Likud MK proposes bill to outlaw UN agency for Palestinian refugees
Ex-Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat says UNRWA perpetuating conflict, destroying chances for peace, with internal ‘corruption and mismanagement’
Tamar Pileggi is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Likud MK Nir Barkat on Thursday proposed legislation to outlaw the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, saying it was destroying chances for peace in the region.
Barkat, a former mayor of Jerusalem, said his law would see all UNRWA activities in areas under Israeli control terminated by January 1, 2020, including the shuttering of agency offices in East Jerusalem.
“The continued existence of this agency in Israel only further distances our region from any hopes for true coexistence and is deeply damaging to the very interests of the Arab community it is designed to serve,” Barkat said in a statement.
Barkat said his legislation has been endorsed by all of the Knesset’s right-wing parties, and enjoyed the support of a majority of the legislature’s 120 lawmakers.
Barkat’s statement cited the “increasing corruption and mismanagement” within the UN agency, noting the sexual misconduct and corruption scandal plaguing UNRWA’s recently departed chief Pierre Krahenbuhl.
Barkat did not indicate when he aimed to bring the bill to the plenum for a vote, but the ongoing political deadlock will likely complicate his legislate initiative.
Upon leaving office as Jerusalem mayor, Barkat voiced his ambition to oust UNRWA from East Jerusalem.
“The era of UNRWA in Jerusalem is over,” Barkat said during an October 2018 visit to the Shuafat refugee camp. “The time has come to stop the refugee lie in Jerusalem. There are no refugees in our city, only residents. They must receive their services from the municipality like any other resident.”
UNRWA was set up in the years after more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their lands during the 1948 war surrounding the creation of Israel.
It provides schooling and medical services to millions of impoverished refugees and their descendants in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria as well as the Palestinian territories. It employs around 30,000 people, mostly Palestinians, and its UN mandate was recently renewed until 2023 by the General Assembly.
Israel accuses the organization of perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by extending refugee status to millions of descendants, instead of only to the original refugees as is done with most other displaced populations worldwide.
The Trump administration has made similar criticism of UNRWA, and in 2018, suspended and later cut all funding to the agency.
UNRWA disputes the criticism and says the services it provides would otherwise not be available to Palestinians.
Earlier this month, Krahenbuhl resigned after an internal ethics report revealed “management issues which relate specifically to the commissioner-general.” It described “credible and corroborated” allegations of serious ethical abuses, including involving Krahenbuhl, a Swiss national.
The report said the allegations include senior management engaging in “sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent, and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives.” Krahenbuhl himself was alleged to have been romantically involved with a colleague appointed in 2015 to a newly created role of senior adviser after an “extreme fast-track” process, the report said.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the alleged mismanagement at UNRWA lent credence to its criticism of the agency and called for a full release of the probe’s findings.
A number of countries suspended their contributions pending the outcome of the probe into alleged mismanagement.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
