Trump administration strips UNRWA of legal immunity in court filing

Mike Wagenheim

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UNRWA offices in Jerusalem on the day that the U.N. agency was banned from operating in Israel, Jan. 30, 2025. Photo by Aron Leib Abrams/Flash90.

The U.S. Department of Justice told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has been stripped of its legal immunity.

The decision was taken as part of a case filed last year in which families of victims of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sued UNRWA for its ties to terrorism. Israel has said that at least 18 UNRWA staff members took part directly in the assault across the Gaza border into southern Israel.

The plaintiffs also allege long-term fraud and corruption in handling financial aid routed through UNRWA into the Gaza Strip—$1 billion of which critics say has fallen into the hands of Hamas and other terror groups.

“The complaint in this case alleges atrocious crimes committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, and its factual allegations, taken as true, detail how UNRWA played a significant role in those heinous offenses,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York wrote to the U.S. district judge Analisa Torres. 

“Previously, the government expressed the view that certain immunities shielded UNRWA from having to answer those allegations in American courts,” per the filing. “The government has since re-evaluated that position and now concludes that UNRWA is not immune from this litigation. Nor are the bulk of other defendants.”

The claim by the U.S. attorney’s office added that UNRWA is not legally considered an affiliated organ of the United Nations since it was formed and continues to hold its mandate as a result of a resolution by the U.N. General Assembly. The U.S. Justice Department said the General Assembly may have lacked the authority to create the agency.

Former President Joe Biden’s administration held that the United Nations and UNRWA were immune from the lawsuit.

If found not to have immunity, UNRWA, its leaders and employees—and perhaps the United Nations at large—could be ordered to pay large compensation to victims and their families.

Stripping diplomatic immunity from UNRWA might also call into question the future of U.N. headquarters in New York and could impact the Knesset’s decision, effective this past January, to ban UNRWA from operating within Israeli territory.

The office of António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, told JNS that “we have seen the letter filed by the U.S. Department of Justice with the court. We will review it carefully.”

“The position of the United Nations is longstanding and clear. UNRWA is a subsidiary body of the General Assembly and, as such, is entitled to immunity from legal process under the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations,” the secretary-general’s office added. (An UNRWA spokesperson sent JNS the same statement.)

“This issue is before the federal district court in New York, and through our counsel, we will continue to set out the basis for our position before the court,” the secretary-general’s office told JNS. “We will consider whether any other action is appropriate with respect to the letter.”

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