UNRWA workers hail terror attacks on social media, NGO says

Palestinian employees of a UN refugee agency are inciting Palestinians to commit terror attacks against Israelis from social media accounts on which they explicitly identify as United Nations workers, a report from a UN watchdog published Friday charged.

UN Watch chief Hillel Neuer said his organization’s report was submitted to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, to UNRWA chief Pierre Krähenbühl and to US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power. The US, according to the United Nations monitoring group, is the largest funder of UNRWA with $400 million annually.

In the report, Neuer cites nine UNRWA employees and presents screenshots of what the group says are inciteful posts from their Facebook pages that call for the murder of Jews, or promote conspiracy theories claiming terrorists killed by Israeli security forces were innocent.

Among the purported employees cited in the report is Hani al Ramahi, who identifies as a project support assistant at UNRWA. He posted a violent image on his Facebook on October 8 in which a keffiyeh-clad man stares down the camera, holding a knife with a blade bearing the colors of the Palestinian flag and dripping with blood. “Stab Zionist dogs,“ reads the caption.

A post shared by UNRWA employee Hani al Ramahi on October 8. (Courtesy UN Watch)

Ibrahim Ali, whose page says he works at UNRWA, posted a video on his timeline on October 6 which glorifies a gruesome series of terrorist attacks, including shootings and stabbings of Israeli Jews.

Hiba Miari, a woman who says she a teacher at UNRWA on her Facebook page, celebrated recent Palestinian terror attacks with a cartoon that she posted online on October 11. She deleted the cartoon from her page after a pro-Israel blogger, Elder of Ziyon, pointed it out.

UNRWA never condemned the posting of the cartoon, the UN Watch report says.

Another woman identifying as a teacher at UNRWA, Um Karam, posted a video of a mosque sermon in which Sheikh Abu Rajab pulled out a knife and, with violent stabbing motions, exhorted Palestinians to murder Jews in the name of Allah.

Souhaib Fayyad, who identifies on Facebook as part of UNRWA, changed his Facebook profile picture to a riff on the iconic Facebook blue “like” icon, but in his version the hand is holding a downward-pointing knife.

Souhaib Fayad, who identifies as an UNRWA employee, changed his profile picture recently to that of a the Facebook “like” hand holding a knife. (Courtesy UN Watch)

Mahmoud Abu Zakari’s Facebook page says he is a social worker with the UN agency. He changed his profile picture recently to a generic image of youth brandishing a knife.

Another teacher, Maen Dajani, shared a post on October 14 alleging that Israel photoshopped a knife into the hand of a youth who tried to stab Border Police officers outside the Old City this week but was shot and killed before he succeeded.

Saleh Mohsen, whose pages says he “works at UNRWA,” shared a post on his timeline calling for a “Third Intifada” and then, on the same day, turned his profile picture into the violent image of a masked stone-thrower. His actions were also published on the Elder of Zion blog.

Saleh Mohsen, who identifies as an UNRWA employee, changed his profile picture recently to that of a Palestinian rock thrower. (Courtesy UN Watch)

Finally, Mohammed Assaf, an “Arab Idol” winner and UNRWA “Youth Ambassador,” has been “using his UN imprimatur to glorify violence throughout his Facebook timeline,” says the UN Watch report. In one image he posted, three Palestinian youths who attacked Israeli Jews are glorified as shahids, or martyrs, it said.

The NGO recommends in its report that the agency discipline or dismiss from employment the nine aforementioned workers.