{"id":116591,"date":"2024-10-27T17:05:07","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T15:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=116591"},"modified":"2024-10-26T15:09:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-26T13:09:01","slug":"27-05-102","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=116591","title":{"rendered":"Israel set to pass laws Monday that will heavily restrict UNRWA in Gaza, West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Israel set to pass laws Monday that will heavily restrict UNRWA in Gaza, West Bank<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

Sam Sokol<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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MKs set to prevent UN\u2019s Palestinian refugee agency from operating in Israel, close Gaza and West Bank access points to it, radically complicating its work there; US, UN, EU object<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"AA man carries a humanitarian aid package provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in central Gaza City on August 27, 2024. (Omar AL-QATTAA \/ AFP)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Despite strong objections from the United Nations, European Union and Biden administration, lawmakers on Monday are slated to approve a\u00a0pair of laws<\/a>\u00a0that will essentially bar UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants, from operating in Israel, and severely curtail its activities in Gaza and the West Bank.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first bill, sponsored by Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky and Likud lawmaker Dan Illouz, among others, would ban state authorities from having any contact with UNRWA. The second, sponsored by Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, would effectively prevent the organization from operating in Israeli territory by revoking a 1967 exchange of notes providing the basis for its activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Without coordination with Israel, it will be almost impossible, in turn, for UNRWA to work in Gaza or the West Bank, since Jerusalem would no longer be issuing entrance permits to those territories or allowing coordination with the IDF. Israel also currently controls access to Gaza from Egypt, with the IDF deployed along the Gaza-Egypt Philadelphi corridor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked to respond to widespread international opposition ahead of Monday\u2019s vote, several of the bills\u2019 sponsors dismissed criticism of their legislation, stating that it is both necessary and just.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 68-strong coalition is likely to support the legislation; several opposition MKs are also expected to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

The expected approval of the legislation in the Knesset follows UNRWA\u2019s confirmation on Thursday that Muhammad Abu Attawi, who led the killing and kidnapping of Israelis from a roadside bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re\u2019im on October 7 last year, had been\u00a0employed by the agency<\/a>\u00a0since July 2022 while serving as a Nukbha commander in Hamas\u2019s Bureij Battalion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Hamas terrorist Muhammad Abu Attawi and UNRWA staffer during the attack on a bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re\u2019im on October 7, 2023. (Israel Defense Forces)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

UNRWA \u2014 short for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East \u2014 provides education, health care and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel alleges that more than 10 percent of UNRWA\u2019s staff in Gaza have\u00a0ties to terror<\/a>, and that educational facilities under the organization\u2019s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror. In February, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center\u00a0directly beneath<\/a>\u00a0UNRWA\u2019s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly\u00a0targeted<\/a>\u00a0Hamas command centers and gunmen hiding out in UNRWA schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

Numerous Israeli lawmakers have long argued that UNRWA must not be allowed to continue operating, with MK Malinovsky previously stating that the agency \u201cshould not exist at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Additional legislation advanced by Malinovsky\u00a0requiring Israel to brand UNRWA a terrorist organization<\/a>\u00a0is no longer on the Knesset table.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"MK Yulia Malinovsky speaks at a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting at the Knesset, July 9, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that passing the bills would be a \u201ccatastrophe,\u201d while European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell recently warned that it \u201cwould have disastrous consequences.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Such a move would prevent UNRWA \u201cfrom continuing to provide its services and protection to Palestine refugees in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza,\u201d Borrell stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, writing to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin\u00a0expressed concern<\/a>\u00a0over the bills.<\/span><\/p>\n

The senior American officials stated that while they recognized Jerusalem\u2019s concerns over some\u00a0UNRWA members\u2019 ties to Hamas<\/a>\u00a0and involvement in the October 7 onslaught, they believed that the \u201cenactment of such restrictions would devastate the Gaza humanitarian response\u201d as well as the provision of \u201cvital\u201d services in East Jerusalem.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Likud MK Dan Illouz attends a meeting of the Jerusalem lobby at the Knesset, May 17, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe recent revelation that Mohammad Abu Attawi \u2014 a Hamas commander and UNRWA employee \u2014 personally led the October 7 massacre of civilians at the Re\u2019im shelter is a shocking but unsurprising confirmation of what Israel has long known: UNRWA is deeply complicit in terror,\u201d said Likud\u2019s Illouz.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis agency employs hundreds of Hamas operatives and routinely allows its facilities to be used as command centers and weapons depots. UNRWA doesn\u2019t just harbor terrorists \u2014 it educates Palestinian youth to hate, fueling a dangerous cycle of violence that obstructs any path to peace,\u201d he argued, insisting that \u201cinstead of fostering stability, UNRWA entrenches the conflict, keeping millions of Palestinians in a state of dependency and using the inflated refugee numbers as a political weapon against Israel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy legislation aims to end this exploitation, dismantling a toxic agency that sustains conflict rather than resolves it,\u201d Illouz said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"People gather to search the rubble of a collapsed building in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on what the IDF says were Hamas operatives hiding in the Al-Jaouni UNRWA school in central Gaza\u2019s Nuseirat refugee camp, July 6, 2024. (Eyad Baba \/ AFP)<\/span><\/p>\n

Claims that the legislation would specifically prohibit UNRWA from operating in the territories are incorrect, even though they would significantly hamper its activities, a spokesman for MK Malinovsky told The Times of Israel on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the bill passes, UNRWA can work in Gaza and the West Bank, although it will not be able to operate in Israel,\u201d and the borders between Israel, Gaza and the West Bank \u201cwill be closed to them,\u201d the spokesman explained, adding dryly that UNRWA staffers \u201ccan use parachutes\u201d to get in.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe UNRWA workers\u2019 organization is controlled by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. So they have a connection between Hamas and UNRWA. And therefore, we don\u2019t want to have a connection with them,\u201d the spokesman stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel had been extremely critical of UNRWA long before the Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, saying that its near uniqueness in the world \u2014 granting refugee status not just to the first generation of refugees but to their descendants \u2014 perpetuated the conflict and a culture of dependence among Palestinians. At the same time, some Israeli politicians and officials saw the relief that the agency provided as a means of keeping the Gaza Strip, and parts of the West Bank, from deeper poverty and thus greater violence and terrorism.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"MK Boaz Bismuth at a committee meeting in the Knesset, December 13, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel\/Flash90)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Asked about his legislation banning UNRWA from operating on Israeli territory \u2014 which would have a much more limited impact than that of Malinovsky\u2019s bill \u2014 MK Bismuth told The Times of Israel that \u201cRome wasn\u2019t built in a day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason whatsoever that UNRWA is functioning in Israel. With all due respect, we\u2019re a sovereign country, and we can deal with our citizens,\u201d he said, insisting that Israel could and should take over the UN agency\u2019s activities in East Jerusalem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Responding to Blinken\u2019s concerns, Bismuth insisted that Israel \u201cwould never embarrass America\u201d and that \u201cthere will not be a vacuum.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jerusalem, he argued, has been providing unprecedented quantities of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and \u201cif we do that in Gaza, after October 7, do you expect us not to give services\u201d to the residents of East Jerusalem?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOn the contrary, not only will [Israel provide] services, it will give better services\u201d than UNRWA, he claimed. \u201cAnd I think that if the secretary of state would have been an MK in the Likud on the seventh of October, he would have done this thing\u201d as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Israel set to pass laws Monday that will heavily restrict UNRWA in Gaza, West Bank Sam Sokol MKs set to prevent UN\u2019s Palestinian refugee agency from operating in Israel, close Gaza and West Bank access points to it, radically complicating its work there; US, UN, EU object A man carries a humanitarian aid package provided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116591"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116591"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116614,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116591\/revisions\/116614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}