Le Jounal du Dimanche

UNRWA accused of training terrorists and promoting anti-Jewish hatred

On Tuesday, March 5, the NGO United Nations Watch held a press conference in Paris, in the presence of its executive director, Hillel Neuer. The event provided an opportunity to expose the role of UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, criticized for its involvement in Gaza since October 7.

”It’s high time France and Europe opened their eyes: Unrwa kills,” declared Hillel Neuer to journalists on March 5. From the outset, he set the tone. His mission is to closely monitor the UN Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, Switzerland, and linked to the United Nations in New York, in order to detect human rights violations around the world. “Human rights problems are happening all the time,” says Neuer. The Executive Director of United Nations Watch is taking advantage of his visit to Paris to present Emmanuel Macron with a petition calling for the NGO to be dissolved and replaced.

Hillel Neuer gave important testimony to the US Congress last month, urging the country not only to suspend funding for Unrwa – the UN agency for Palestinian refugees – but also to dissolve the organization, which he considers “riddled with incitement to hatred, involvement in terrorism and perpetuation of war”. His visit to France comes as the European Commission announces the payment of 82 million euros to Unrwa for 2024. A first instalment of 50 million euros is due to be paid next week, despite the ongoing investigation into the alleged involvement of 12 staff members in Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.

Hillel Neuer was caught off guard by the decision. He points out that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has set up an independent review committee, headed by former minister Catherine Colonna, to evaluate Unrwa. The main donor states are awaiting the results of this investigation, scheduled for the end of April. “Why were the funds disbursed before the findings of the investigation?” asks Neuer, questioning “the independence of this group”.

“Unrwa has no mandate to verify what is happening under the Gaza Strip.”

He cites a tweet from January 13 in which Catherine Colonna expressed her support for Unrwa head Philippe Lazzarini, writing, “Full support for your work, more useful than ever.” The latter, during a trip to UN headquarters in Geneva in February, declared, “Unrwa has no mandate to verify what is happening under the Gaza Strip.” Recently, during a visit to New York, Catherine Colonna asserted that her role was to “reassure donors”. Hillel Neuer asks: “Is this really a professional and adequate review?”

Standing next to the UN Watch director is the mother of Jonathan Samerano, whose lifeless body was abducted and transported to the Gaza Strip by an Unrwa employee after being killed by Hamas on October 7. She wanted to show journalists in the room images from a CCTV camera. A white jeep enters Kibbutz Be’eri and stops in front of three corpses lying on the road. Two individuals get out of the vehicle and move Jonathan Samerano’s body into the trunk.

How can the UN pay this man who dragged my son’s inert body along the ground and then picked it up as if it were a trophy to take it back to Gaza?

Ayelet Samerano

One of the individuals identified in the video is said to be Faisal Ali Mussalem al-Naami, an employee of the UN organization in the Gaza Strip. “How can the UN pay this man who dragged my son’s inert body along the ground and then picked it up as if it were a trophy to take it back to Gaza? Give him back to me, give me back my son,” pleads Ayelet Samerano. Are there any other hostages being held by UN employees as we speak?” She points out that hostage-taking is a war crime, adding, “We ask UNRWA not only to investigate, but also to communicate transparently with the families.”

UNRWA’s former General Counsel, James G. Lindsay, then took the floor. Having worked for the organization from 2000 to 2007 and as General Counsel from 2002, he had already warned fifteen years ago of the ideological excesses of the UN agency. In a 2009 report, he suggested that “Unrwa had taken very few measures to detect terrorists among its ranks and prevent members of terrorist organizations, such as Hamas, from joining”. James G. Lindsay calls for a thorough investigation of Unrwa’s activities, claiming that the organization is not solving the Palestinian refugee problem, but helping to perpetuate it. He says: “There is no doubt that Hamas uses it to further its aims. Unrwa is essentially its educational arm, funded by the international community.”

Ending Unrwa?

With regard to the post-conflict perspective, he proposes the creation of an international consortium made up of Western and Middle Eastern countries, stressing that this trusteeship should last at least five years. Finally, he wonders about the possibility of putting an end to Unrwa. “Theoretically, the General Assembly that created the organization could terminate it, but virtually all its members express support for its renewal,” he says. Another approach, in his view, would be for donor countries to cease making financial contributions to the organization once and for all.

Renaissance MP Caroline Yadan, also present, has tabled a motion for a resolution in the French National Assembly condemning the teaching of hatred to Palestinian children. She asserts that “for decades, the children of Unrwa have been exposed to a language of violence. Whatever the subject, the lessons taught encourage hatred and destructive passion”. She points the finger at Unrwa schools which have become, in her words, “indoctrination centers promoting hatred of Jews” and contributing to the “training of future terrorists”.

The MP backs up her remarks by citing extracts from textbooks used in these schools, including phrases such as “the aim of the Zionist gangs is to perpetuate the massacre” (Unrwa Manual, Modern History of Palestine), “Die as martyrs and carry out the jihad. The Jews are doomed to destruction” (Unrwa Handbook, Islamic Education) or “The Jews are devious, treacherous and hostile” (Unrwa Handbook, Study Card – Islamic Education). “At the beginning of violence is thought. Unrwa knew,” she accuses. It failed in its mission of education, respect for human rights and the transmission of peace.” Finally, Caroline Yadan stresses the urgent need to rethink the destiny of Palestinian refugees in order to offer future generations the possibility of living together “peacefully” on a shared land: “In this way, the victims of the October 7 massacre will not have died in vain.”

On February 9, lawyer David-Olivier Kaminski filed a civil action with the “crimes against humanity” section of the Paris judicial court. Having been able to consult some of the terrorists’ telephone recordings, he reports that several of them admitted to involvement in the abduction of women, raising fears of possible rape or even murder. “This situation falls within the legal framework of crimes against humanity,” he says. What are the reasons behind the decision to file a complaint in France? The lawyer cites France’s “universal jurisdiction”, having already judged genocides such as the one in Rwanda. Not to investigate these crimes would be, in his view, a “dishonor”. He concludes: “Justice will be done”.

(Original article in French, form Le Journal du Dimanche: L’Unrwa accusée de former des terroristes et de promouvoir la haine anti-juive)