Mick Hartley

UNRWA, the agency dedicated solely to Palestinian refugees, is finally being exposed as central to the current Gaza situation. UN Watch's Hillel Neuer – "American taxpayers have been subsidizing educators who call for the murder of Jews. Suspending these funds isn’t enough. UNRWA must be abolished for good."

Since 1950, UNRWA has provided the bulk of social services at Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, and Gaza, including the crucial task of teaching Palestinian children and adolescents.

But the notion that it is primarily an agency for the relief of refugees is a front. UNRWA’s main task is political. Palestinians who work for UNRWA call it “the main political witness to our cause.”

UNRWA exists to perpetuate Palestinians as refugees. Unlike the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which since World War II has been responsible for the welfare of all refugees in the world, and has worked toward their resettlement and relocation, UNRWA deals only with the Arabs from Palestine and has a completely different objective.

Millions of Palestinians who attend UNRWA schools in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and Gaza are taught that the war of 1948 is not over, and that they have a “right of return”—meaning, to dismantle and take over Israel.

The UN betrays its mission by signaling to the Palestinians that the war is not over, and to keep fighting.

UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was “horrified” to discover that UNRWA employees participated in the invasion and massacre of October 7. But in reality, their actions merely translated UNRWA’s core message into action….

Earlier this month, Middle East analyst Eitan Fischberger discovered a Telegram chat group of UNRWA educators in Gaza. “Let me tell you,” he quipped on X, “they sure do love Hamas and October 7th.” Saying he didn’t have the time to examine the material, he tagged me to ask if we could take it on.

We did. What we found was a chat group of 3,000 UNRWA teachers with discussions about when to expect their next UNRWA salaries mixed together with messages, photos, and videos celebrating the Hamas massacre of October 7 and other acts of terrorism.

My colleagues at UN Watch worked diligently with professional Arabic translators to sift through more than 249,000 user posts in the chat group.

Tomorrow I will present our findings before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, at a joint hearing of its subcommittees on oversight and international organizations. It’s not pretty. UNRWA teachers routinely encourage and promote Hamas terrorism. […]

UNRWA employees have held Israeli hostages captive in their homes, using UNRWA facilities to move them from place to place.

From the protection of UNRWA schools, Hamas shoots at IDF troops and fires rockets at Israeli towns. The floor above a UNRWA kindergarten in Gaza was booby-trapped with explosives by Hamas. UNRWA facilities are routinely used to conceal weapons.

UNRWA resources have been used to build and supply Hamas attack tunnels, many of which are constructed underneath UNRWA facilities. UNRWA bags have been used to conceal Hamas military vests in a medical clinic, and to hide explosive devices, AK-47 rifles, and a rocket-propelled grenade. The IDF located dozens of rockets hidden in a home under boxes with UNRWA markings. A Hamas rocket launching site was positioned in a UNRWA warehouse, and another very close to a UNRWA-run school.

The UN almost never speaks out, however. “It would put our staff in jeopardy to call out Hamas for use of our buildings or schools,” a UN official told CBS News.

In October, this fear apparently caused UNRWA to delete its announcement that Hamas had stolen fuel, medical supplies, and other humanitarian aid intended for Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Gunmen are routinely seen commandeering aid trucks entering UNRWA facilities in Gaza, or carrying off sacks of UNRWA food.

The reason UNRWA has become an unofficial arm of Hamas is that for too long, the UN and the U.S. government have turned a blind eye to the rot inside the agency.

People naturally assume that a UN agency dedicated to refugees must be a Good Thing. But it's clearly part of the problem – a major part of the problem – not part of the solution.