United Nations Calls on Member States to Fund Refugee Agency Despite Troubling Ties to Terrorism

The number of staff members involved in terrorism at the main United Nations agency in Gaza is far from “a few bad apples.”

Evidence is mounting that employees at the world governing body’s so-called humanitarian agency, the Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, are involved in the operations of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups. The UN has fired several relief agency employees and is pledging to criminally prosecute others who are found to be engaged in acts of terror, pending an investigation by its office of internal oversight services.

Yet for the UN’s Secretary General, António Guterres, those apples aren’t rotten enough to call for a crackdown on the relief agency’s operations. To the contrary, Mr. Guterres is urging member states to not revoke their funding for Unrwa, pointing to the tens of thousands of its employees who are tasked with alleviating the dire humanitarian situation at Gaza. 

“The Secretary General is personally horrified by the accusations against employees of Unrwa, but his message to donors, especially those who have suspended their contribution is to at least guarantee the continuity of Unrwa operations,” the spokesman for Mr. Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters Monday. He doubled-down on the point, asserting that “any member state that has the financial resources to support Unrwa, we would call on to support Unrwa.” 

The U.S. State Department announced on Friday that it had “temporarily paused additional funding for Unrwa.” That pause, however, appears to apply only to new and additional contributions, not funding already committed before the pause went into effect last Wednesday, as reported by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a State Department spokesman who spoke to Pluribus.

America had already committed $51 million to Unrwa’s work in the West Bank and Gaza for 2024 prior to the pause, according to a fact sheet released this month by the US Agency for International Development. 

At least 1,200 employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees — 10 percent — are members of the Hamas or Islamic Jihad terror groups, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal on Monday that disclosed Israeli intelligence shared with the United States. Twelve Unrwa employees had links to Hamas’s October 7 attack, the Journal reported, seven of which were primary or secondary school teachers. 

“We are committed to ensuring that all of Unrwa’s staff lives up to the principles of the United Nations,” Mr. Dujarric said in response to the Sun’s question about the reported 120 jihadist Unrwa employees. “When we’ve received information regarding potential criminal activity, action has been swiftly taken and we remain in contact with the Israeli authorities. They have not communicated any new information (as of now) since last week.”

The UN immediately fired nine of the 12 people implicated, one member is confirmed dead, and the identity of the two others is “being clarified,” Mr. Guterres said in a statement on Sunday. He is expected to host a meeting with “the major donors for Unrwa,” Mr. Dujarric said, Tuesday afternoon at New York. 

“The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences,” the Secretary General said. “But the tens of thousands of men and women who work for Unrwa, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met.”

While the Secretary-General insisted that the employees will be held accountable, it’s not clear under whose jurisdiction they would be criminally prosecuted. Asked whether they would be extradited to Israel given the limited infrastructure in Gaza for a trial, Mr. Dujarric responded, “the UN is not in the business. We don’t extradite people.”

Look no further for evidence of the strong ties to Hamas within the UN agency than the 180 self-identified Unrwa teachers who have celebrated jihadi terrorism on social media — and that only accounts for publicly available posts discovered by the nongovernmental watchdog group, UN Watch. In December, an Unrwa teacher was found to have held an Israeli man hostage in his attic for 50 days.

“Mr. Lazzarini, you knew about terrorism supporters throughout Unrwa, but you refused to take action or even ask us for the detailed evidence,” the executive director of UN Watch, Hillel Neuer, said in a statement on X. Mr. Neuer will address the issue on Tuesday at a Congressional hearing of the committee on foreign affairs, entitled, “Unrwa Exposed: Examining the Agency’s Mission and Failures.” 

Calls are now being heard for the commissioner general of Unrwa, Philippe Lazzarini, to resign. “Lazzarini should draw conclusions and resign,” Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said in a statement on X Monday where he announced that he has canceled meetings between the foreign ministry and Mr. Lazzarini. “Supporters of terrorism are not welcome here.”

Following the allegations against Unrwa, $736.7 million in funds to the agency from donor countries are now frozen, according to FY2022 donations reported by UN Watch, since final donor numbers for 2023 have not yet been published. The 16 countries that have decided to suspend funding so far include the US and the European Union, which account for about 75% of the agency’s $1.16B budget. 

“Every country that continues to fund Unrwa before a comprehensive investigation of the organization should know that its money might be used for terrorism,” as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan put it in a statement on Sunday, “and the aid that will be transferred to Unrwa may reach the Hamas terrorists instead of the people of Gaza.”

A Belgian member of the European Parliament, Assita Kanko, is urging the European Union’s high commissioner, Josep Borrell, and all EU member states to suspend funding for Unrwa. Noting that her nation of Belgium has failed to do so, she asks in a post on X, “Do we, yes or no, pay for Islamic terrorism with European citizens’ money?”