NYT: Hamas Records Taken By Israel Show UNRWA Top School Administrators Also Were Hamas Terrorists By Hank Berrien
“Almost all of the Hamas-linked educators, according to the records, were fighters in the Qassam Brigades.”
Documents shared with The New York Times impelled the media outlet to admit that senior staff at UNRWA schools doubled as members of Hamas’ military wing.
“The agency, which employs roughly 13,000 people, including thousands in the schools, has a duty to maintain the neutrality of its facilities in the conflict zones in which it operates, including by keeping militants off its premises and payrolls,” The Times noted.
But as shown by the detailed records kept by the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, that were seized by Israel, at least 24 people employed by the anti-Israel UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in their schools were members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
“A majority were top administrators at the schools — principals or deputy principals — and the rest were school counselors and teachers, the documents say,” The Times reported. “Almost all of the Hamas-linked educators, according to the records, were fighters in the Qassam Brigades.”
“Names and identification numbers listed on the seized documents match those in a separate UNRWA database,” the Times reported. “The documents also list two schools in particular that were to be used as redoubts where fighters could hide and stash weapons in a conflict. … In several cases, educators remained employed by UNRWA even after Israel provided written warnings that they were militants. … Residents of Gaza said in interviews that the idea that Hamas had operatives in UNRWA schools was an open secret.”
“The U.N. seems intent on portraying this problem as a few bad apples, rather than acknowledging that the tree is rotten,” Deputy Director General for UN and International Organizations Amir Weissbrod declared.
Israeli officials have said at least 100 UNRWA workers were alleged Hamas militants. “The U.N. has been unable and or unwilling to eliminate Hamas militants and their supporters, as well as those from other terrorist groups, from their ranks,” said James Lindsay, UNRWA’s general counsel until 2007. “UNRWA hiring practices and the makeup of the labor pool from which UNRWA draws its employees suggests to me that the numbers the Israelis are talking about are probably pretty close to the truth.”
In January 2018, the Trump administration confirmed earlier reports that it would withhold $65 million from UNRWA.
As part of his report to the House Committee On Foreign Affairs, Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of United Nations Watch, stated: “As we have shown in numerous reports over the past decade, teachers and schools at the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, which runs education and social services for Palestinians, regularly call to murder Jews, and create teaching materials that glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis, and incite antisemitism.” Neuer posted a thread on X in January that he said “exposed a Telegram chat group of 3,000 UNRWA teachers that is replete with messages, photos and videos celebrating the Hamas massacre of October 7th.”
UNRWA’s funds have helped to train terrorists for ISIS. “The documentary, ‘The UNRWA Road to Terror: Palestinian Classroom Incitement,’ shows children as young as 7 in schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) expressing support for terrorism. One clip shows a 13-year-old Palestinian student chanting ‘With Allah’s help I will fight for ISIS, the Islamic State,’” Fox News reported in 2016.
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