US is leading talks with UN to replace scandal-ridden UNRWA

The United States is currently leading international talks with the United Nations to replace the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) due to an Israeli ban on the scandal-ridden agency, the Israeli news outlet Haaretz reported on Thursday.

The UN chief Antonio Guterres, a strong critic of Israel, has so far rejected calls to replace UNRWA with an alternative aid agency. 

“If the other bodies see that Israel is serious [in its ban], they will slowly step in and replace UNRWA,” an Israeli security source told Haaretz. “Until the war, UNRWA had a monopoly on municipal services in Gaza,” the official continued. “Now other organizations will take on more responsibility for them, because UNRWA is disintegrating,” the security official predicted. 

Speaking to Haaretz, UNRWA Director in the West Bank Ronald Friedrich claimed that the organization plays a constructive role in the region.  

“In Gaza and the West Bank, we provide education to more than half a million children, and we integrate tolerance education into our programs. If this collapses, the risk of radicalization will increase,” Friedrich claimed without elaborating. 

However, critics have argued for years that UNRWA is in practice inciting antisemitism, hatred and violence against Israel and the Jewish people.

Footage from an UNRWA-led school in East Jerusalem in January 2024 revealed that local Arab students expressed a desire to murder Jews. 

“I am ready to carry out suicide attacks,” one student said. “We have to fight the Jews to prove that we are stronger than them,” another UNRWA school student asserted. 

The Israeli parliament Knesset banned UNRWA in October from operating due to the organization’s strong ties to the terrorist organization Hamas, which openly calls for the Jewish state’s destruction. 

“Since avoiding a humanitarian crisis is also essential, sustained humanitarian aid must remain available in Gaza now and in the future. In the 90 days before this legislation takes effect – and after – we stand ready to work with our international partners to ensure Israel continues to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office stated in October. 

Much of the international community, including the Biden administration, criticized the Israeli ban on UNRWA. However, it appears that Washington has internalized that the ban, which is expected to take effect in two weeks, will seriously undermine UNRWA’s daily operations in the Gaza Strip and beyond. 

In January 2024, the United States and several other leading donor nations temporarily suspended financial aid to UNRWA after the Jewish state had presented incriminating evidence that several of the UN agency’s employees had participated in the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 251 people from southern Israeli communities. 

In February 2024, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant presented a list with 12 UNRWA employees who participated in the Oct. 7 atrocities against Israeli civilians including women, children and the elderly. Gallant stressed that Israel had intelligence about an additional 30 UNRWA workers who assisted in the massacres and kidnappings of Israelis. 

Israeli intelligence has previously estimated that at least 12% of UNRWA’s 13,000 employees in Gaza have ties to Hamas and other terrorist organizations. 

However, most donor nations including the United States restored financial aid to UNRWA after a controversial panel report in April 2024 whitewashed the UNRWA terrorism scandal. 

While many governments worldwide have criticized the Israeli ban on UNRWA, many have realized that the ban will seriously undermine UNRWA’s daily operations. 

Sweden, a long-time donor nation, announced in December that it would end its funding to UNRWA and find a viable alternative. 

"Israel's two decisions in the Knesset, which Sweden has criticised, will make many of UNRWA's activities more difficult and impossible," Sweden’s Aid Minister Benjamin Dousa wrote in a post on 𝕏.

"Swedish aid must reach its destination, not get stuck in a bank account along the way. Due to Israel's decision in the Knesset, we are therefore forced to pass on the aid to other organizations," Dousa said.