UN chief issues October 7th message, leaves out UN’s part in massacre
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a video message Sunday commemorating the October 7th attacks in Israel in which he failed to address the UN’s participation in the massacre.
“Today marks one year since the horrific events of October 7th when Hamas launched a large-scale terror attack in Israel, killing over 1,250 Israelis and foreign nationals, including children and women, ” Guterres began.
“The October 7th attack scarred souls,” he continued. “And on this day we remember all those who were brutally killed and suffered unspeakable violence — including sexual violence — as they were simply living their lives. This is a day for the global community to repeat in the loudest voice our utter condemnation of the abhorrent acts of Hamas, including the taking of hostages.”
UNRWA’s active participation in October 7th slaughter
After indignantly denying any involvement, the United Nations in August acknowledged the participation of at least nine UN personnel in the October 7th pogrom. The terrorists, who were on the payroll of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), have since been dismissed but were not the only terror operatives employed by the UN agency. Last week, for example, Israel Defense Forces 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 employed by UNRWA.
Accusations of UNRWA’s involvement also extended to the abductions. Israeli hostages who were rescued from Gaza reported being held by a UNRWA employee and an UNRWA employee was filmed carrying the dead body of an Israeli before bringing it to Gaza.
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.
UN defends employed terrorists
The UN has not only expressed no shame concerning its employment of terrorists but has even demanded they be given immunity. In a letter last week, 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."
Guterres warned the prime minister in the letter against the passage of a bill in Israel’s Knesset that would cut off support for UNRWA. The legislation, which was approved by the Knesset on Sunday, bars Israeli officials from meeting with UNRWA operatives, withholds economic benefits from the agency, and denies diplomatic visas for UNRWA personnel.
Israel also recently barred Guterres himself from entering the country, labeling him an “undesirable.”
UNRWA’s terrorism known for years
Despite Gutteres’ pearl-clutching over October 7th, 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’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.
