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Israel’s parliament approved two bills Monday that would ban the 74-year-old United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees from operating on Israeli soil and sever diplomatic ties with the organization.
The move threatens the ability of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to provide food, medicine and shelter to the estimated two million Gazans displaced by the war in the Palestinian territories.
The bill ignores some of Israel’s closest European allies, along with Japan and South Korea, who warned on Sunday that banning UNRWA from operating in Israel would “have devastating consequences for the already serious and rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation.”
“If UNRWA disappears, civilians, including babies and children, will lose access to the food, water and medicine they need,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said before the law was passed.
The United States is Israel’s largest diplomatic and military sponsor and the largest contributor to UNRWA’s budget.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the bill, which was pushed through the Knesset by most Jewish lawmakers as well as the far-right Coalition Alliance. During the acrimonious but short debate, the opposing opinions of Israeli-Palestinian lawmakers were loudly dismissed.
The first law does not explicitly prohibit UNRWA from operating in the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. However, the second incident would break diplomatic contact between Israel and the agency, disrupting the routine mechanisms for moving humanitarian aid to Gaza and the diplomatic standing of UNRWA officials.
Israel has an obligation under international law to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, and Netanyahu said he would continue to do so at X.
UNRWA chief Philipe Lazzarini said the vote violated Israel’s obligations under international law. “This is the latest in an ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role,” Lazzarini said in X. “This bill will further deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement on Monday that he was “deeply concerned” about the adoption of the Israeli law, warning that it could “have devastating consequences for Palestinian refugees and disrupt the peace process.”
“There is no alternative to UNRWA,” Guterres said.
The Israeli government has accused UNRWA of allowing collusion by many of its staff with the Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023, when thousands of fighters invaded Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip.
UNRWA has provided little evidence to support its claims, and in August it said it had fired nine staff members who may have been involved in the attack. The attack killed 1,200 people and sparked war in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli officials.
But Israeli right-wing politicians have long loathed the UN agency’s listing of descendants of Palestinian refugees from the war that led to the creation of Israel in 1948 on a list of people demanding a ‘right of return’. To the hometown of our ancestors.
Netanyahu has previously said UNRWA “perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem.”
The law will not take effect for at least three months, but its immediate impact will be felt in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem, home to more than 300,000 Palestinians, in a move not recognized by most of the international community and considers the entire city its sovereign territory.
UNRWA’s offices in East Jerusalem were attacked by right-wing activists this year.
In addition to supporting the five million Palestinian refugees living in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, UNRWA operates schools, health clinics and other essential services for Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
