Israeli opposition agreement to cancel UNRWA: What does it mean?

The existence of UNRWA means the existence of refugees, and the existence of refugees means the existence of an occupying usurper, and the existence of an occupier means, by nature, the existence of resistance. Eliminating UNRWA means, in the long run, eliminating the idea of refugees completely, and thus erasing the idea of an occupation on a land usurped from its displaced people; so that the occupying state automatically becomes, over time, a resident state with a land and a homeland, and thus the project of eliminating resistance is completed under another name, which is eliminating terrorism outside the state (an illegitimate occupying state = a legitimate existing state).

This is what the Israeli occupation government seeks to achieve through the Knesset’s decision to ban the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) on all of historical Palestine, after a previous decision to reject the establishment of a Palestinian state on the territories occupied in 1967. The majority of 92 votes, excluding Arab votes, granted to the two previous decisions means a Zionist consensus among all political blocs and parties, so that the opposition becomes a complete consensus regarding the United Nations resolutions regarding the political rights of the Palestinian people.

The United Nations, which undertook, through its Resolution No. 194, to establish a special body for Palestinian refugees, unlike any other similar body it has established for refugees in the world in terms of composition, structure, tasks, and political dimensions, stands today helpless in the face of the decision of the Israeli government, which challenges it on the one hand and represents its ideology on the other, in a formal contradiction and a hidden agreement.

The occupying state, which previously failed to abolish UNRWA and refer the Palestinian refugee file to other bodies with humanitarian dimensions; to strip it of its political and legal character, is now relying on force to end the presence and work of UNRWA on the land of Palestine, which reveals its goals of ending the refugees and their rights approved by the International Assembly. This is what the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, stated on Wednesday, saying: The attack on the agency is politically motivated; to get rid of the Palestinian refugees. Especially after the United Nations investigations that showed the falsity of the Israeli allegations that its employees work for the Hamas movement, and the occupation's intentions are clear through its systematic method of destroying the Gaza Strip, in light of the difficult conditions they live in, especially in the north of the Strip.

In order for Israel to achieve its goal of liquidating the Palestinian cause, the Knesset had previously approved on Tuesday 10-29-2024 a decision to prevent any country from establishing a consulate in Jerusalem that provides services to the Palestinians, thus also blocking the path for the United States to fulfill its previous promise to reopen its consulate in Jerusalem.

This decision, which did not provoke any current or future American administration, constitutes a blatant challenge to the international system, whether at the level of the universal institutions or at the level of individual countries.

The occupying state, which imposed itself by force first, before the will of the United States, as Netanyahu stated in his talk about the legitimacy of his country, is now placing itself in a challenge to the United Nations, with all its institutions, decisions, legal and value systems, and in a challenge to the existing international system, at the head of which the United States still stands, and is striving to prevent its collapse, or change it.

Although the decision to establish a Palestinian state and grant the Palestinians their rights has not yet been issued by an explicit decision, but rather by indirect decisions, including its position in the United Nations as an observer, and the recent decision of the General Assembly to strengthen its seat in the General Assembly, like its members, the UNRWA file was issued by a correct and clear decision by the General Assembly known as the “Right of Return” Resolution No. 194 of 1949.

Resolution No. 194 was one of the United Nations’ requirements for recognizing the occupying state after the 1948 war, and it constitutes part of the translation of Resolution No. 181, which concerned the partition of Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish.

The question that arises here is: If the occupying state is able to cancel the agency’s work inside occupied Palestine, can it cancel it outside it? Can it cancel 40% of the refugees in Jordan, 10% in Syria, and 8% in Lebanon, in addition to those in other Arab and foreign countries? And will it succeed in canceling Resolution 194, and what it represents in terms of protecting the right of Palestinian refugees to return?

Will Israel, with its practices that defy international and humanitarian laws, resolutions, values, and international justice institutions, impose itself as a fait accompli that countries must deal with and accept as they are? Or will its fate be that of a rogue state that does not belong to international values and institutions, which will place it in open confrontation not only with the Palestinian people but also with the international community as a whole, the global system, and the United Nations?

The Knesset’s decision on UNRWA provides the legitimate legal justification for the decision to freeze the occupation state’s membership in the General Assembly, or perhaps the courage to approve the expulsion of Israel from the international institution. There is no doubt that it is a difficult battle in the General Assembly, but the United States will not be able to prevent the issuance of a decision if it is put to a vote. Thus, the occupation state has chosen comprehensive international isolation, with no benefit to its means of power, which are in turn collapsing.

International and Arab reactions will not stop at condemnation, expressing concern, and issuing statements, knowing that the results of such a decision will awaken in every refugee his cause that has been numbed for almost a century, and thus will only increase his resistance action that will disturb the occupying state and the entire international community.