gaza Strip, which has been ravaged by a devastating Israeli war for more than a year, UNRWA serves some 1.7 million Palestinian refugees. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, it assists around 871,500 refugees.
The agency provides a wide range of aid and services to Palestinian refugees and their descendants, including shelter, healthcare, food and education. It is also a major source of employment for the refugees, who make up most of its more than 30,000 employees across the Middle East, and has representative offices in New York, Geneva and Brussels.
More than 13,000 of its employees are stationed in Gaza alone. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem, it employs nearly 4,000 workers.
UNRWA is unique in that it is the only UN agency dedicated to a specific group of refugees in specific areas. While its purpose is to support Palestinian refugees, UNRWA does not have a mandate to resettle them
The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is the body that is tasked with resettlement of refugees, but its mandate does not extend to areas UNRWA operates in.
Why does Israel want to ban UNRWA?
Israel has long opposed the agency and sought to dismantle it even before October 7 last year, when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 hostages. Israeli officials have rejected UNRWA’s definition of which Palestinians are eligible for refugee status, arguing that descendants of the 1948 refugees do not qualify and thus don’t have the right to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel.
An Israeli member of parliament behind the bills accused UNRWA on Sunday of “educating kids to hate Israel and spreading antisemitism.”
But since the war started, Israel has launched an intense campaign to delegitimize the UN body, including accusing some of UNRWA’s employees of association with Hamas’ attack, alleging they took part in varying capacities.
UNRWA strongly denied the allegations, but several governments, including the US, suspended funding for the agency earlier this year while the allegations were being investigated. In January, the agency terminated the contracts of those Israel named and launched an investigation into its claims. Most nations have since restored funding with the exception of the US, its biggest donor.
UNRWA said that that as of October 20 of this year, 233 of its workers were killed. And last month, the agency said that an UNRWA staffer “was shot and killed on the roof of his home by a sniper during an overnight Israeli military operation” in El Far’a Camp in the occupied West Bank, marking the first time a member of the UN agency was killed in the West Bank in more than 10 years, UNRWA said.
What would the impact of UNRWA’s banning be?
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier this month that “in midst of all the upheaval, UNRWA – more than ever – is indispensable… is irreplaceable.”
The UN chief said he sent a letter to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, telling him that the proposed bill would “suffocate efforts to ease human suffering and tensions in Gaza, and indeed, the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
“It would be a catastrophe,” Guterres said, “in what is already an unmitigated disaster.”
But his calls appear to have fallen on deaf ears. The UN chief has been declared persona-non-grata, or an unwanted person, by Israel, whose officials have repeatedly accused Guterres of being sympathetic to Israel’s adversaries.
UNRWA is the primary humanitarian aid group in Gaza. Nearly 2 million Gazans rely on the agency for aid, with 1 million people using UNRWA shelters for food and healthcare in the enclave. The agency has provided Gazans with everything from food and healthcare to education and psychological support for decades.
Along with the Palestinian Red Crescent, UNRWA handles almost all distribution of UN aid coming into the territory. The agency has 11 food distribution centers for 1 million people in Gaza, more than half of whom UNRWA assesses to live below the abject poverty line of US$ 1.74 per person per day.
The agency has also helped implement an emergency polio vaccination campaign in Gaza, alongside other UN bodies, in a bid to stop the infectious virus that can cause paralysis from spreading. Last week, the third phase of the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza was postponed due to escalating violence in north Gaza, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
In the West Bank, UNRWA provides services for 19 refugee camps, more than 90 schools and a number of health services, including prenatal care. It distributes basic food supplies, loans, as well as emergency cash grants and shelter, according to the agency’s website.
It is unclear who would assume assistance for the millions of Palestinian refugees who rely on UNRWA, if it wasn’t able to. Israel has previously tried to dismantle the agency and called for the merging of its responsibilities with the UNHCR.
Aida Touma-Suleiman, an Israeli-Arab politician and member of the Arab-majority Hadash party, said the “bills stem from a long time ambition of the Israeli right – to strip Palestinian refugees from their status.”
“Israel is in effect creating new refugees every day while questioning the legitimacy of that very status,” Touma-Suleiman said on X.
What is the international community saying?
On Monday, foreign ministers of seven countries – Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom – called on Israel to halt the legislation, expressing “grave concern” over its implications.
“UNRWA provides essential and life-saving humanitarian aid and basic services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and throughout the region,” the foreign ministers said in a joint statement.
Despite its suspension of funding to UNRWA, the US has also opposed the ban. In a letter sent to two senior members of the Israeli government earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Biden administration was “deeply concerned” about it.