UNRWA abuses : Utah IMC

> The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has followed a
> consistent pattern over the course of more than two months now.
> They register complaints to the media with regard to IDF
> humanitarian “abuses” in Gaza. These “abuses,” according to
> Commissioner- General Karen AbuZayd, include the siege of Gaza, the
> targeted killings of “suspected militants” and Israeli incursions
> into densely populated neighborhoods, causing terror among the
> civilian population. All of this "has badly shaken the society."
>
> An on-going UNRWA complaint has been the IDF practice of closing
> crossings into Gaza, which inhibits the agency’s ability to move in
> goods and supplies. This is particularly the case with the Karni
> Crossing. IDF soldiers have been killed in attacks at this site in
> the past, and Israel finds it necessary to close this crossing when
> there is warning of an imminent attack – a not infrequent
> occurrence. UNRWA declines to utilize alternate crossing sites
> made available by the IDF, claiming that this would require a re-
> packaging of supplies – palletizing – that is prohibitively
> expensive. The choice thus made by UNRWA in these instances is to
> allow potential recipients of its goods to go without, even in
> instances when the possibility to get at least some supplies in
> does exist.
>
>
>
> Says AbuZayd, once access to Gaza is more readily achieved, UNRWA
> is “ready with a major development program to rehabilitate the
> overcrowded and dilapidated refugee camps, and reconstruct houses
> and school buildings...” To that end, major fundraising efforts
> are underway. It is difficult not to speculate on the relationship
> between a population that “does without” and UNRWA’s anticipated
> success in fundraising.
>
>
>
> The major news here, however, is the degree to which UNRWA has
> moved beyond its mandate. UNRWA is, clearly and unequivocally,
> defined as a humanitarian social service agency. According to GA
> Resolution 302, of December 1949, UNRWA was founded to carry out
> “relief and works programs” on a temporary basis. As “temporary”
> morphed into “permanent” – with its mandate repeatedly renewed,
> UNRWA developed a major bureaucracy in order to provide the
> Palestinian refugees (as defined by UNRWA) with humanitarian
> services. The agency, on its very own website, says that it is “a
> relief and human development agency, providing education,
> healthcare, social services and emergency aid.” Nowhere is there a
> suggestion that UNRWA has jurisdiction in the political sphere.
>
>
>
> This has hardly stopped UNRWA, however. At a press conference on
> September 7, AbuZayd openly criticized the UN directive to all
> staff not to have any contact with Hamas: “We should engage with
> them and encourage them, discuss with them. This is a movement that
> has been more or less underground and had little contact with the
> outside world. It needs to hear from other people and we are
> discouraged from doing that.” The last thing that the UN – which
> was at least nominally attempting to establish a policy with regard
> to the isolation of Hamas – needed was second guessing from a
> constituent agency.
>
>
>
> Apparently on a roll, AbuZayd went on to make a broadly publicized
> suggestion that an international presence be introduced into Gaza,
> although she was vague as to the nature of such a presence
> (“civilian, military, whatever”). Her vision has something to do
> with observers who would somehow make certain that crossings into
> Gaza were kept open more of the time. At first blush, one is hard-
> pressed to know whether she thought that this international
> presence would discourage Israel from closing the crossings even if
> there were terrorists threats, or would discourage terrorists from
> making such threats. In due course, however, it all becomes quite
> clear.
>
>
>
> To emphasize what she has in mind, she pointed out the “success” of
> the placement of European Union observers at the Rafah Crossing
> between Gaza and Egypt last year as part of a US-brokered deal
> between Israel and the PA. “It allowed people to move. It was
> very exciting...” The EU observers, who were in place until the
> IDF shut down Rafah with the violence this summer, were, quite
> literally, observers. They observed as wanted terrorists moved
> unhindered into Gaza. Undoubtedly the terrorists were excited to
> be able to do so.
>
>
>
> In response to a question at the press conference, AbuZayd
> elaborated still further: There would be no need, she explained,
> for the tunnels, if people were permitted to move back and forth
> freely.
>
>
>
> “The tunnels” to which the UNRWA Commissioner- General was alluding
> are furtively dug between Egypt and Gaza in order to facilitate the
> smuggling of weapons into Gaza, intended, of course, for use
> against Israel. Or, between Gaza and Israel, allowing for
> terrorists and their weapons to enter Israel in an effort to launch
> terrorist attacks. These latter tunnels, it should be noted, are
> frequently directed at or near the site of crossings.
>
>
>
> Thus, at last, does AbuZayd make her vision clear: Israeli
> security be damned; Israeli deaths are without import. Open those
> crossings, come what may, so that UNRWA, “a social service agency,”
> can move its supplies in with ease and enlarge its operation. With
> this clarification, she has provided a huge rationale for reigning
> in or shutting down her agency, which has stepped perilously beyond
> its original humanitarian mandate
>
>