Israel's opportunity: Make UNRWA go away

UNRWA's misconduct, which has been exposed in recent days by Israeli media, will face a critical moment on Tuesday when the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs holds a hearing on the matter 

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Israel still hasn't publicly released all of the incriminating information it has on the organization. The Shin Bet, IDF Intelligence, Foreign Ministry, and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) have managed to create a massive dossier detailing the agency's improprieties. Some of it has been leaked to American outlets. 

Among those who will testify are Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch, which exposed the inciting Telegram group; Richard Goldberg, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; and Marcus Sheff, CEO of the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), which who revealed problematic content in UNRWA textbooks.

UNRWA has been dealt an unprecedented blow financially in recent days as the US and a whole host of countries announced a freeze of its funding, on top of its tarnished image. 

Here are the main pieces of information revealed so far, and some new revelations about the organization:

• At least 12 UNRWA employees were in Israeli territory on October 7 participating in the massacre, including murdering Jews, kidnapping them alive, kidnapping bodies, transferring weapons, and relaying orders. Israel estimates there are tens of additional such employees about which information hasn't yet been uncovered.
• Two UNRWA teachers held kidnapped Israelis hostage in their homes. 130 teachers publicly praised the massacre.
• 3,000 teachers are members of the secret Telegram group that glorified the massacre.
• 1,200 agency employees, approximately 10% of its manpower, are believed to be registered Hamas members. The security establishment has information enabling cross-referencing between member lists of both organizations. This critical information could implicate UNRWA but has been kept secret.
• Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have representation in UNRWA worker committees, indicating integration between the agency and terror groups. During the war, hundreds of tunnel shafts and weapons caches were found in UNRWA schools. These terror infrastructures were clearly evident, making it implausible that school administrators were unaware of their existence.
• Gaza residents and those captured by the IDF have told IDF officers that "Hamas controls and manages UNRWA institutions in Gaza and the humanitarian assistance entering the Strip."
• UNRWA educates for terror and hatred of Israel.
• UNRWA is an agency for perpetuating the conflict and passing "refugee status" from one generation to the next, unlike the UN Refugee Agency, which rehabilitates displaced persons within a number of years.
• 30,000 UNRWA employees (20,000 in Gaza) care for 5.6 million "registered refugees", in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Jordan. By contrast, the 20,000 UN refugee agency employees are in charge of 108 million refugees globally.
• Of the 5.6 million "registered refugees" with UNRWA, hundreds of thousands (if not more) have long since left the camps and countries where they resided, yet UNRWA still reports on them.
• In 2017 Israel exposed that Hamas was behind the appointment of an UNRWA commissioner-general. He was fired as a result.
• Hamas has stolen goods worth at least $1 million from humanitarian aid transferred to UNRWA since the start of the war, including fuel and trucks.

The West also understands: UNRWA is Hamas

Based on currently available information, one can justifiably claim that UNRWA is Hamas and Hamas is UNRWA. As the West also begins understanding this, the agency has been plunged into the worst crisis in its history.

In recent days most countries have temporarily halted funding for the agency, demanding a thorough investigation and even root-and-branch reform. The US House passed a symbolic resolution banning the administration from funding UNRWA as long as it's involved in terror, but it's currently stuck in the Senate.

This isn't the first time countries have halted UNRWA funding after exposure of scandals in the organization, but the severity and scope of the measures now is an escalation never before seen. Accordingly, in the past the agency made a show of "throwing out bad apples" in its institutions, enabling the return of Western funding. A similar scenario can be expected now if Israel doesn't act, because even if the West is very angry, anger tends to dissipate.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to instruct the Shin Bet, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the IDF Intelligence Directorate, and the Foreign Ministry, to expose all of the incriminating information on UNRWA before Tuesday's Congressional hearing begins. So far, as stated, there has been no high-level political discussion on "What is Israel's policy toward UNRWA," making such urgent discussion necessary.

Not fully exposing and revealing UNRWA today will enable the agency to claim (again) that it has rooted out corruption, thus returning us to square one. That would be a terrible squandered opportunity. In fact, Israel only has a  few weeks left to explain what UNRWA is and have it replaced by an alternative agency with the US, at least partially. This is the first opportunity in 75 years. We must not pass up on it.

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