From the Liveblog of
Monday, July 22, 2024
Knesset advances 3 bills aimed at shutting down UNRWA
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
The Knesset approves the first reading of a trio of bills aimed at shutting down UNRWA, amid a wave of popular anger against the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants in the wake of the October 7 attack and the ongoing war.
The first bill, which would ban the organization from operating on Israeli territory, passes 58-9.
The second, aimed at stripping UNRWA personnel of the legal immunities and privileges afforded to United Nations staff in Israel, passes 63-9.
The third, which would brand UNRWA — short for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — a terrorist organization and require Israel to cut ties with it, passes 50-10.
All three bills will now be returned to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for preparation for the second and third readings necessary for the legislation to become law.
Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky, who sponsored the legislation branding UNRWA a terrorist organization, welcomes the vote, stating that “there is not a day that the IDF spokesperson does not publish new findings from the field that link UNRWA to terrorism.”
The agency provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Israel alleges that some 10 percent of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza have ties to terror, and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite to hatred of Israel and glorify terror.
During the debate, New Hope lawmaker Sharren Haskel denounces the organization as the “cornerstone” of the conflict while MK Ofer Cassif, the only Jewish member of the Arab-majority Hadash-Ta’al party, argues that the bill will “block access to the education system” for many Palestinian children in East Jerusalem.
The Times of Israel Community.