RSS
UNRWA’s Role Is to Perpetuate the War Against Israel
Palestinians pass by the gate of an UNRWA-run school in Nablus in the West Bank. Photo: Reuters/Abed Omar Qusini.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was created in December 1949, after six Arab armies were defeated in their failed attempt to destroy the newly founded State of Israel.
Almost from its inception, UNRWA was hijacked to serve the ongoing battle against Israel’s existence, with a set of refugee conditions and policies that were exclusively and uniquely applicable to Palestinian Arabs.
These conditions and policies were created because, unlike Israel, which absorbed the vast majority of Jews forced out by the Arab and Muslim world, the Arab countries refused to accept Palestinian refugees. Despite their abundant resources, these countries chose to keep people in refugee camps, rather than helping them build new lives. The Palestinians in Jordan’s illegally occupied West Bank were eventually granted Jordanian citizenship, but somehow still kept their refugee status — in contrast to what happens to all other refugees who gain citizenship.
UNRWA was tasked to look after the needs of Arabs displaced by the conflict, by providing aid, education, and accommodation, but, instead, it became twisted into a mechanism for continuing the Arab war on Israel.
UNRWA created a farcical definition of a refugee, designating it as anyone “whose normal place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict.” Worse, this was later expanded to include all descendants, meaning anyone who lived in Mandate Palestine for less than two years and left for any reason would be declared a refugee — a status that would be passed on to their descendants and descendants’ descendants until the end of time, even if they attained citizenship in another country.
This is in stark contrast to every other refugee group on earth, and it explains the ever-increasing Palestinian refugee numbers from roughly 700,000 in 1948 to at least 5.9 million today.
Every facet of UNRWA is geared towards perpetuating these people’s existence as homeless “refugees” until the day they can “return” to non-existent ancestral homes in Israel — a dangerous fantasy that will never happen, as it would eliminate the world’s only Jewish state.
UNRWA’s mandate forbids the resettlement of any refugee, instead actively requiring they be kept in this permanent state of statelessness and rootlessness. Its education system teaches Palestinians to hate Jews, and that Israel is an illegitimate state. In textbooks, the entire area of the Jewish state is labelled as “Palestine”.
Needless to say, UNRWA’s unprecedented policies and behavior align perfectly with Hamas’ ideology and charter that call for the destruction of Israel through armed violence and the death or expulsion of its Jewish citizens.
When Hamas seized power in a violent coup in Gaza in June 2007, it began to embed its fighters and military infrastructure and equipment in all of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure including UNRWA facilities. It must also be remembered that Hamas already had popular support in Gaza, winning a plurality of votes in the 2006 Palestinian elections, and as that support grew, more UNRWA staff members were affiliated with Hamas.
In May 2023, just a few months before the October 7 terrorist attacks, the EU Parliament passed a resolution, for the fourth year in a row, that condemned the “hateful” content in Palestinian Authority textbooks used by UNRWA, and demanded that “all anti-Semitic references are deleted, and examples that incite hatred and violence are removed.”
That request was ignored, yet the money from donor states to UNRWA kept on flowing.
Unsurprisingly, when Hamas terrorists, including civilians and other Gaza-based terrorist organizations, invaded Israel from Gaza on October 7, UNRWA employees participated in the slaughter, rape, torture, and kidnappings. Even most of the terrorists who were not UNRWA employees, would have been educated in the culture of hate taught in UNRWA schools.
So it’s difficult to take UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres seriously when he says that he was “horrified” by the revelations that at least 12 UNRWA officials and members were directly involved in the massacre that day, along with allegations that 10% of the 13,000 UNRWA staff in Gaza are members of terror groups, and perhaps half have a close family connection to Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
Israeli officials have warned about UNRWA for decades. The UN — where anti-Israel bias has been entrenched into the bureaucratic structures — deliberately chose to ignore the warnings.
As a result of these revelations, many countries, including the US and Australia, have suspended funding to UNRWA, pending an investigation into its terror links. And while it’s true that UNRWA distributes most of the humanitarian aid in Gaza, it’s also true that over the past four months, Hamas has been stealing up to 66% of that aid, according to Israeli intelligence sources. So, in effect, UNRWA acts as a supply line for Hamas, rather than for needy Gazans.
For UNRWA, the 1948 war continues forever, and UNRWA’s very existence is designed to ensure an open, festering wound of the eternal, ever-expanding Palestinian refugees, which is never allowed to heal.
For any progress toward genuine peace, UNRWA needs to be dismantled sooner rather than later, and its duties taken over by other, less tainted UN bodies, such as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN’s main agency for looking after all the world’s millions of refugees who are not Palestinian. UNHCR, unlike UNRWA, has successfully resettled more than 50 million refugees and helped them to rebuild their lives, rather than remain immersed in violence and hatred.
Justin Amler is a Policy Analyst at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
The post UNRWA’s Role Is to Perpetuate the War Against Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Hundreds Demand Bob Vylan Be Dropped From UK Festival After Leading ‘Death to IDF’ Chants at Glastonbury
Bob Vylan music duo performance at Glastonbury Festival (Source: FLIKR)
Hundreds of people are urging officials in the United Kingdom to ban the punk-rap duo Bob Vylan from performing at the upcoming Boardmasters music festival in Cornwall after they led an anti-Israel chant at the Glastonbury music festival last month.
Bob Vylan lead singer Pascal Robinson-Foster stirred controversy by leading thousands in the crowd to chant “death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]” and “free, free Palestine” during the band’s Glastonbury performance on June 28, which was televised live by the BBC. He also complained on stage about working for a “f—king Zionist” during the set at the event in Somerset, England.
Because of their actions, the London-based band has been dropped by festivals and concerts worldwide as well as their talent agency. They had their US visas revoked ahead of their American tour and police in the UK launched an investigation into the band, to see if their comments amounted to a criminal offense, including ones related to a hate crime. Their anti-IDF comments were condemned by Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Glastonbury organizers, and the BBC issued a public apology for live streaming Bob Vylan’s “offensive and deplorable behavior.”
Bob Vylan have since explained that that they “are not for the death of Jews or Arabs or any other race or group.”
In light of the Glastonbury incident, councilors on the Cornwall Council, the licensing authority for the Boardmasters music festival in Cornwall, has received almost 300 formal complaints from members of the public, asking for Bob Vylan to be banned from the festival taking place from August 8-10, according to CornwallLive. Cornwall Councillor Dulcie Tudor publicly spoke about councilors receiving hundreds of complaints in a Facebook post on July 18. “Personally I would not spend any of my money to watch a band that called for the death of anyone,” Tudor wrote.
“It’s got to be the most concerted campaign I’ve seen since being on the council,” Tudor also told CornwallLive. “It’s more than the most controversial planning application.”
The council is due to hold a licensing hearing following a complaint received on July 16, which called on the authority to review the festival’s license in light of the band’s scheduled appearance. However, due to licensing hearing regulations, including a 20-day consultation period, the hearing will not take place until after the band’s performance at Boardmasters on Aug. 10, according to the BBC.
Organizers of Boardmasters said in a statement to the BBC that Bob Vylan will not be dropped from the festival despite their controversial comments. They said they are focused on having a “safe, respectful, and well-managed event.”
“Boardmasters is committed to being a space where people from all backgrounds feel welcome and safe,” the statement read. “We do not tolerate hate speech, incitement to violence, or behavior that puts anyone at risk, and we will continue to uphold these principles throughout the event and beyond. Our decision to proceed with the performance reflects a balance of factors, including the festival’s careful consideration of recent concerns, our ongoing dialogue with stakeholders, and the band’s agreement to the terms of their participation.”
“We have been clear with the band and their representatives about our expectations particularly the importance of maintaining a respectful and safe environment for everyone attending, working at, or involved in the festival,” organizers added.
Festival organizers are also partnering with Devon & Cornwall Police to ensure that the festival “continues to meet the highest standards of safety, compliance, and community accountability,” they said.
The post Hundreds Demand Bob Vylan Be Dropped From UK Festival After Leading ‘Death to IDF’ Chants at Glastonbury first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Canadian Woman Sentenced for Joining ISIS, Becomes First Person Convicted for ‘Family Support’ Role as a Spouse
Islamic State slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in the hillside overlooking Mosul, Iraq, March 4, 2017. Photo: via Reuters Connect.
A court in Quebec, Canada has sentenced a woman who absconded to Syria in 2014 to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to one day in prison and three years of probation, making her the first Canadian to be convicted for “providing support to a terrorist entity through family support as a spouse,” the Public Prosecution Service of Canada announced this week.
According to the law enforcement agency, Oumaima Chouay, 29, joined ISIS “knowing that her expected role would include marrying an ISIS fighter and raising children under the ISIS doctrine.” It added that, however, Chouay served a strictly domestic function which precluded any direct involvement in acts of terror or “actual combat” against the coalition of states — including her home government — which waged a protracted military campaign to quell the ISIS threat.
Chouay voluntarily repatriated to Canada in 2022, flying into the Montreal-Trudeau International Airport. Law enforcement intercepted her there and later transferred her to a detention facility where she was subject to “strict bail conditions” and “depolarization therapy” aimed at repairing her susceptibility to extremist messaging. The rehabilitation proved a success, psychological experts have claimed, telling the state that Chouay’s “risk of recidivism and dangerousness is very low,” a conclusion with which the country’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, a division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, has reportedly concurred.
On Monday, Chouay pleaded guilty to one count of participating in the activities of a terrorist group. Her one-day prison sentence will be in addition to the 110 days served before pre-trial.
Canadian director of public prosecution George Dolhai said that a number of mitigating factors influenced Chouay’s sentencing, which is the first of its kind.
“The recommended sentence here takes into consideration the early, ongoing, demonstrated, and independently evaluated steps Ms. Chouay has taken to demonstrate remorse, take responsibility, commit to fundamental change and a rejection of extremist ideology,” Dolhai said in a statement. “This addresses the ultimate goal of protecting the community.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Canadian Woman Sentenced for Joining ISIS, Becomes First Person Convicted for ‘Family Support’ Role as a Spouse first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Germany Not Planning to Recognize Palestinian State in Short Term, UK Will Only Do So as Part of Peace Deal
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a joint press conference with Finnish Prime Minister in Turku, Finland, on May 27, 2025. Photo: Lehtikuva/Roni Rekomaa via REUTERS
Germany is not planning to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term and said its priority now is to make “long-overdue progress” towards a two-state solution, a German government spokesperson said on Friday.
“Israel’s security is of paramount importance to the German government,” said the spokesperson. “The German government therefore has no plans to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Friday the British government would recognize a Palestinian state only as part of a negotiated peace deal, disappointing many in his Labour Party who want him to follow France in taking swifter action.
France’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September drew condemnation from Israel and the United States, amid the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the decision late Thursday, shortly before Starmer said he would hold an emergency call with France and Germany on the humanitarian situation in Gaza on Friday.
Britain’s immediate priority is alleviating suffering in Gaza and securing a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, a cabinet minister said on Friday, even as Starmer came under growing pressure to recognize a Palestinian state.
Starmer said he was focused on the “practical solutions” that he thought would make a real difference to ending the war.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that,” he said. “But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.”
Over 220 members of parliament – about a third of lawmakers in the House of Commons and mostly Labour members – wrote to Starmer on Friday urging him to recognize a Palestinian state.
Italy’s foreign minister said on Friday that recognition of a Palestinian state must occur simultaneously with the recognition of Israel by the new entity.
“A Palestinian state that does not recognize Israel means that the problem will not be resolved,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani told a meeting of his conservative Forza Italia party.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in a statement welcoming the French move, credited the leadership of Saudi Arabia with playing “a key role in encouraging France’s decision to recognize the State of Palestine”, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA reported.
“President Abbas urged all countries, especially European nations that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine, to do so based on the internationally endorsed two-state solution,” it cited Abbas as saying.
Saudi Arabia has been pushing France to recognize a Palestinian state over the past year with efforts led by Saudi foreign minister Faisal bin Farhan, said a source close to the royal court.
The post Germany Not Planning to Recognize Palestinian State in Short Term, UK Will Only Do So as Part of Peace Deal first appeared on Algemeiner.com.