There are few constants in American foreign policy. One of them is deference to UNRWA, the internationally funded welfare agency for Palestinians.
This organization is implicated in terrorism. The news that Fateh Sherif Abu el-Amin, head of UNRWA’s teachers union in Lebanon and Hamas liaison to Hezbollah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, is just the latest example.
As we approach the anniversary of Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7 massacre, things have gone from bad to worse. In an official document filed in a U.S. court, the UN — with support from the Department of Justice — has argued that UNRWA employees involved in 10/7 enjoy absolute immunity from prosecution, and the lawsuit should be dismissed.”
The U.S. has long followed the international community in placing UNRWA in a different and higher category, with untouchable funding, unvettable employees, and senior managers who illegally lobby in the U.S. for support. Now it argues that actual murderers should be immune from prosecution.
The U.S. has defined Hamas as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since Oct. 8, 1997. The Department of Justice’s new assertion that UNRWA employees have “absolute immunity” violates common sense and elevates international organizations above American law.
Since the 1960s American lawmakers have focused on UNRWA’s relationship with terrorism. Section 301(c) of the 1961 Foreign Assistance Act stated “No contributions by the United States shall be made to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East except on the condition that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency take all possible measures to assure that no part of the United States contribution shall be used to furnish assistance to any refugee who is receiving military training as a member of the so-called Palestine Liberation Army or any other guerrilla type organization or who has engaged in any act of terrorism.”
DOJ decided to ignore the will of Congress and the Biden administration has also decided to follow Europe and refund UNRWA.
The same old lines about UNRWA’s indispensability are being repeated. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby claims that “in light of the fact that there is still an ongoing crisis in Gaza and the essential role that UNRWA does play in the distribution of life-saving assistance, we continue to support funding for UNRWA, with appropriate safeguards, with transparency measures built in and with accountability also baked into that.”
The same old call for transparency has been made many times before, when Hamas members employed by UNRWA were inciting violence, hiding rockets in schools, twice, and when the organization was found to be promoting antisemitism in textbooks.
UNRWA’s ties to terror go back decades, as do denials. Despite wiring running through the floor of UNRWA’s headquarters to a Hamas server farm below the building, or when the headquarters’ parking lot collapsed in 2014 as a result of Hamas’ underground construction, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini claimed to be unaware that Hamas was responsible. UNRWA “strongly and unequivocally” condemned the unnamed “group or groups responsible for this flagrant violation of the inviolability of its premises under international law.”
This was a lie. Worse yet, now Secretary General Antonio Guterres gallingly admits “of course there are tunnels below the premises of UNRWA.”
Everyone in UNRWA knew and lied, just as everyone in Gaza knew that Hamas was constructing a 500-kilometer tunnel network that diverted construction materials and goods from international aid. The international community, through UNRWA, funded a vast portion of Hamas operations by freeing it to focus on terrorism rather than health and education.
Lies and corruption were built into UNRWA from the very beginning. The organization’s ever-expanding missions revolved around the slippery term “rehabilitation” and its unilateral redefinition of “refugee” to include all Palestinians and their descendants, meant that it was going to be corrupted for local gain and would play along for its survival. It kept Palestinians in stasis, inculcating a perpetual victimhood mentality.
What comes the day after in Gaza remains unclear, but UNRWA, cannot be a part of the solution. UNRWA’s ethos of entitlement and the Palestinian identity as permanent refugees — pending the destruction of Israel — cannot continue.
A concrete step to ending the war is to end UNRWA. An important first step is demanding that Hamas murderers in UNRWA’s ranks be punished as the war criminals they are.
Romirowsky is the executive director of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) and the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA). Joffe is the director of strategic initiatives for ASMEA.
