Oct. 28 (UPI) — Israel’s Knesset parliament passed a pair of bills on Monday evening to prohibit the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency from operating in the Middle Eastern country, prompting swift and strong international condemnation.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, better known as UNRWA, has some 30,000 staff working throughout the region, including in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The bills were overwhelmingly passed by the Knesset to bar the organization in Israel on Monday, though it was not entirely clear what effect the bills would ultimately have.
Yuli Edelstein, a Knesset member and chairman of the parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee who introduced both pieces of legislation, described their passing as “historic” and a “significant movement for the security of the country.”
“UNRWA has long ceased being a humanitarian aid agency. Beyond being an integral part of encouraging terrorism and hatred, it is an agency for perpetuating poverty and suffering,” Edelstein said in a statement. “The logic is simple — in order to survive, UNRWA itself creates a demand for the product it provides.”
“The cycle of horrors ends today. They are out!,” he added in English.
The U.N. agency, formed in 1949 to help Palestinian refugees created by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, has long been criticized by Israel on charges of extending the Palestinian conflict, but the attacks have increased amid Israel’s war with Hamas.
Israel accused a handful of UNRWA’s employees of being involved in Hamas’ bloody attack that killed 1,2000 Israelis. UNRWA responded by firing nine employees where evidence indicated they may have been involved in the mass attack that ignited the ongoing war.
Following the parliament session, UNRWA lambasted the Knesset’s votes as “unprecedented” and warned they set “a dangerous precedent” that will deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially those in Gaza, who “have been going through more than a year of sheer hell.”
The votes oppose the U.N. Charter and violates Israel’s obligations under international law, Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general, continued.
“This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to Palestine Refugees,” Lazzarini said in a statement, adding the move will deprive more than 650,000 children of education.
“These bills increase the suffering of the Palestinians and are nothing less than collective punishment,” he said. “Failing to push back these bills will weaken our common multilateral mechanism established after World War II.”
The United States has already expressed deep concerns with Israel about the legislation. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington prior to the vote on Monday that the bills’ passage “could have implications under U.S. law and U.S. policy.”
“Look, UNRWA plays a critical, important role in delivering humanitarian assistance to civilians that need it in Gaza,” he said during the press conference, noting that the organization also functions in providing services to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and throughout the region.
“They really play an irreplaceable role right now in Gaza, where they are on the front lines getting humanitarian assistance to the people that need it. There’s nobody that can replace them right now in the middle of the crisis.”
Following the vote on Monday was a wave of international condemnation.
The European Union, Norway, Slovenian, Spain, Australia, Britain and others issued statements rejecting the vote, while others had urged Israel to reconsider the legislation over the weekend.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he will bring the matter to the attention of the General Assembly.
“UNRWA is the principal means by which essential assistance is supplied to Palestine refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. There is no alternative to UNRWA,” he said in a statement.
“The implementation of the laws could have devastating consequences for Palestine refugees in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which is unacceptable. I call on Israel to act consistently with its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and its other obligations under international law, including under international humanitarian law and those concerning privileges and immunities of the United Nations.”
