Israel Behind the News – A Solution to the Palestinian Refugee Dilemma
The Time Has Come for UNRWA Reform: A Solution to the Palestinian Refugee Dilemma
Thanks to our dear friend David Bedein and Israel Resource Review
A mantra is repeated almost every day in Middle East parlance: the need for a policy initiative that would extract the region from a simmering status quo which can only lead to a violent outcome.
Israel, the Western nations and reality-based Palestinians can embark on a new diplomatic initiative that would douse the flames of the most burning issue in the Palestinian realm: five million descendants of Arab refugees from 1948, who continue to wallow in UNRWA refugee facilities, under the promise of the “right of return” to Arab villages in what is now Israel. For this, they are told, they must live and die – a recurring theme found in Palestinian Authority textbooks now used in UNRWA schools — which is an ongoing recipe for disaster and a lingering human rights tragedy of the 21st century.
UNRWA now perpetuates the stateless status of refugees and their descendants, reinforcing a life of limbo, poverty, anguish and despair. No, UNRWA cannot be phased out: It operates under the mandate of the UN General Assembly. However, since 97% of UNRWA’s 1.2 billion budget comes from Western donor nations, these nations could be asked to join an effort to reform UNRWA policies, which hardly conform to the UN credo that “peace starts here.”
For decades, I have run agencies that have researched and filmed UNRWA education in Jerusalem and throughout the region, and we have listened to UNRWA students speak about how UNRWA “education” now inspires them to kill Jews. Our most recent film — “The UNRWA Road to Terror: Palestinian Classroom Incitement” — released on May 27th, will be shown to members of legislative bodies of donor nations. It portrays a war curriculum that has no place in a UN facility.
This reality can be changed. Instead of just throwing money at UNRWA, donors could advance policies to improve the living conditions of UNRWA refugee residents and offer an alternative to the current “refugee status in perpetuity” and “right of return” mantra drummed into the minds of half a million UNRWA students. A new reform initiative could galvanize donor nations to overhaul six UNRWA policy challenges:
- Ask for an audit of donor funds given to UNRWA. This would address widespread documented reports of wasted resources, duplicity of services and the undesired flow of cash to Gaza-based terror groups, which have gained control over UNRWA operations there for the past 18 years.
- Introduce UNHCR standards to UNRWA, to advance the resettlement of Arab refugees after 67 years. Current UNRWA policy is that refugee resettlement would interfere with the “right of return” to Arab villages that existed before 1948.
- Cancel the new UNRWA curriculum, which incorporates principles of jihad, martyrdom and a the “right of return” by force of arms.
- Cease paramilitary training in all UNRWA schools. Should UNRWA, as a UN agency, not demonstrate a renewed commitment to UN principles to “peace education”?
- Insist that UNRWA dismiss employees who are affiliated with Hamas, in accordance with laws on the books in western nations, which forbid aid to any agency that employs members of a terrorist organization.
- Since UNRWA has recently hired a “youth ambassador” — Mohammad Assaf — to travel the world and encourage insurrection and violence, would this not be the appropriate time for donor nations to ask that UNRWA cancel that contract with a promoter of war?
At a time when Israel is pressed to launch a new diplomatic initiative, this is an opportunity to remove the stain of “Arab refugees in perpetuity” as a source of intergenerational incitement.
Remove the Arab refugee issue from the Middle East agenda, and you remove a root cause of violence in the Middle East.
UNRWA Aids Hamas Military Wing , While the US – The Biggest UNRWA Funder- is Silent
Over the past week, the World Vision, a well-known humanitarian organization, was formally accused and indicted for secretly aiding military activities of Hamas, designated as an FTO by the US – a “Foreign Terror Organization”.
Yet a much larger humanitarian organization looms on the horizon, which openly aids Hamas military operations.
That organization is UNRWA, the agency that hosts descendants of Arab refugees from the 1948 war in refugee facilities for perpetuity.
UNRWA operates with a budget of more than one billion dollars, provided by more than forty western nations. The US is the leading donor to UNRWA, donating $400 million each year to UNRWA.
Working with an Israeli-Palestinian team of journalists over the past few years, I have documented and filmed how UNRWA allocates cash from donor nations to conduct military training for children in the UNRWA classroom along with weapons training camps which Hamas organizes for UNRWA children.
Al-Kutla al-Islamiya, a division of Hamas, runs military activities, which attract UNRWA’s younger students, paving the way for recruitment in al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
UNRWA “education” teaches children how to fight, shoot lethal weapons, use hand grenades, and climb through various spaces all in preparation for war.
After exposure to al-Kutla, elementary and middle schoolers join a week long war games program, held in a military campment, where they study “jihad, determination, to trust Allah and other Islamic values” in addition to military tactics.
Here is a case where a UN agency actually violates the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, which states “children… should not be forced or recruited to take part in a war or join the armed forces”.
Yet all this is occurs in the public domain, without a peep from 38 nations that donate more than a billion dollars each year to UNRWA, with the notable exception of Canada.
Ottawa suspended aid to the UNRWA general fund in 2008, in response to a report commissioned by the European Parliament, which documented how Hamas was elected to run the UNRWA teachers association and the UNRWA workers association. Now there is a move in the new Canadian government to restore Canadian tax dollars to the general fund of UNRWA.
Yet binding legislation passed by the US Congress requires UNRWA to vet personnel to see determine if there are terrorists on their payroll is ignored.
UNRWA simply refuses to vet personnel in the UNRWA facilities, which operate in the areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and no one is asking them to do so, including the US.
After the March 2009 election, when Hamas was again elected to run the UNRWA workers union and UNRWA teachers association in Gaza, Congress asked the newly appointed Sec’y of State Hilary Clinton for comment on whether she would demand the removal of terrorists from the payroll Of UNRWA.
Amazingly, Clinton told Congress that there was no evidence of Taliban activity in UNRWA – even though Taliban have never played a role in that part of the Middle East.
In her four years as secretary of state, Clinton did nothing to impede Hamas domination of US funded UNRWA facilities.
The US Congressional Research Service reports that the US has never asked if UNRWA humanitarian funds wind up in the hands of HAMAS or if HAMAS is present in UNRWA.
Yet UNRWA remains in violation of US penal code § 2339B – providing material support or resources to a designated FTO.
On the record, the Hamas Minister of Religion told us on camera “Hamas’ relationship with UNRWA is good, very good! We assist UNRWA and Hamas cooperates with UNRWA on many levels. Now a direct connection exists between UNRWA and Hamas.”
