EU foreign policy chief calls Israeli move to outlaw UNRWA ‘nonsense’
Josep Borrell says trio of bills advanced by Knesset target ‘regional stability and human dignity of all those benefiting from the UN agency work’
BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Thursday urged Israel to revoke its decision to outlaw the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), calling it nonsense.
“Outlawing UNRWA – and labeling it as terrorist, which it is not – amounts to targeting regional stability and human dignity of all those benefiting from the UN agency work,” he said on social media platform X.
“We join many partners in urging the Israeli government to halt this nonsense.”
On Monday, the Knesset preliminarily approved a bill declaring UNRWA, the main UN relief organization for Palestinians, a terrorist organization and proposing to sever relations — part of a trio of bills aimed at shutting down the agency.
“It’s another attempt in a wider campaign to dismantle the agency,” UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma had previously said of the bill. “Such steps are unheard of in the history of the United Nations.”
The first bill, which would ban the organization from operating on Israeli territory, passed 58-9, while the second, aimed at stripping UNRWA personnel of the legal immunities and privileges afforded to United Nations staff in Israel, was approved 63-9.
Outlawing @UNRWA – and labelling it as terrorist, which it is not – amounts to targeting regional stability and human dignity of all those benefiting from the UN agency work.
We join many partners in urging the Israeli Governement to halt this nonsense.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) July 25, 2024
The third, which would brand UNRWA a terrorist organization and require Israel to cut ties with it, passed 50-10 in the Knesset plenum.
While UNRWA provides education, health, and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, Israel has accused multiple agency staffers of taking part in Hamas’s attack on October 7, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.
During its operations in Gaza, the IDF has found a Hamas data center located directly beneath UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City, in addition to numerous findings indicating the use of the agency’s assets for terror purposes.
Of the initial 12 employees accused by Israel, UNRWA fired 10 people and said the remaining two are dead. The UN later suspended investigations into several of the accused, claiming that Israel had provided insufficient evidence.
According to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, of the 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza, at least 12 percent are affiliated with the Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror groups, including 1,468 employees active in Hamas and PIJ. Of those, 185 UNRWA workers were active in the military branches of Hamas, and 51 in the PIJ military branch.
Sam Sokol contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.