The UAE has strongly condemned the Israeli parliament (Knesset) approval of two laws forbidding the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and preventing UNRWA from conducting essential humanitarian work in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
Israel passed the laws banning UNRWA from operating in the besieged Gaza enclave, despite criticism from across the world.
Lawmakers cited what they described as the involvement of some of the agency’s staff being involved with Hamas and other armed groups.
UNRWA’s Powers Stripped
The two pieces of legislation bar the agency from operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories, because Israel controls access to both Gaza and the West Bank.
The first prohibits all UNRWA activities and services on Israeli soil and is set to take effect in three months. The second severs all ties between the country’s government and the agency’s employees and strips its staff of their legal immunities.
The ruling, by the country’s parliament, the Knesset, could force the closure of the group’s East Jerusalem headquarters and disrupt aid routes, notably through Rafah into Gaza, potentially worsening the humanitarian crisis there.
‘It’s outrageous that a member state of the United Nations is working to dismantle a UN agency which also happens to be the largest responder in the humanitarian operation in Gaza,’ Juliette Touma, spokesperson for UNRWA said.
Gaza’s population of some 2.3 million is almost entirely dependent on aid to survive. Around 90 per cent have been displaced and hundreds of thousands live in tent camps and schools-turned-shelters, most run by UNRWA.
An estimated 43,000 Palestinians have died during the conflict, according to the territory’s Health Ministry.
International Opposition
International opposition to the legislation has been strong, with multiple countries, including the UAE, US, UK, Canada, and Australia, warning that it threatens crucial aid and services for refugees, especially in Gaza.
UNRWA employs tens of thousands of workers and provides education, health and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, said the vote ‘sets a dangerous precedent’.
‘These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell,’ he said.
Writing on social media platform X, Lazzarini added: ‘This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and de-legitimise its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to #Palestine Refugees’.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also criticised the move.
He said: ‘This legislation risks making UNRWA’s essential work for Palestinians impossible, jeopardising the entire international humanitarian response in Gaza and delivery of essential health and education services in the West Bank.
‘The humanitarian situation in Gaza is simply unacceptable. We need to see an immediate ceasefire, the release of the hostages and a significant increase in aid to Gaza. Under its international obligations, Israel must ensure sufficient aid reaches civilians in Gaza.’
His concern was echoed in the US where Mathew Miller, State Department spokesperson, urged Israel to ‘pause implementation’ of the legislation, which could ‘have implications under US law’.
In August this year, the UN fired nine UNRWA staff members after finding evidence they may have been involved in Hamas’s 7 October attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and led to 250 abductions.
It led to funding cuts to UNRWA by major global donors. The Palestinians accused Israel of falsifying information to tarnish UNRWA, which was set up to help refugees of the war at Israel’s founding in 1948.
At the time, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described UNRWA as ‘the backbone of all humanitarian response in Gaza’ and appealed to all countries to ‘guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s life-saving work.’