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
Hamas Warns Against Cooperation with US Relief Efforts In Bid to Restore Grip on Gaza
Hamas terrorists carry grenade launchers at the funeral of Marwan Issa, a senior Hamas deputy military commander who was killed in an Israeli airstrike during the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the central Gaza Strip, Feb. 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
The Hamas-run Interior Ministry in Gaza has warned residents not to cooperate with the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, as the terror group seeks to reassert its grip on the enclave amid mounting international pressure to accept a US-brokered ceasefire.
“It is strictly forbidden to deal with, work for, or provide any form of assistance or cover to the American organization (GHF) or its local or foreign agents,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
“Legal action will be taken against anyone proven to be involved in cooperation with this organization, including the imposition of the maximum penalties stipulated in the applicable national laws,” the statement warns.
The GHF released a statement in response to Hamas’ warnings, saying the organization has delivered millions of meals “safely and without interference.”
“This statement from the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry confirms what we’ve known all along: Hamas is losing control,” the GHF said.
The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May, implementing a new aid delivery model aimed at preventing the diversion of supplies by Hamas, as Israel continues its defensive military campaign against the Palestinian terrorist group.
The initiative has drawn criticism from the UN and international organizations, some of which have claimed that Jerusalem is causing starvation in the war-torn enclave.
Israel has vehemently denied such accusations, noting that, until its recently imposed blockade, it had provided significant humanitarian aid in the enclave throughout the war.
Israeli officials have also said much of the aid that flows into Gaza is stolen by Hamas, which uses it for terrorist operations and sells the rest at high prices to Gazan civilians.
According to their reports, the organization has delivered over 56 million meals to Palestinians in just one month.
Hamas’s latest threat comes amid growing international pressure to accept a US-backed ceasefire plan proposed by President Donald Trump, which sets a 60-day timeline to finalize the details leading to a full resolution of the conflict.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced that Israel has agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalize a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, though Israel has not confirmed this claim.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with Trump next week in Washington, DC — his third visit in less than six months — as they work to finalize the terms of the ceasefire agreement.
Even though Trump hasn’t provided details on the proposed truce, he said Washington would “work with all parties to end the war” during the 60-day period.
“I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” he wrote in a social media post.
Since the start of the war, ceasefire talks between Jerusalem and Hamas have repeatedly failed to yield enduring results.
Israeli officials have previously said they will only agree to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms, and goes into exile — a demand the terror group has firmly rejected.
“I am telling you — there will be no Hamas,” Netanyahu said during a speech Wednesday.
For its part, Hamas has said it is willing to release the remaining 50 hostages — fewer than half of whom are believed to be alive — in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war.
While the terrorist group said it is “ready and serious” to reach a deal that would end the war, it has yet to accept this latest proposal.
In a statement, the group said it aims to reach an agreement that “guarantees an end to the aggression, the withdrawal [of Israeli forces], and urgent relief for our people in the Gaza Strip.”
According to media reports, the proposed 60-day ceasefire would include a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a surge in humanitarian aid, and the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, with US and mediator assurances on advancing talks to end the war — though it remains unclear how many hostages would be freed.
For Israel, the key to any deal is the release of most, if not all, hostages still held in Gaza, as well as the disarmament of Hamas, while the terror group is seeking assurances to end the war as it tries to reassert control over the war-torn enclave.
The post Hamas Warns Against Cooperation with US Relief Efforts In Bid to Restore Grip on Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
UK Lawmakers Move to Designate Palestine Action as Terrorist Group Following RAF Vandalism Protest
Police block a street as pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather to protest British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s plans to proscribe the “Palestine Action” group in the coming weeks, in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
British lawmakers voted Wednesday to designate Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, following the group’s recent vandalizing of two military aircraft at a Royal Air Force base in protest of the government’s support for Israel.
Last month, members of the UK-based anti-Israel group Palestine Action broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, a county west of London, and vandalized two Voyager aircraft used for military transport and refueling — the latest in a series of destructive acts carried out by the organization.
Palestine Action has regularly targeted British sites connected to Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems as well as other companies in Britain linked to Israel since the start of the conflict in Gaza in 2023.
Under British law, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has the authority to ban an organization if it is believed to commit, promote, or otherwise be involved in acts of terrorism.
Passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 385 to 26 in the lower chamber — the House of Commons — the measure is now set to be reviewed by the upper chamber, the House of Lords, on Thursday.
If approved, the ban would take effect within days, making it a crime to belong to or support Palestine Action and placing the group on the same legal footing as Al Qaeda, Hamas, and the Islamic State under UK law.
Palestine Action, which claims that Britain is an “active participant” in the Gaza conflict due to its military support for Israel, condemned the ban as “an unhinged reaction” and announced plans to challenge it in court — similar to the legal challenges currently being mounted by Hamas.
Under the Terrorism Act 2000, belonging to a proscribed group is a criminal offense punishable by up to 14 years in prison or a fine, while wearing clothing or displaying items supporting such a group can lead to up to six months in prison and/or a fine of up to £5,000.
Palestine Action claimed responsibility for the recent attack, in which two of its activists sprayed red paint into the turbine engines of two Airbus Voyager aircraft and used crowbars to inflict additional damage.
According to the group, the red paint — also sprayed across the runway — was meant to symbolize “Palestinian bloodshed.” A Palestine Liberation Organization flag was also left at the scene.
On Thursday, local authorities arrested four members of the group, aged between 22 and 35, who were charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK, as well as conspiracy to commit criminal damage.
Palestine Action said this latest attack was carried out as a protest against the planes’ role in supporting what the group called Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.
At the time of the attack, Cooper condemned the group’s actions, stating that their behavior had grown increasingly aggressive and resulted in millions of pounds in damages.
“The disgraceful attack on Brize Norton … is the latest in a long history of unacceptable criminal damage committed by Palestine Action,” Cooper said in a written statement.
“The UK’s defense enterprise is vital to the nation’s national security and this government will not tolerate those that put that security at risk,” she continued.
The post UK Lawmakers Move to Designate Palestine Action as Terrorist Group Following RAF Vandalism Protest first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US-backed Gaza Relief NGO Vows ‘Legal Action’ Against AP Claim Group Fired on Palestinian Civilians
Palestinians collect aid supplies from the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US-backed nonprofit operating aid distribution centers in the Gaza Strip, is pushing back forcefully against an Associated Press report alleging that its contractors opened fire on Palestinian civilians.
The GHF is accusing the AP of withholding key evidence and relying on a “disgruntled former contractor” as a central source.
“In response, we are pursuing legal action,” the organization said in a statement released Wednesday.
GHF said it conducted an “immediate investigation” after being contacted by the AP, reviewing time-stamped video footage and sworn witness testimony. The group concluded that the allegations were “categorically false,” stating that no civilians were fired upon at any of their distribution sites and that the gunfire heard in the AP’s video came from Israeli forces operating outside the vicinity.
“What is most troubling is that the AP refused to share the full video with us prior to publication, despite the seriousness of the allegations,” the statement read. “If they believed their own reporting, they should have provided us with the footage so we could take immediate and appropriate action.”
The nonprofit’s public rebuttal raises sharp questions about the AP’s reporting process, suggesting the outlet declined to engage with the organization in good faith and instead leaned on a source GHF describes as having been terminated “for misconduct” weeks prior. The group also claimed the AP’s recent coverage of its activities had begun to “echo narratives advanced by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health.”
The AP has not yet responded publicly to the GHF’s accusations or provided clarification about its decision not to share the video footage before publication. The original report alleged that American contractors employed by GHF had fired weapons near or toward civilians.
The GHF statement confirmed that a contractor seen shouting in the AP’s video had been removed from operations, though the group insisted this was unrelated to any violence and did not constitute evidence of wrongdoing.
GHF, which describes its mission as delivering food to Gaza “safely, directly, and without interference,” said it remains committed to transparency but would not allow its operations to be “derailed by misinformation.”
The dispute highlights the fraught information environment in Gaza, where limited access and competing narratives frequently complicate the verification of on-the-ground events.
The post US-backed Gaza Relief NGO Vows ‘Legal Action’ Against AP Claim Group Fired on Palestinian Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.