Key Takeaways:
- Israel’s dismantling of UNRWA represents a shift from diplomatic opposition to direct action against an agency whose unique mandate entrenches permanent Palestinian refugeehood rather than resolving it.
- Assertions that Israel lacks evidence of UNRWA’s terror links are undermined by findings from Israel Defense Forces intelligence and UN investigations confirming staff ties to Hamas and participation in the October 7 atrocities.
- Far from advancing peace, UNRWA functions as a structural enabler of radicalization, particularly through its education system, which normalizes violence against Jews and sustains a grievance-based conflict across generations.
Israel’s Challenge to UNRWA’s Immunity
On January 21, Israel began dismantling UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. By demolishing UNRWA’s East Jerusalem offices, Israel took a further step following its October 2024 decision to bar the organization from operating within Israel’s borders. The site is now reportedly slated for redevelopment for public use, including the construction of approximately 1,400 apartments.
In short, this represents a decisive shift from diplomatic and legislative opposition to a direct challenge to UNRWA’s physical and institutional presence in Jerusalem.
The international media responded somewhat predictably to the move, accusing Israel of violating international law in coverage that led with colorful descriptions of bulldozers massing as the eastern Jerusalem site. Jonathan Fowler, a UNRWA spokesman, described the move as “an unprecedented attack against UNRWA and its premises,” claiming it constituted “a serious violation of international law and the privileges and immunities of the United Nations.” Absent from this coverage was any sustained engagement with the underlying question of whether UNRWA’s conduct warrants immunity from state action.
Founded in 1949, UNRWA presents itself as a humanitarian agency providing relief and support for Palestinian refugees. In practice, however, it has entrenched a permanent refugee status that is unique in international law, one that is inherited by descendants rather than resolved. No other refugee population is governed by a dedicated UN body whose mandate explicitly preserves refugeehood across generations. Rather than resettlement, rehabilitation, or integration, UNRWA has institutionalized a frozen political and national identity rooted in 1948.
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Terror Affiliation and Institutional Radicalization
Defenders of UNRWA frequently argue that Israel has provided little or no evidence that the agency is implicated in terrorism, or that it plays a role in fostering hatred of Israel and Jews. This claim does not withstand scrutiny. According to Israel Defense Forces intelligence, more than 450 individuals employed by UNRWA in Gaza are also members of terrorist organizations, primarily Hamas. This assessment is reinforced by evidence of UNRWA employees’ direct involvement in the October 7 massacre, including participation in the kidnapping of Israeli hostages. Among these was the abduction of the body of Israeli civilian Jonathan Samerano, which was taken into Gaza. An investigation conducted by the UN’s own Office of Internal Oversight Services found that at least 19 UNRWA staff members took part in the atrocities committed that day.
Criticism of Israel’s actions also ignores UNRWA’s broader role in perpetuating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is the central issue. Israel banned UNRWA and dismantled its extensive office complex, reportedly spanning nearly two city blocks, because the agency functions not as a neutral humanitarian body but as a structural enabler of Palestinian terrorism and political radicalization. Despite its stated mission, UNRWA does not work to improve Palestinians’ prospects for peace or stability. It exists to preserve a narrative of permanent grievance and displacement.
UNRWA’s ties to extremism are not limited to Gaza or the West Bank. The agency operates across the Arab world wherever Palestinians are deliberately kept in perpetual refugee status, including Lebanon and Syria, exporting the same patterns of incitement. In Syria, UNRWA math teacher Adnan Shteiwi publicly praised Diaa Hamarsheh, who murdered five Israelis in the March 2022 Bnei Brak terror attack, calling him a “martyr” whose name should “forever remain in letters of fire, might, and magnificence.” Another UNRWA employee in Syria, Labibeh Iskandarani, shared an image of Hitler online, urging him to wake up because “there are still some people you need to burn.” In Lebanon, Fathi Sharif, Hamas’s leader in the country, also served as head of UNRWA’s 2,000 teachers. He was killed in Israeli airstrikes in 2024. Taken together, all of these incidents demonstrate a consistent ideology rather than random extremism or “bad apples”.
Terror Affiliation and Institutional Radicalization
These cases illustrate one of UNRWA’s most serious failures: its role in indoctrinating Palestinian children. As the primary education provider in Gaza and the West Bank, UNRWA has shaped generations of students. This constitutes institutionalized harm. UNRWA curricula and teaching practices promote violence against Jews, as documented by UN Watch. In one widely circulated video, a young Palestinian girl attending UNRWA’s Tulkarm Camp Girls’ School states that she has been taught that Palestinians should shoot Israelis and that she hates Jews “a lot.” This is consistent with recordings released by the IDF of UNRWA teachers participating in the October 7 attacks, declaring, “I’m inside, I’m inside with the Jews,” and, “We have female hostages, I captured one.”
Journalist Nicole Lampert interviewed Dr. E. J. Brearley, an aid professional with direct experience working alongside UNRWA, who described an education system designed not to prepare children for civilian life but for perpetual conflict. He characterized the indoctrination as so sophisticated that it eclipsed even the propaganda of Rwanda’s Radio Mille Collines, noting that whistleblowers inside Gaza who warned about UNRWA’s collaboration with Hamas were ignored because the aid industry was financially invested in maintaining the status quo.
The reality is that UNRWA obstructs peace by denying Palestinians a future beyond victimhood. It conditions children to view martyrdom as destiny and embeds hatred of Jews at the core of its institutional culture. Its employees have not merely tolerated violence but, in documented cases, actively promoted or participated in it. In response to growing scrutiny, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated bluntly that “UNRWA is a subsidiary of Hamas.” In both its aims and its practices, the evidence strongly supports that conclusion.
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Image credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
