UNRWA prepares to shutter operations in East Jerusalem as Israeli ban set to take effect

Knesset has barred operation of UN agency, which administers schools, medical clinics, other services for descendants of Palestinian refugees, over employees’ involvement in terror

The entrance to an UNRWA boys' school in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz, November 7, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The entrance to an UNRWA boys' school in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz, November 7, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Tens of thousands of Palestinians in East Jerusalem are set to lose the education, healthcare and other services provided by UN agency UNRWA on Thursday, when an Israeli ban on the organization goes into effect.

The ban was passed on November 1 with a wide majority, including from opposition parties, amid a series of revelations about employees of the agency who were actively involved in terror groups in the Gaza Strip, and after repeated use of UNRWA infrastructure for terror activities, as well as evidence that the agency’s schools incited hatred of Israel and glorification of attacks against Israelis.

The law prohibits UNRWA from functioning in sovereign Israeli territory, which under Israeli law includes East Jerusalem, and prohibits state agencies from having any contact with UNRWA or its representatives, a clause that will likely make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the organization to operate in Gaza.

At UNRWA’s offices in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood on Monday, workers were packing boxes and loading portable buildings onto a truck.

“It’s an unacceptable decision,” said Jonathan Fowler, a spokesperson for UNRWA, formally titled the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

“The people that we serve… we are not able to tell them what is going to happen to our services as of the end of this week.”

An UNRWA funded school in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat. January 29, 2024. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

Israel has not announced specific provisions for replacing all of UNRWA’s activities, and the Prime Minister’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

UNRWA has for decades run schools and clinics in East Jerusalem for tens of thousands of registered refugees there. The vast majority of East Jerusalem Palestinians have not sought Israeli citizenship, an option that is formally available to them, though applications are often rejected.

“We have everything here for us. When I heard that it will close, I was very sad because here is a place for people in need and for people who don’t have money to pay for medication,” said registered refugee Sara Saeed, at the UNRWA medical center in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Medical center director Hamza Al Jibrini said the facility serves 30,000 registered refugees. Among them are patients with diabetes and high blood pressure, pregnant women and children who receive vaccinations, said head of nursing Manal al-Khayat.

“Where they will go?” she asked.

Children play at an UNRWA funded school in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, January 30, 2024. (Jamal Awad/Flash90)

UNRWA was established in 1949 following Israel’s 1948 War of Independence. It provides aid, health, and education to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and neighboring Arab countries — Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Some 5.9 million people are registered as Palestinian refugees by UNRWA, because they are descended from Arabs displaced in the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948.

Israel has long argued that UNRWA perpetuates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by using this definition of refugee, the only case in which the status is passed down generationally.

It is one of two UN refugee agencies. While UNRWA caters to Palestinians, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is responsible for all other refugees around the world.

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