What does the Israeli Knesset’s approval of legislation designating UNRWA as a terrorist organization mean? |

Rami Samara Report – translated from WAFA News: The Israeli Knesset is expected to vote within hours on the second and third readings of two bills that threaten the future of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The first law concerns the ban on UNRWA’s activities in occupied Jerusalem, while the second concerns the withdrawal of privileges and immunities granted to the agency’s employees. If approved, they will be sent directly to the Israeli government for implementation.

Ahmad Abu Holi, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and head of the Department of Refugee Affairs, told Wafa news agency that approving these laws would amount to a declaration of war on UNRWA, ending its role as a prelude to eliminating the refugee problem.

He emphasized that the adoption of the decision by the Knesset and the Israeli government would initially involve the invalidation of the “Comay-McLemore” agreement signed in 1967 with the UN agency and Israel, obliging Tel Aviv to facilitate UNRWA’s tasks, protect its premises, and ensure the free movement of its employees and granting them immunity.

“This means withdrawing UNRWA’s privileges, ceasing contacts with the institution, closing its offices, withdrawing the permits of its employees and freezing their bank accounts,” Abu Holi said. “This will have a direct impact primarily on the agency’s center in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem and the schools, clinics and services it provides to 200,000 Palestinian refugees in and around the city (Shu’fat and Qalandia, Silwan and Indian Corner refugee camps )”.

Abu Holi stressed that “the designation of UNRWA and its staff as terrorists by the occupation forces will not be limited to Jerusalem, but in the long term will impact the services provided by the agency in 19 refugee camps in the West Bank, threatening the future of education, health, services social and infrastructure.

This is in addition to the deliberate targeting of schools, facilities and agency shelters in the Gaza Strip, where 231 UN staff have been killed so far in the ongoing war of extermination.

He added that the Israeli government’s implementation of the “anti-terrorism” law adopted in 2016 would enable it to prosecute UNRWA staff in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, employing a total of 18,000 workers, in addition to obstacles that would be placed in the way they receive salaries, which in will consequently impact their ability to fulfill a humanitarian role in the provision of education, health and humanitarian services.

He mentioned that the occupation aims to shift the burden of 6 million Palestinian refugees to the host countries, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, meaning that these countries will assume all responsibility for the refugee community after UNRWA is deprived of this task.

It also means an attempt to settle them in their current places or to force them into a new resettlement by putting them in an impossible life situation, both materially and in terms of services.

“There are 300,000 students in UNRWA schools. Where will they go when the war ends, schools are destroyed and there is no budget for education? UNRWA clinics receive over 4 million visits annually from patients, elderly people, pregnant women and people suffering from chronic diseases,” Abu Holy emphasized. “Where will they go in the face of the closure and destruction of UNRWA facilities? 1.4 million Palestinian refugees receive food aid from UNRWA, which is the main source of aid for many. Where will they get food? This is a new war titled Hunger, Thirst, Exhaustion and Ignorance.”

He confirmed that when Israel decided to declare war on UNRWA and delegitimize it in the Knesset, its primary target was the refugee community and the Palestinian people. This has another dimension, primarily a legal one, because the agency was established under UN Resolution 302 of 1949, which constitutes the world’s international obligation in the event of its failure to implement Resolution 194 on the right of return, compensation and restitution of property.

Abu Holi said that UNRWA was created exclusively for the Palestinian refugee community with its legal dimension because its creation under UN General Assembly Resolution 302 is linked to Resolution 194 adopted by the same body, which means that the agency must continue their work until a politically agreed solution to the refugee issue was reached.

Referring to reports pointing to Israel’s efforts to merge UNRWA authorities with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Abu Holi explained that the latter would deprive Palestinian refugees of their legal status, thereby depriving them of political rights and limiting their issue to the humanitarian aspect.

He explained: “All refugees in the world can return to their homelands at any time, but to the Palestinians, Israel refuses to return any refugee to their home or city. “That is why he wants to include them in a different international framework responsible for 100 million people around the world, making them mere numbers without legal, political or service rights.”

The UNHCR office, officially known as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, was created by the UN General Assembly in 1950 after World War II to help millions of people who had lost their homes.

UNHCR operates in 136 countries, providing life-saving assistance, including shelter, food, water and medical care, to people forced to flee due to conflict and persecution, enabling them to rebuild their lives, according to its declaration on its website.

On July 22, 2024, the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee approved three bills at first reading: the first classifies UNRWA as a “terrorist organization”, the second abolishes the privileges and immunities of the agency and its employees, and the third bans UNRWA in the “sovereign territories of Israel”.

On September 29, 2024, the committee met and merged the first two bills, softening the content by removing the classification of UNRWA as a terrorist organization to avoid criticism from UN member states.

On October 6, 2024, the Knesset Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense adopted the combined draft laws and the third draft in the second and third readings.

The Speaker of the Knesset convened a session on October 28, 2024, during which the second and third (final) readings of the proposed laws were voted on to enter into force.

As a precautionary measure, the Israel Land Authority announced on October 10, 2024, the seizure of the site of the UNRWA headquarters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem and the transformation of the site into a 1,440-unit colonial outpost ahead of a final vote on the designs laws of the Israeli Knesset.

Bills include:

Withdrawal from the contract “Comaya’s lettersof 1967 between UNRWA and Israel, whereby the latter agrees to facilitate UNRWA’s tasks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the protection and security of UNRWA personnel and facilities, freedom of movement of UNRWA vehicles and personnel within Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories and tax exemptions.

Withdrawal of privileges and immunities granted to UNRWA (staff, premises and facilities).

Cessation of all contacts with or on behalf of UNRWA.

Prohibiting UNRWA from conducting any agency, service or activity in Israel’s sovereign territories.

Taking punitive measures against UNRWA staff, including those related to the events of October 7, 2023 or the Iron Swords War, or any other punitive measures in accordance with the Israel Anti-Terrorism Law 2016.

Following the final vote on the bills, UNRWA will face practical on-the-ground enforcement measures implemented by the Israeli occupation government, including:

Prohibiting the agency from operating in occupied Jerusalem, ordering the occupation police to enforce the ban by closing the agency’s offices and schools in Jerusalem and surrounding areas.

Implementation of the UNRWA evacuation decision from Israel Land Authority lands and cancellation of lease agreements in the Sheikh Jarrah, Kafr Aqab and Shu’fat refugee camps, the only refugee camp in East Jerusalem, which will have serious consequences for the 110,000 Palestinian refugees in Jerusalem , as well as UNRWA schools, clinics and outreach centers.

Implementing the decision of Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich to cancel tax breaks granted to UNRWA as a UN agency and severing contacts with Israeli banks, putting UNRWA in a critical financial situation, making it more difficult to transfer donor funds and pay future employee salaries.

The bills will give the green light for the Israeli occupation army in the West Bank and Jerusalem, as is the practice in the Gaza Strip, to attack UNRWA facilities when invading Palestinian refugee camps and enable illegal paramilitary colonizers to attack UNRWA facilities and personnel, as this decision strips them of their diplomatic immunity.

From a legal and international point of view, if adopted at last reading, both bills will constitute a dangerous precedent, an attack on the United Nations, its agencies and the Charter (including Articles 2 and 105), a violation of international norms and conventions, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention, and violation of the relevant resolutions of the UN General Assembly on the immunities and protection of international organizations, including the creation of UNRWA under resolution 302 in accordance with Article 17, and the 1946 Convention on Privileges and Immunities. United Nations.

These provisions also constitute a clear and public violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2730, issued on May 24, 2024, which obliges Israel to respect and protect UN institutions and humanitarian workers.

The laws contradict the ruling and legal opinion of the International Court of Justice issued on July 19, 2024, which confirmed that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories, including occupied Jerusalem, which is part of the UNRWA operation.