The United Nations said in a letter Tuesday that finding a replacement for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which Israel banned for its terror ties, was Yerushalayim’s responsibility.
“If UNRWA is no longer able to operate it would be the responsibility of the Israeli authorities to replace its services that it delivers to civilians, in education, in health, and all sorts of other areas,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ chef de cabinet, Courtenay Rattray, wrote to an Israeli foreign affairs official on Tuesday, saying, “I would note, as a general point, that it is not our responsibility to replace UNRWA, nor do we have the capacity to do so.”
Her letter was in reply to one sent by Israel’s Foreign Ministry to the U.N. General Assembly explaining it would no longer work with UNRWA but “will continue to work with international partners, including other United Nations agencies.”
“Israel expects the United Nations to contribute to and cooperate in this effort,” the letter said.
Israel terminated relations with UNRWA a week after the Knesset, by a vote of 92 to 10, passed legislation on Oct. 28 banning the organization’s operations in the Jewish state.
“UNRWA may be defined by a single word—failure,” Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, told a meeting of the General Assembly on UNRWA on Wednesday. “This idea that UNRWA could not be supplemented is absurd.”
Israel has long criticized UNRWA’s operations in Gaza as controlled by Hamas. That criticism sharpened after the Oct. 7 massacre and revelations that UNRWA employees took part in the slaughter.
The curriculum in UNRWA-run schools also has been repeatedly exposed for its glorification of jihad and antisemitism.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said on Monday, “UNRWA, whose employees took part in the Oct. 7 massacre and many of whose workers are Hamas operatives, is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip, not part of the solution.”
Danon tweeted on Monday, “Despite the overwhelming evidence we submitted to the U.N. that substantiates Hamas’ infiltration of UNRWA, the U.N. did nothing to rectify the situation.”
U.N. officials have painted the banning of its organization in apocalyptic terms.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday that the Israeli move would have “disastrous consequences.”
“Millions of Palestine refugees fear that the public services on which their lives depend will soon disappear,” he said. “They fear that their children will be deprived of education; that illnesses will go untreated; and that social support will stop.”
(JNS)
Now that the terrorist organization under the alias UNWRA is gone, Israel has accomplished in the removal/ eradication of another terror organization. Congratulations!
Israel Says UN’s Job Was to Replace UNWRA/UNTA (United Nations Terrorist Agency)
The Israeli Knesset released a statement on Tuesday saying that “replacing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) with an upstanding agency that has no ties to Hamas or any other terrorist organization should have been the UN’s responsibility, but, since the UN can not be relied upon to set up a respectable agency without ties to terrorism due to the UN’s support of the terrorists, we have no choice but to establish our own relief agency that will bring relief to the victims of Hamas’ terror.”
“If UNRWA is no longer able to operate due to its terrorist composition, and the UN is unable to set up a viable replacement for the UNWRA/UNTA (United Nations Terrorist Agency) due to the UN’s enthusiastic support of terrorists and massacrists, then we will have no choice but to set up our own relief agency that will bring much needed relief to the victims of Hamas terror.”
UNWRA does not need to be replaced.
All they were good for was stealing international relief money and goods (often redirecting that aid to terrorist entities) and teaching Palestinian children to hate Jews.
Any government the Palestinians create will be able to accomplish both of those without the need for western “saviors” to do it for them.
You mean teach to throw rockets and stones.
Anyone can do that
Perhaps Israel should do this. But first, Israel gets to define the scope of their work. Just who is a refugee? The definition that UNRWA used was not sustainable, and was in violation of the UN definition. The provision of any aid would necessarily bypass the animals of Hamas.