Pearls and Irritations

Israel has knocked yet another nail in the United Nations system.

This week, with an extraordinary result of 92 to 10 (the 10 being presumably the Arab members), the Knesset passed two bills. One, banning UNRWA from operating in East Jerusalem and in the occupied areas in Gaza and the West Bank under Israeli control. The second, banning Israeli officials from having any interaction with UNRWA officials or employees, all the while referring to this critical UN body as a “terrorist” organisation.

“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 UNRWA Communications Director said in a media statement on Tuesday.

By way of context it is worth repeating the following outrageous and seriously offending statements and list of abuses hurled against the United Nations by the Israeli Prime Minister and other Ministers this past year alone.

Israel’s Prime Minister, while standing on stage at the UN general assembly, denounced the body as “contemptible”, a “house of darkness” and a “swamp of antisemitic bile”.

Israel’s outgoing ambassador to the UN shredded a copy of the UN charter with a miniature paper shredder while also standing at the podium of the general assembly, and later said the UN headquarters in New York “should be closed and wiped off the face of the earth”.

Israel’s foreign minister falsely accused the UN secretary general of not having condemned Iran’s attacks on Israel, declared him “persona non grata in Israel” and announced that he had “banned him from entering the country”.

If this Israeli law is fully implemented, within the apparent 90 day period, it will effectively starve and condemn to death the 2.3 million people of Gaza who rely on UNRWA for life sustaining food, clothing, water, medicines and other humanitarian assistance. It will also deprive them of access to health services that provide additional life saving health measures such as vaccines and maternal and child health care. And it will deny the children of Gaza the fundamental right to education.

This action by the Knesset is a culmination of sustained attacks since 1967 to impede the efforts of UNRWA to implement its UN mandate to provide humanitarian relief and education to the over three million Palestinian refugees in the Palestinian Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Prior to 1967 these areas had been under the control of Jordan and Egypt respectively but following the 1967 war they came under Israeli military occupation.

In this past year alone UNRWA headquarters in Jerusalem and refugee camps in the West Bank have been attacked, and in Gaza refugee camps have been totally destroyed. Schools, warehouses storing critical food, vehicles carrying UNRWA or other UN staff have been bombed and attacked. Some 228 staff have been murdered, the highest number of UN staff killed in a single conflict or natural disaster since the creation of the United Nations.

UNRWA was established by the United Nations General Assembly General Assembly resolution 302 (1V) of 8 December 1949.Its purpose was to provide humanitarian assistance to the 750,000 or so Palestinians who were made refugees when they were forced into Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Today, some 5.9 million Palestine refugees are eligible for UNRWA services across the Middle East.

The organisation is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions from UN Member States. Australia withdrew our contribution in response to Israel’s charge, now denounced as false by two independent reviews, that UNRWA staff were involved in the October 7th 2023 events. This contribution has now been re-established. America however, the largest contributor, continues to withhold funds reportedly until 2025.

The proposed ban by Israel will seriously affect over 900,000 registered refugees who live in the West Bank, around a quarter of whom live in 19 refugee camps. Most of the others live in West Bank towns and villages. UNRWA provides services in 96 schools 43 health facilities and 19 women’s centres. However, the greatest impact will be in Gaza where most of the camps have either been totally or partially destroyed. Prior to this present war there were eight camps including among them, now well know Rafah camp, Jabalia camp, and Khan Younis camp serving a population of around 1.7 million refugees in a total of 2.3 million people in Gaza.

The people in Gaza are hanging on to life by a thread as Israel continues to bomb UNRWA schools (where thousands are sheltering), to bomb tent cities, and bomb hospitals and health clinics. Over the past four weeks the IDF has placed a siege on the northern area of Gaza in particular the Jabalia camps where some 400,000 refugees were sheltering. They have been denied food, water, electricity, fuel and medical aid. All hospitals have come under attack and doctors and nurses have been arrested and detained. Those that have tried to move south have had to dodge bullets and bombs and be searched. Many men have been arrested by soldiers at checkpoints and taken north to dubious detention facilities in Israel. While thousands have left the area there are an estimated 100,000 refugees remaining in northern Gaza where they continue to be starved of food and water.

Should the nations of the world, and in particular the United Sates of America, fail to act to stop this latest outrageous attack by Israel on the United Nations and fail to ensure that this legislation does not become operational, the result will be totally catastrophic for Gaza. It will be so in terms of essentials such as food, water, shelter, support for women and the disabled (many more after this brutal year), but it also will be catastrophic for the 650,000 children who will be denied safe access to education.

Palestinian activists are calling for Israel to be thrown out of the UNGA as was Apartheid South Africa. They are doing so on the basis that Israel’s actions against the Palestinians are an abuse of the privileges under which Israel was allowed to join the UN when the UN Security Council passed Resolution 69 on 4 March 1949. Activists also want the UNGA to take this action after Israel’s repeated violations of all ICJ rulings, including the need to provide aid to Gaza.

Principal UN organs have no choice but to take action against Israel as it is under legal obligation as an occupying power to make provision for the refugees under its control. Withdrawing this support would be yet another form of collective punishment. On Tuesday at the UN in New York it is expected there will be widespread condemnation of Israel’s actions. While observers say that this is a difficult political and legal situation they are also calling for a vigorous response by the UNGA and UNSC. A lack of strong action will lead to a serious weakening of the key multilateral mechanisms established at the UN after WWII.

Australia’s peak aid agency ACFID released a statement today saying that they “strongly condemn the legislation passed by the Knesset which delegitimises the vital role of UNRWA and undermines the crucial, life-saving assistance UNRWA provides. The statement went on to say that “UNRWA is the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza and that currently, UNRWA and its partners are vaccinating Gazans in a race against time to curtail a Polio outbreak. This response is near impossible without UNRWA.”

While Senator Penny Wong is reported as saying, “UNRWA does life-saving work, (and) Australia opposes the Israeli Knesset’s decision to severely restrict UNRWA’s work”. She commented further that “Australia again calls on Israel to comply with the binding orders of the International Court of Justice to enable the provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance at scale in Gaza.”

Once again, we have just words from our leaders when we need action. Australia should immediately start to implement all the ICJ rulings and among other actions suspend all military, diplomatic, economic and political ties with Israel.

It is more than time for Australia to meet its obligations under International law and to ensure that the refugees under UNRWA’s care are protected.

Share and Enjoy !

SHARE TWEET SHARE COPY EMAIL PRINT