More UN employees outed as terrorists
Dozens of senior staff employed by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have been doubling as Islamic terrorists, a New York Times report has found.
Internal Hamas documents seized by Israel show that at least 24 educators working at UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip prior to October 7th were members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Some of the terrorists were counselors and teachers, but others served in more senior roles like principals and deputy principals. Israeli officials said they warned the UN that some of its workers are active members of terror organizations, but the organization continued to employ them.
“Residents of Gaza said in interviews that the idea that Hamas had operatives in UNRWA schools was an open secret,” the New York Times report said.
The school workers are the latest batch of UN employees to be outed as terrorists.
In August, the UN acknowledged the participation of at least nine UNRWA personnel in the October 7th pogrom; they were eventually dismissed. In September, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amin, a UNRWA employee who was serving as the head of Hamas in Lebanon. Two weeks earlier, the IDF had attacked a Hamas command center housed in a school in central Gaza. Among those killed were three Hamas operatives who were employed by UNRWA.
UNRWA’s involvement also extended to the abductions. Israeli hostages who were rescued from Gaza reported being held by a UNRWA employee. Another UNRWA employee was filmed carrying the dead body of an Israeli before bringing it to Gaza on October 7th.
Between UNRWA’s employment of terrorists and its success in ensuring the delivery of copious amounts of “humanitarian aid” — which fall directly under Hamas control — the UN has been one of the largest sponsors of terrorism in Israel. Although its title refers only to “Palestine,” the agency also operates in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan with a $1.6 billion annual budget.
No shame
The UN has given up its earlier attempts to deny its employment of terrorists, and has instead adopted a more defiant approach.
A lawsuit filed in a New York court in June on behalf of October 7th victims says 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.
The UN has not only expressed no shame concerning its employment of terrorists but has even demanded immunity for the operatives. In a September letter, Guterres told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “it’s impossible to separate UNRWA [including terrorists on its payroll] from the UN. It is an integral part of it."
The Israeli government has since cut ties with UNRWA and barred Guterres himself from entering the country, labeling him “undesirable.”
UNRWA’s terrorism known for years
UNRWA’s terror ties have been publicly known for decades.
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 schools have also been used to train children to join ISIS.
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. Even those who do live in the same home and are not seeking refuge, can access UNRWA benefits and services. In 1950 UNRWA claimed there were 750,000 “Palestinian refugees.” Today, that number is 5.9 million and growing.
