Does Israel want to designate the United Nations agency as a terrorist organization? The response comes

At a time when the International Court of Justice and the international community are generally criticizing Israel for failing to ensure humanitarian aid enters Gaza, Israel intends to set a new lower limit again.

According to reference news reports, on the 29th local time, the Israeli Knesset will hold a preliminary vote on two bills targeting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

The two bills mentioned above were proposed by Knesset members Malinovsky and Dan Illuz respectively. The former aims to define UNRWA as a "terrorist organization" and cut off all official ties between Israel and it. The latter aims to Deprive UNRWA of the various immunities it currently enjoys from taxation, litigation, etc.

According to reports, the Israeli Knesset committee passed the draft bill on the 26th. According to the review procedures of the Israeli Knesset, if the draft bill is passed in the preliminary vote of the Knesset on the 29th, it still needs to pass the first, second and third reading.

Since its establishment in 1949, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the East has been committed to providing basic humanitarian assistance such as education, medical care, social services and emergency relief to Palestinian refugees. Thanks to the efforts of UNRWA, Gaza has become the place with the highest literacy rate in the Middle East. According to the 2019 report of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the overall literacy rate in Palestine was 97.2%.

It can be said that UNRWA is one of the most important international aid agencies in the Middle East. Before the outbreak of the current round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the agency employed about 13,000 workers, most of whom were Palestinians. After the war began, the agency took a leading role in helping distribute food and medicine in Gaza.

According to reports, UNRWA media adviser in Gaza Hasna responded to the Israeli bill and said that UNRWA was established in accordance with the decision of the United Nations General Assembly and was authorized to provide services in education, health until the Palestinian refugee issue was justly and comprehensively resolved. , relief and employment and other areas to deal with Palestinian affairs.

"No country in the world has the right to declare a major United Nations organization as a 'terrorist organization.'" Hasner emphasized that such actions will escalate regional tensions and have disastrous consequences.

According to the United Nations website, Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the United Nations Secretary-General, responded at a press conference on the 28th that as we all know, the Secretary-General has always expressed unconditional and firm support for UNRWA. He has repeatedly emphasized the agency’s role key role.

When asked about the United Nations' response, Dujarric said that UNRWA's role in the Palestinian issue was "irreplaceable." "If UNRWA is no longer able to operate in Gaza or the occupied West Bank, the Israeli authorities as the occupying Power will have to assume responsibility for many of these operations," he said.

Some critics warned that the Israeli bill would not only seriously undermine the international community's humanitarian assistance mechanism for Palestinian refugees, but would also affect the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

The number of displaced people in the Gaza Strip is increasing, and the shelter tents of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the East are overcrowded. The Chang'an Street Governor noted that Israel has long expressed dissatisfaction with UNRWA. Since the beginning of this year, Israel has repeatedly targeted the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the East on the pretext of "fighting Hamas." It not only accused UNRWA employees of "having an affair with Hamas" without evidence, but also blatantly attacked the agency. infrastructure.

Since December last year, Israel has repeatedly claimed that UNRWA staff were among those who launched a raid on Israel on October 7 last year, and accused the agency of having more than a thousand employees "collaborating with Hamas." Having an affair". The United States immediately stopped donating to the organization, and some Western countries also followed suit and suspended donations, dealing a huge blow to the organization.

Since then, Israel has been unable to prove that the agency's staff are members of Hamas, and some Western countries such as Germany and Australia have begun to resume funding.

On April 22, the United Nations independent review team issued an investigation report stating that Israel "has not yet provided supporting evidence for its accusations." The report notes that UNRWA shares its staff rosters annually with Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Israel never raised any concerns about the list after 2011 until it began suddenly accusing UNRWA in 2024.

Just earlier this month, the Israeli military airstrike a UNRWA facility, saying Hamas was using it as a command and control center.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on April 30 that since the outbreak of the new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a total of 182 UNRWA staff members have been killed by Israel, and more than 400 people have been in refuge facilities set up by the agency. He was attacked and killed by Israeli troops.

Just as the humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated sharply, and Gazans are suffering from hunger and disease, last weekend, a refugee camp in Rafah was hit by an Israeli air strike, killing nearly 50 people, triggering indignation in many countries.

On the afternoon of the 28th local time, the Israeli army once again launched an air raid on the al-Mawasi refugee camp in Rafah, killing more than 20 people. According to the latest data released by UNRWA on the 28th, approximately 1 million people have fled Rafah in the past three weeks.