At the same time, the US- UNRWA accord turns a blind eye to Hamas takeover of UNRWA facilities in Gaza.
Sixteen years ago, the Gaza-based employees of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency held elections to choose union leaders.
Hamas took advantage of the campaign and took over the entire teachers association and workers association.
By 2012, more the 90 percent of UNRWA employees had become Hamas supporters.
As a result of the takeover, Hamas created an apparatus whose mission was to maintain its grip on the Gaza-based UNRWA schools.
Al-Kutla Al-Islamiya (the Islamic Bloc) changed the school curriculum and introduced new textbooks, to disseminate Hamas ideology to young Gazans.
US State DepartmentT informed our agency that the US flatly denies the presence of Hamas in the UNRWA camps.
US government documents show that UNRWA, as a matter of policy, refuses to check if Hamas is present in UNRWA facilities.
All you have to do is to peruse the US government report entitled,
“U.S. Foreign Aid to the Palestinians” written by Jim Zanotti, Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs on July 3, 2014
That report reveals that UNRWA’s terrorist screening list, required by UN resolution #1267, does not even “include Hamas, Hezbollah, or most other militant groups that operate in UNRWA’s surroundings. UNRWA is unwilling to screen its contractors and funding recipients against a list supplied by only one U.N. member state”.
And when it comes to widespread allegations against UNRWA for lack of transparency, the US-UNRWA accord could have set up a new system of accountability to address the cumbersome funding process for UNRWA.
Instead, the accord’s financial responsibility section totally relies on UNRWA, saying that, UNRWA is “expected to provide relevant information pertaining to its implementation of UNBOA recommendations and, in accordance with UN and/or UNRWA procedures and policies, required data for U.S. reporting against the United Nations Transparency and Accounting Initiative (UNTA)”
And if UNRWA does not provide that financial oversight, “as expected”?
Not a word.
The conclusion of the document says it all:
“The United States is committed to continuing its partnership with UNRWA to assist the more than 5.4million registered Palestinian refugees and other registered persons assisted by UNRWA until a just solution is achieved and UNRWA’s mandate ends”.
And if the UNRWA definition of a “just solution” is not achieved?
Not a word.
Instead, the US-UNRWA accord sentences an entire population of refugee descendants to the indignity of continued refugee life, with no end in sight, preparing them to return to their homes back within the 1967 lines, while the US governments promises the rest of the Palestinian Arab population to settle them beyond the 1967 lines.
For whatever reason, the new US-UNRWA accord conveys one message:
WE TRUST UNRWA AND THE STAUS QUO.