The European Commission is taking its time deciding how to respond to Israeli intelligence showing that at least a dozen staff members of UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) were active participants in the October 7th attacks where Hamas terrorists killed over 1,200 people and took more than 200 hostage.
Fourteen countries (including major EU member states) have already announced suspending their funds to the agency over the weekend, yet Brussels is still waiting for the UNRWA—the UN agency specifically created to aid Palestinians—to try to explain itself before making any decision.
“We have been warning for years: UNRWA perpetuates the refugee issue, obstructs peace, and serves as a civilian arm of Hamas in Gaza,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote in a statement on Saturday, January 27th. “UNRWA is not the solution – many of its employees are Hamas affiliates with murderous ideologies, aiding in terror activities and preserving its authority.”
The intelligence presented by Israeli officials proves that at least twelve UN staffers, including seven teachers and two other school staff, are members of Hamas and actively participated in the October 7th attacks in one way or another, including supplying bombs and ammunition, being present at the Be’eri massacre and abducting Israeli civilians. In response, fourteen donor countries have suspended their funding to the UNRWA, including the U.S., the UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, Iceland, and seven EU members (Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Finland, Estonia, and the Netherlands).
In 2022, these countries provided a combined $739 million to the UNRWA, or about 62.5% of the total funds given by donors. In the same year, the third largest donor (after the U.S. and Germany) was the European Union with nearly $115 million or 9.7%—which remains the only major portion of the agency’s foreign funds that hasn’t been suspended yet despite growing pressure from member states and (primarily conservative) MEPs.
Instead of taking immediate action, the European Commission only announced that it counts on the UNRWA “to provide full transparency on the allegations.” According to the press release, Brussels will then “assess further steps and draw lessons based on the result of the … investigation.”
On Monday, the Commission added that its separate audit will be carried out by “EU-appointed independent external experts,” but refused to give details about the expected timeline of the investigation or any decision, not even whether the Commission expects the audit to be completed by the time of the next payment, scheduled in February.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “horrified by these accusations,” but urged donor countries to reconsider their decisions since the agency has already sacked the suspected Hamas members.
Israel, however, says the twelve staffers—six of whom crossed into Israeli territory on October 7th—represent only the tip of the iceberg, and the entire agency must be disbanded and replaced with an alternative that’s not under Hamas control.
As we reported before, conservative MEPs in the European Parliament have been calling for defunding the UNRWA for ages, but the Commission kept a blind eye to the problem despite admitting that there was a severe indoctrination problem associated with UNRWA schools.
Last month, the members of the European Conservative and Reformist (ECR) group invited Sharren Haskel, a member of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, to Brussels to explain the agency’s role in what’s happening in Gaza.
“The UNRWA is the most deeply ingrained institution in Gaza that allows the indoctrination of children to grow up to be terrorists, funded by your government,” Haskel stressed in the Parliament.
During her presentation, the MP provided detailed information on known Hamas members and sympathizers among the agency’s management as well as UNRWA-issued textbooks that openly glorify terrorism and incite Palestinian children against Jews from a very early age.
“If we are to win the hearts and minds of the children of Gaza … so that maybe one day we can co-exist, we need to dismantle UNRWA and stop them from perpetuating the conflict and the hatred towards Jews,” Haskel added.
Haskel and others—both in Israel and throughout Brussels’ conservative wing—have long been arguing that the UNRWA is one of the biggest contributors to keeping the conflict alive.
The agency has over 30,000 employees (13,000 of them in Gaza, predominantly ethnic Palestinians) who provide aid for some 5.9 million Palestinian refugees within and outside Israel. In contrast, the UN’s main refugee agency, UNHCR, has less than 21,000 employees for over 108 million refugees worldwide.
Furthermore, unlike any other group in the world, Palestinians not only retain their refugee status even after being settled somewhere (including Gaza and the West Bank) but even pass it along to the next generation. This hereditary victimhood resulted in 750 thousand original refugees becoming nearly 6 million in the last seven decades, who, to a certain degree, all depend on the UNRWA for their food, housing, and livelihood.
In short, the UNRWA carries the weight and influence like a state within Gaza, and Hamas would not have control over the strip had it not appropriated the agency decades ago. This has been painfully apparent for some time now, but once more, the EU seems the last one to get it.
