Federal government demands immunity for UN terrorists
The Biden-Harris administration is asking a court to dismiss a lawsuit against former UN employees who participated in the October 7th massacre in Israel, arguing they should be immune from prosecution.
The lawsuit was filed in a New York court in June on behalf of 101 victims of the mass slaughter. It accuses the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) of genocide and crimes against humanity for helping Hamas perpetrate the attack.
According to the complaint, UNRWA gave Hamas access to its sites for weapons storage and command centers. The UN agency also helped funnel US dollars to Hamas via its employees, many of whom are Hamas members.
Despite initially denying any part in the October 7th attack, the United Nations in August announced the dismissal of nine employees for their participation in the pogrom.
The UN has responded to the lawsuit by saying UNRWA employees are covered under the UN’s immunity:
Since the UN has not waived immunity in this instance, its subsidiary, UNRWA, continues to enjoy absolute immunity from prosecution, and the lawsuit should be dismissed.
The US Department of Justice filed its support for the lawsuit’s dismissal, echoing the UN’s statement.
"The plaintiff's complaint does not present a legal basis for claiming that the United Nations waived its immunity,” the DOJ said. “Therefore, because the UN has not waived immunity in this case, its subsidiary, UNRWA, retains full immunity, and the lawsuit against UNRWA should be dismissed due to lack of subject matter jurisdiction."
The DOJ argued that the UN is protected by the 1945 International Organizations Immunities Act passed by Congress.
International law scholar Prof. Eugene Konterovich and National Jewish Advocacy Center Director Mark Goldfeder slammed the Biden-Harris administration’s defense of UN terrorists.
“Under the UN Charter, its officials are entitled to such ‘privileges and immunities as are necessary for the independent exercise of their functions,’” they wrote in the New York Post.
“The United Nations thus claims that immunity from civil suits for invading a country and massacring its citizens is ‘necessary’ for the exercise of its functions — and President Biden and Kamala Harris apparently agree.
“If immunity for mass murder is necessary for the UN’s functioning, maybe it is time to rethink the UN entirely. “
UNRWA’s terrorism known for years
In 2004, then-UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen said: “Oh, I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll, and I don’t see that as a crime.”
Approximately 10% of UNRWA’s 13,000 Gazan employees are known to have ties to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, with nearly half having relatives in the terror groups. Former UNRWA union chief Suhail al-Hindi occupies a senior leadership role in Hamas.
UNRWA’s collaboration with Islamic extremist groups — mostly through schools and “humanitarian aid” — has been well documented for years but only received attention after October 7th.
Reports by UN Watch have detailed how UNRWA operatives work with the Palestinian Authority (PA), a subsidiary of the Marxist PLO, to teach Jew hatred, Holocaust denial, and Muslim supremacy in schools in areas the PA administers. UNRWA teachers have also been glorifying the October 7th massacre in classrooms.
UNRWA’s “humanitarian aid” has also repeatedly “fallen” into the hands of Hamas operatives.
What is UNRWA?
Most of the world’s refugees receive aid from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, created in 1921. Arabs in Israel who claim refugee status, however, collect benefits from UNRWA, a body established to cater specifically to “Palestinians.” The agency was formed in 1949, the year after Israel won its independence.
With an annual budget of over a billion dollars collected from the US, European countries, and international NGOs, UNRWA employs approximately 32,000 individuals and provides year-round “humanitarian aid” for free to Arab “refugees” across the Levant. The more refugees UNRWA can claim, the more funds it can collect.
Arabs whose forbears were living in the Land of Israel prior to 1948 and no longer live in the same home have been granted lifetime “refugee” status by UNRWA, even if they move to a different country. Those who do live in the same home can still access UNRWA benefits and services. In 1950 UNRWA claimed there were 750,000 “Palestinian refugees.” Today, that number is 5.9 million and growing.
This is because even those who have never even been to Israel or the Middle East and are citizens of other countries are also considered refugees if they are related to Arabs who lived in the Land of Israel before 1948. It is also because when Israel emerged victorious from the Six Day War in 1967 after having captured Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, UNRWA decided to designate Arabs in those areas as “refugees” as well, even though they remained in the same homes they lived in before being designated refugees.
