Our Weak Memory: Draft Laws to End UNRWA’s Work Are Not New

@We did not move against it months ago, and now the entity state will implement it, reassured that our reactions will be constructive and rhetorical, waiting to read a new cup of tea by Michel Hayek!

Palestine - On May 30, I published an article entitled "UNRWA is burning before our eyes. Official, popular and Palestinian diplomatic paralysis to support and save it. The process of expelling the agency from the presidential headquarters in Jerusalem and the law declaring UNRWA a terrorist organization as evidence of the path to destroying the right of return." In it, I said, "The most dangerous and influential development is the approval by the Israeli Knesset General Assembly on Wednesday, May 29, of three laws with similar content and purpose, namely the cancellation of the immunity granted to UNRWA according to the Comay-McClmore Agreement of 1967, signed by the entity's government and UNRWA, and the declaration of the institution as a "terrorist" organization and preventing it from operating in Jerusalem. The preliminary decision for the three laws - which will be followed by three readings to become an effective law - received the support of the Zionist parties included in the government coalition and the opposition parties and won a majority in the vote. The approval of the law, even if its implementation was delayed for political and diplomatic considerations, is the clearest manifestation of the intention to burn down UNRWA and a statement to the public that the goal of ending UNRWA has reached advanced and practical stages.

The striking idea in the previous article is:

The enactment of the law will be implemented even if it is delayed "for political and diplomatic considerations." We all know the entity's method. They launch a project, make a decision, or implement an order on the ground, and then monitor the reactions of the Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Arab countries, Western countries, the United Nations, etc. Based on these reactions, they decide whether to continue implementing the decision or project, develop what they started, or wait for another opportunity. If the reaction is strongly or violently rejecting, or if its implementation weakens their relationship with their supporters or weakens, for example, the normalization efforts with this or that Arab country, they suspend implementation for a period. This is their effective method that has been followed successfully for decades.

Regarding their strategic plan to end the agency in some of its areas of operation, and to limit it in other areas, and with the aim of demonizing it and rationing its financial support to the bare minimum, and in order to double the collective awareness of the right of return and float the idea of settling refugees in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon and encouraging the migration of Palestinian youth - for all these goals, the entity embarked on its rolling plan against UNRWA. They imposed fundamental changes on the curricula adopted in UNRWA schools in occupied Palestine. Our reactions were weak, so the conciliatory curriculum became a reality. Incitement campaigns began against UNRWA employees and we did not care, and they demonized them and forced UNRWA to dismiss some of them falsely and slanderously and we did not care, and many countries stopped their donations and formed investigation committees and imposed crippling restrictions on UNRWA and its employees, and we expressed our displeasure verbally and then went to sleep. The entity killed dozens of UN employees and targeted UNRWA facilities and killed the displaced to it, and we clapped our hands together, and our fields and went to sleep. The mayor of occupied Jerusalem announced that the agency must leave its headquarters in Jerusalem, pay outstanding debts, and withdraw its privileges and immunity, and we did nothing. The commissioner and his staff were prevented from entering Jerusalem and Gaza, and he was declared persona non grata. A few days ago, the UN Secretary-General also declared him persona non grata, and their representative, in his speech inside the corridors of the United Nations in New York, wished for the building to be demolished on the heads of its employees, and no one uttered a word.

Yesterday's news, which was reported by the Palestinian media as if it were new news, about the Knesset bills to expel UNRWA and withdraw its immunity is the same endeavor proposed six months ago. They proposed it, voted on it, and waited. In the meantime, they escalated their attacks and accusations against UNRWA, its employees and officials, diminished its role, starved it financially, and waited. They received no real responses, neither from the Secretary-General, nor from the crumbling Arab League, God forbid, nor from the Palestinian parties, nor from the countries hosting the refugees, nor from the donor countries.

Then they said to themselves: The lentils are cooked! Now the dish is ready.

What was approved by the Israeli Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is the following: Two bills aimed at ending the work and privileges of UNRWA (after UNRWA was previously declared a terrorist organization). The bills are a compilation of a set of laws proposed several months ago by parties opposing the current government and bills by parties in the current government coalition. In other words, there is complete consensus against UNRWA’s existence and services. The first bill (submitted by Likud and right-wing parties) calls for preventing UNRWA from providing any service to refugees or carrying out any direct or indirect activity in “Israel” or the ability to manage and operate any facility or site. The second bill (submitted by Yisrael Beiteinu, Yesh Atid, Likud and others) stipulates the cancellation of the headquarters and immunity agreement signed in 1967 (the Comay-McClmore Agreement), which expires in October 2024. The legislators gave the government the authority not to renew the agreement (which effectively ends UNRWA’s presence in occupied Palestine in its entirety). Today is October 7! Or wait until the second and third readings are voted on (most likely the final vote will take place once the Knesset convenes and begins its winter session on the 28th of this month) and officially adopt the two bills for immediate implementation. If the bills are passed, any Israeli government body or its representatives will be prohibited from communicating with UNRWA, and all privileges, immunities and tax exemptions will be withdrawn from UNRWA employees, and they will be banned from working.

The most the Secretary-General did was send a letter to Netanyahu last Sunday, urging him not to pass the two bills and threatening him that if the law was passed in the Knesset, he would draw the attention of the General Assembly to the seriousness of this decision!!! (Isn’t this an empty threat?). Bless you, Secretary-General. Netanyahu ignored him and instructed his representative at the United Nations, Danny Danon, to respond by lecturing the Secretary-General that the international institution did not lift a finger against UNRWA’s connection to “terrorism” and that it had failed professionally and morally!!

What do we do? Answer: Nothing