Israeli parliament approves first reading to designate UNRWA as terrorist organization

Jul 22. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Knesset, or Israeli parliament, approved on Monday in its first reading the declaration of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees in the Near East as a terrorist organization and the breaking of all ties between the agency and the State of Israel, both direct and indirect.

The bill to cut Israel’s relations with UNRWA and declare it a terrorist organization was introduced by Yulia Malinovsky, a member of parliament from the Yisrael Beitenu party, and received the support of several other members before the vote, according to the press service of the Israeli Parliament.

In the plenary session, 50 deputies supported the proposal and ten voted against it, so it will be returned to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence for further deliberations.

“We have performed surgeries here and in the end. We are on the UN blacklist as well. On October 7, all moral excesses ended. UNRWA is a terrorist organization and not only in Jerusalem. It is a fifth column within the State of Israel,” argued the promoter of the proposal, Malinovsky.

He therefore calls for an end to all the agency’s benefits and tax exemptions, for example. “That this has not happened until now, seven months later, is regrettable. What is happening today is a badge of honour for the Knesset and for the members of the Knesset. We have done a wonderful job together,” he stressed.

The explanatory note to the law states that “in the months following the outbreak of the Iron Swords war, investigations have revealed the involvement of UNRWA workers in the Gaza Strip in the murderous terrorist offensive that began on 7 October 2023.”

These workers “participated in murders and massacres, in the kidnapping of Israeli citizens in the Gaza Strip and in the provision of vehicles and material for the offensive.” They also claim that members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad were among their workers.

“This is evidence of the close relationship between UNRWA and terrorist activity (…) in a similar way to other organisations that have been declared terrorist by law. It is therefore proposed to declare UNRWA a terrorist organisation as defined in the Anti-Terrorism Act 2016,” he concluded.

ATTACK ON THE RIGHT TO RETURN

The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Ministry has already condemned this approval and denounced it as a “premeditated attempt” to “liquidate the refugee issue” and the “right of return.”

“This constitutes a deliberate attack on the issue of Palestinian refugees and their inherent right to return, in accordance with United Nations resolutions,” he stressed.

The decision is part of “a systematic campaign of hatred by Israel, the occupying power, during its genocidal war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip” that includes “public statements against UNRWA, its officials, headquarters, institutions, capabilities and employees” and also actions such as Sunday’s attack on an UNRWA humanitarian convoy in the Gaza Strip.

It also represents a “clear violation” of Security Council Resolution 2730 of 24 May, which obliges States to protect UN institutions and humanitarian workers, and Resolution 194 on the right of return of refugees.

The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has also condemned the decision, which it considers “invalid and illegal because it was issued by an occupying authority” and calls on the UN and the international community to respond firmly to the “Zionist entity” and its “disdain for the international system.” It also calls for protection for UNRWA from Israeli attempts to “liquidate” it.

Islamic Jihad, for its part, warns of a war to starve Palestinian refugees everywhere and of advancing the annexation of the occupied West Bank. “Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families are in grave danger,” the armed group stressed, according to the newspaper ‘Filastin’.