The Israeli parliament has outlawed UNRWA

Two laws approved by Israel with a large majority will effectively make it impossible for UNRWA to operate in Gaza and the West Bank.The international community rises up.

• The two laws prohibit UNRWA from operating in Israel and from collaborating with Israeli government employees.
• Humanitarian activity in the Palestinian territories passes from Israeli control, so UNRWA will no longer be able to operate.
• From the United States to the European Union, the international community has protested Israel's new laws.

The Israeli parliament has passed two laws prohibitingUnrwa, the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, to operate in Israel or in the territories controlled by it, as well as to collaborate with Israeli personnel.

The two regulations were approved ad large majority and risk putting an end once and for all tohumanitarian assistance that UNRWA is guaranteeing, or trying to guarantee, in Gaza Strip.The international community, from the leaders ofUN up to United States, harshly criticized the two new Israeli laws, which will come into force within 90 days.

Israel's crusade against UNRWA

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency Palestinian refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was born in 1949 and in all these decades it has been involved in offering humanitarian support to these people and, over the decades, to their descendants with essential services ranging fromeducation todiet, passing through the Work.

Israel has long launched a discredit campaign towards UNRWA, which it intensified starting from October 7, 2023.The country accused the UN agency of doing so anti-Israeli indoctrination and to have among its employees several members of the Palestinian organization Hamas, without this ever being demonstrated.

The Israeli accusations had led part of the international community to suspend the financing to UNRWA last January, which were then restored.In over a year of offensive on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army he killed 233 employees of UNRWA, while the UN secretary general, António Guterres, was declared persona non grata in the country.

UNRWA banned by Israel

On Monday 28 October, Israel dealt another blow to UNRWA's activities.The Israeli parliament in fact approved it with a large majority two laws which will come into force within 90 days and which risk cutting off the UN agency's humanitarian activity once and for all Gaza Strip.

The first law prohibits UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory and therefore from having offices and staff inside it.The second law instead prohibits Israeli government employees from connect and collaborate with UNRWA, whose personnel are also cancelled legal protections.

Today UNRWA is in fact the only organization to provide humanitarian assistance to more than two million people who live in the Gaza Strip, even though Israel is blocking the entry of aid.Among other things, the UN agency has started the vaccination campaign against the disease in recent weeks polio, reappeared in Palestinian territory as a result of the Israeli military offensive, but in the last few days had to stop inoculations due to the impossibility of operating in safe conditions.

With the two new Israeli laws it will become de facto impossible for UN personnel to operate:the Gaza Strip is besieged and controlled by the Israeli army and every humanitarian activity must pass through the filter of Israel, from which, however, UNRWA will now be banned.This is just as the UN, in recent days, he underlined that all the population remained in north of the Gaza Strip risks dying due to the blockade of humanitarian aid.

The opposition of the international community

The Commissioner General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, he reported that the two new Israeli laws are the latest step "in an ongoing campaign to discredit the agency and delegitimize its role in providing human development assistance and services to Palestinian refugees”. 

The Israelis also took a stand against the Israeli decision United States.“We have made it clear to the government of Israel that we are deeply concerned” from the new legislation, he said the State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, underlining that UNRWA plays a fundamental role in the distribution of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, he reported that the new Israeli legislation is “in clear contradiction with the international law”, while seven states – Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom – they launched a joint appeal to Israel to block the new laws.

For his part, the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu he said that the law against UNRWA will not compromise humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people, without however clarifying how this will happen.Israel has been preventing the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza for a week.