The Israel Land Authority on Thursday announced the takeover of the headquarters in Jerusalem of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which will be replaced with 1,440 housing units.
The 8.89-acre UNRWA compound in the Ma’alot Dafna neighborhood of Jerusalem has been declared illegal following an inquiry by Minister of Construction and Housing Yitzhak Goldknopf to the CEO of the land authority and the prime minister’s office. It turns out the UN agency owes more than $7 million in rent for the space.
Ma’alot Dafna is a neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, bordering on the neighborhood of Shmuel HaNavi to the west, Ammunition Hill to the east, Ramat Eshkol to the north, and Arzei Ha’Bira to the south.
One year after the October 7 attack, the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee approved a bill to sever ties between Israel and UNRWA. The bill will go to a second and third reading in the Knesset plenary next week, after which the agency’s standing in Israel will be terminated:
- The only agreement (from 1967) that allowed UNRWA to operate in Israel will be canceled and as a result, its activities will cease.
- UNRWA personnel will be prohibited from coming in contact with Israeli officials, and their diplomatic visas and economic benefits will be terminated.
- Any criminal procedure against UNRWA employees in connection with the crimes they committed on October 7 or in any connection will remain in place.
COMMISSIONER LAZZARINI NOT AMUSED
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, on Wednesday, issued a statement saying, “Senior Israeli officials have described destroying UNRWA as a war goal. Legislation to end our operations is ready for final adoption by the Israeli Knesset. It seeks to ban UNRWA’s presence and operations in the territory of Israel, revoking its privileges and immunities, in violation of international law. If the bills are adopted, the consequences will be severe.”
Lazzarini continued: “Operationally, the entire humanitarian response in Gaza – which rests on UNRWA’s infrastructure – may disintegrate. Coordination with Israel would cease, further disrupting the provision of shelter, food, and healthcare to people in desperate need as winter approaches. More than 650,000 children would lose any hope of resuming their education and an entire generation would be sacrificed. In the West Bank, the delivery of education, primary healthcare, and emergency aid to hundreds of thousands of Palestine Refugees would grind to a halt.”
“Legally, the Knesset legislation violates Israel’s obligations under the United Nations Charter and international law. It defies the will of the international community expressed through General Assembly resolution 302 on UNRWA, and deepens violations recognized by the International Court of Justice.”
“Politically, the anti-UNRWA legislation, which is part of a broader campaign to dismantle the Agency, seeks to strip Palestinians from their refugee status, and change – unilaterally – the parameters for a future political solution,” the commissioner noted.
MK Yulia Malinovski (Israel Beitenu), who submitted the bill together with MK Boaz Bismuth (Likud), responded after the committee vote: “Today, the day before the anniversary of October 7, we return a little of the justice to the victims of that cursed Shabbat and their families. UNRWA, which cooperated and continues to cooperate with the murderous terrorist organization Hamas, will be removed from here. The employees of the organization who participated in the massacre will be prosecuted and the tax benefits and all the other treats they received will be stopped immediately. The coalition and the opposition have cooperated to submit the bill as soon as possible so that we can get rid of UNRWA once and for all.”
THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE THING
UNRWA, the International Court of Justice at the Hague, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres are the favorites to receive this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel committee which awarded its peace prize to mass murderer Yassar Arafat for agreeing to briefly stop murdering, and to President Barack Obama for being elected while Black, should have no problem awarding it to this consolidated group of Jew-haters.
This is why the Regavim movement sent an official letter to Jorgen Watne Frydnes, Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and to the members of his committee, nominating the Xinjiang Vocational Education and Training Centers for the prize.
“The Xingjiang educational centers offer new avenues for rehabilitation and full integration into Chinese society for those who were previously considered outcasts and even threats to national cohesion and progress,” Regavim wrote, adding:
“It is our opinion that The Xinjiang Vocational Education and Training Centers is at least as worthy as other recent nominees, particularly the UNRWA. The Xingjian Educational Centers rely entirely on internal funding, manpower, and other resources, and has evolved into a significant educational and cultural force in China, impacting the lives of thousands of members of marginalized ethnic communities.”
Of course, the Xinjiang educational centers are The Xinjiang internment camps, for China’s Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims, the largest-scale arbitrary detention of ethnic and religious minorities since World War II. As of 2020, it was estimated that Chinese authorities have detained 1.8 million people, mostly Uyghurs but also Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other ethnic Turkic Muslims, Christians, as well as some foreign citizens including Kazakhstanis, in these secretive internment camps located throughout the region.
Now it remains to be seen whether Norwegians have a sense of humor.
