Problems abound with the U.N. agency responsible for helping Palestinians.
The United Nations has been quick to launch a special inquiry into Israel for defending itself this summer against Hamas terrorist attacks out of Gaza. But will anyone be investigating the role in this conflict of the U.N. itself?
This latest bout of war has underscored alarming questions about the U.N.’s chief agency in Gaza, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, better known as UNRWA.
Officially, UNRWA advertises itself as a strictly neutral party providing humanitarian and relief services — including schooling, health care, construction, loans, and emergency response — to Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, including some 1.2 million beneficiaries in Gaza. In practice, UNRWA has become so enmeshed in the workings of Gaza that it effectively functions as a support service for the interests of Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that rules the territory.
Hamas is dedicated in its charter and its public statements to eradicating Israel, and has used Gaza for years as a launching pad for bombarding Israel with rockets and mortars. Lacking the ability to obliterate Israel in one fell swoop, Hamas’s strategy has been to terrorize and try to delegitimize Israel, firing weapons from behind or near human shields, including UNRWA facilities, until the Israelis strike back in self-defense. Hamas then parades the resulting destruction before the world, blaming Israel for the conflict and punishing anyone in Gaza who might dissent. UNRWA plays along, condemning Israel in graphic terms while making scarce mention or none of Hamas.
Here’s a typical locution, plucked from an August 1 UNRWA daily Situation Report on Gaza: “Reportedly there were 100 rockets and 88 mortar shells fired toward Israel.” In UNRWA reports, it’s as if the rockets and mortars targeting Israel simply assemble and launch themselves.
During the thick of the fighting, in July, UNRWA reported discovering caches of rockets stored in three of its schools in Gaza. But not one of the related UNRWA press releases laid any blame on Hamas. UNRWA officials contented themselves with strongly condemning the unnamed “group or groups” who were using its schools as arsenals.
