Victims of the October 7 attacks and their families have initiated legal proceedings in a federal court in New York, alleging that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and certain individuals provided assistance and support to Hamas in the commission of atrocities.
The United Nations has contended that the legal action should be dismissed, referencing the diplomatic immunity afforded to the UN and its affiliated entities on American soil in accordance with the US-UN charter. The Department of Justice has endorsed this position, highlighting the UN’s protection from legal proceedings as stipulated in the United Nations Charter.
The lawsuit claims UNRWA consciously aided Hamas through various means, including assisting in building Hamas command posts, allowing UNRWA buildings to be used for weapon storage, and utilizing Hamas-sanctioned educational materials in UNRWA-run schools. It should be noted that the DOJ’s filing concedes that some UNRWA employees had ties to Hamas and received compensation in ways that financially supported the group, which is designated as a terrorist organization.
Prof. Eugene Kontorovich tweeted on Thursday: “‘No one is above the law,’ says former prosecutor Kamala Harris. Except, it turns out, for UNRWA staff that helped Hamas pull off the Oct. 7 massacre. Shockingly, Biden-Harris is seeking legal immunity in US courts for the terrorists.”
Last January, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, conceded that “The Israeli Authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on 7 October.”
Lazzarini then argued against punishing his organization for putting a few dozen Jew-hating murderers on its payroll, saying, “These shocking allegations come as more than 2 million people in Gaza depend on lifesaving assistance that the Agency has been providing since the war began.”
In other words, sure, the guy handing you a sack of flour may be a psychopathic killer, but, hey, check out that flour!
In an article Kontorovich published with Mark Goldfeder in the NY Post (Outrage as US DOJ defends UN staffers who collaborated in Hamas’ terror), they argue that although the DOJ “asserts that the UN officials have immunity under the 1945 International Organizations Immunities Act,” the IOIA immunity may not apply to “the UN’s myriad affiliated agencies,” and “UNRWA, which receives most of its funding from outside the UN, is quite plausibly not covered by the IOIA.”
Kontorovich and Goldfeder believe that although the IOIA offers international organizations the same privileges, immunities, and exemptions as foreign governments, “It would be absurd to give the UN more immunity than the countries that created it,” and therefore “it does not give UN employees a license to kill.”
“In short,” they conclude, “the administration was not legally compelled to argue that UNRWA enjoys greater immunity than foreign countries and former presidents – this is a policy decision DOJ has chosen to make.”
