‘Circle of horror’: Israel outlaws infamous U.N. agency from country, international community loses its mind

JERUSALEM – The Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, took the extraordinary step in a Monday night vote to approve two bills effectively barring the United Nations agency for eternal Palestinian refugees – including generations of descendants – from functioning in Israel, as well as acutely shrinking its role in Judea and Samaria, and Gaza.

At the opening session of the Knesset’s winter term, Israel’s lawmakers voted unanimously to severely curtail the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East’s (UNRWA) ability to function effectively. MKs voted 92 to 10 to approve a law barring UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory, and 87-9 in favor of another measure curtailing UNRWA’s activities in the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria, by making it illegal for state actors to have any contact with the agency.

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman MK Yuli Edelstein presented both bills in the plenum, and on their conclusion took to X to announce gleefully, “UNRWA is out!”

זהו, נגמר. אונר”א IS OUT!

לאחר עבודה מאומצת בוועדת החוץ והביטחון, הצלחנו להוביל למהלך היסטורי ומשמעותי לביטחון המדינה ולסיכול אחת מזרועות הטרור שפעלה בחסות האו”ם. מליאת הכנסת הצביעה ממש כעת על חוקי אונר”א. >> pic.twitter.com/xndeLcWR62

— Yuli Edelstein יולי אדלשטיין (@YuliEdelstein) October 28, 2024

“UNRWA long ago ceased to be a humanitarian aid agency, but in addition to it being an integral supporter of terror and hate, is an agency to eternalize poverty and suffering,” he wrote.

“The rationale is simple – in order to survive, UNRWA created demand for the product it provides. The circle of horror ended today, they are out!”

The second bill, which passed by an even more emphatic margin – 87 votes for and only nine against – stated that the treaty signed between Israel and UNRWA following the Six Day War in 1967 would expire within seven days of the bill passing its final voting in the Knesset plenum. It added, no Israeli government agencies or representatives may contact UNRWA or a representative of it, beginning three months after the bill passes; that criminal proceedings into UNRWA employees’ involvement in acts of terror will continue; and that Israel’s National Security Council must report to the committee every six months regarding the bill’s implementation.

These votes are the culmination of the decades of animus between Israel and UNRWA. The Jewish state has had significant issues with the only U.N. relief organization devoted entirely to one group of people for years, but matters really came to a head on Oct. 7, 2023.

There is significant documentary evidence, including footage, supplied by the Israeli government, the IDF, and non-governmental actors such as UN Watch, which highlighted the indivisibility of UNRWA from Hamas (and other Islamist terrorist organizations particularly operating out of the Gaza Strip), and their direct role in the atrocities committed on that black Sabbath. UNRWA even begrudgingly admitted its own employees’ involvement in the massacres, and yet still expected Israel to just accept its presence.

The reactions to the votes were predictable, with many individuals and organizations on the so-called humanitarian left – who had little or nothing to say about the Hamas-inspired bloodletting on Oct. 7 – even at times glorifying and defending it – calling for Israel’s ouster from the United Nations. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini, called the Knesset’s move “unprecedented.”

The vote by the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) against @UNRWA this evening is unprecedented and sets a dangerous precedent. It opposes the UN Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law.

This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit…

— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) October 28, 2024

The Biden administration was deeply grieved by the results of the vote, blasting the legislation and arguing it augured “catastrophe” for the Palestinians. Their argument might have been bolstered if they had not been proved wrong about almost everything they have thought and said over the last year or so. The U.S. administration tried to strong-arm Israel earlier in the month to provide additional aid to Gaza – even though there is strong evidence Hamas operatives are hoarding most of it – threatening a reduction in U.S. security assistance if this was not done.

Following the vote, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said earlier Monday that the Knesset’s passage of the bill “could have implications under U.S. law.”

“If UNRWA goes away, you will see civilians – including children, including babies – not be able to get access to food and water and medicine that they need to live. We find that unacceptable,” he added.

While he was in the White House, President Donald Trump was persuaded of how nefarious an organization UNRWA was, and in 2018 he ordered a complete cut in the organization’s funding. It seems it has not learned its lesson, because as soon as the funding spigot was turned on again under Biden, it has allowed its premises – schools and summer camps to name but two – to become hotbeds of terrorist indoctrination – with a direct causal link to the events of Oct. 7.

Israeli academic and former MK Einat Wilf, who grew up on the Left and was a former Labor lawmaker, and who has fought for some two decades to explain to both the wider world and Israelis about the ills of UNRWA took to social media to reinforce her opinion. Broadly, her assessment is that far from helping the Palestinians, UNRWA permanently infantilizes them by holding out a forlorn hope not based in any kind of reality.

“Since I already have mountains of books, essays, lectures, long and short videos, posts and tweets on UNRWA, I’ll keep it simple now,” she posted on LinkedIn.

“UNRWA is about as essential as the arsonist who masquerades as a firefighter. Get rid of the arsonist and you won’t need the false firefighter.”

There is clearly some jeopardy attached to the Knesset’s decision, not least because it did not stipulate – and nor does it seem it was meant to – make a suggestion for what might replace UNRWA with regard to the disbursement of aid, most obviously in the Gaza Strip. Members of Israel’s defense establishment reportedly informed the political class against passing the legislation, precisely because of the difficulty of finding an organization to substitute for UNRWA in the middle of a war.

Israel’s lawmakers – including members of the official opposition, although the bills emanated from Netanyahu’s Likud party – were aware of both the potential humanitarian risk and the likely international backlash against the vote.

However, it seems they felt the concerns of the domestic audience, which has witnessed the development of a symbiotic relationship between Hamas and UNRWA – to the point where it is not clear where one ends and the other begins – and culminating in the use of U.N. vehicles to transport murdered Israelis back to Gaza – won out in the end.