Noga Arbel, a researcher at the Kohelet Policy Forum, last Thursday told the Knesset Foreign Policy and Public Diplomacy subcommittee, chaired by MK Zeev Elkin (National Unity Party), that “UNRWA undermines the existence of the State of Israel, and is currently run by Hamas.”
“The Palestinian education system is the gravest security threat for the State of Israel, and UNRWA is the core of the problem,” Arbel went on. “If we will allow it to continue to perpetuate the Palestinian refugee problem, instead of resolving it, the threat will only grow.”
Chairman Elkin’s committee debated the topic of “UNRWA – positions and activity during the Swords of Iron War,” and in the first part of the meeting, the subcommittee heard from representatives of civil society organizations that deal with the issue, while in the second part of the meeting, which was classified, the MKs were briefed on the matter by representatives of the IDF, the Israel Security Agency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other state bodies.
Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, said, “This is the only refugee population in the world that grows rather than decreases in size, and that the status of refugee [in this population] is inherited.”
Michael added that while “the issue of education is not in the organization’s mandate,” UNRWA’s education budget constitutes 58% of its total budget, “with only a very small percentage going to employment and welfare.”
UNRWA has been perpetuating the conflict between Israel & Palestinians since 1948.
Listen to this:@EinatWilf
— Ella Travels (Ella Kenan) (@EllaTravelsLove) January 4, 2024
Former MK Einat Wilf, author of the book “The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace,” told the committee that “Beginning in the 1960s, UNRWA was kidnapped by the Palestinian refugees themselves, to transform it into a Palestinian organization. From the outset, the organization was established as an organization that opposes the Partition Plan, and even back then it was obvious that this was a failing organization that had not implemented its mandate, but from their perspective, it has to exist to leave a permanent question mark over the existence of the Jewish state. The organization continuously preserves the [Palestinian] refugee idea and the idea of right of return, and its goal is to perpetuate the conflict, generation after generation.”
BREAKING ?
More @UNRWA complicity.
This time in a ????????????.See comments for more pictures.
I’ve seen a few people say this is Gaza.
It was Tulkarm in the West Bank, which to me, is even worse. @UNLazzarini and @UNRWA must be criminally investigated. pic.twitter.com/09iR64cdhv— Kosher Cockney (@KosherCockney) January 4, 2024
In the classified part of the meeting, IDF, Shin Bet, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials presented figures and recommended courses of action.
Subcommittee Chair Elkin said, “Very alarming details were revealed in the debate regarding the use of UNRWA for Hamas’s terrorist acts. This requires a change in the approach regarding the continuation of UNRWA’s activity in the Gaza Strip. This is in addition to the negative fundamental role UNRWA is playing in the artificial perpetuation of the Palestinian refugee problem, and in educating [Palestinians] to hate the State of Israel.”
Elkin also said a follow-up meeting would be held soon, and asked that the relevant government representatives present their recommendations regarding the continuation of UNRWA’s activity in Gaza, as well as the measures the State of Israel is planning to drastically change the current situation.
“We cannot promote a global campaign and demand that the world’s countries outlaw Hamas and impose sanctions on it, and at the same time agree, through tacit consent, to the control of Hamas and UNRWA in the Gaza Strip,” Elkin stated.
