Category: politics

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is a contaminated appendage of the UN system, which should have been removed decades ago. Yet it remains as a symbol of the UN’s poisonous bias against the Jewish State of Israel. UNRWA is devoted exclusively to Palestinians it registers as “refugees,” which is separate and distinct from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that handles all the rest of the world’s refugees. UNRWA was supposed to operate as a temporary organization to provide humanitarian relief and services for the original Palestinian refugee population of about 700, 000 Arabs following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. But it turned into a self-perpetuating bureaucracy, which, unlike UNHCR, defines “refugee” as including generation after generation ad infinitum of the millions of descendants of the original refugees. Moreover, unlike UNHCR, UNRWA continues the status of “refugee” for Palestinians even if they have become citizens elsewhere (e. g., Jordan). UN humanitarian organizations are supposed to operate neutrally, impartially, and independently of any undue outside influence. UNRWA has operated in the completely opposite manner. Nevertheless, the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion on October 22, 2025 concluding that international law requires Israel to fully cooperate with UNRWA in fulfilling its mission to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians. The ICJ dismissed the overwhelming evidence Israel presented proving its allegation that UNRWA cannot be trusted to perform its services neutrally, impartially, and independently of Hamas’ influence. The advisory opinion is a hopelessly one-sided political statement against Israel, not a carefully reasoned and impartial judicial decision. Fortunately, an advisory opinion is non-binding as a matter of law. UNRWA does not carefully vet its employees, resulting in the hiring of numerous members of Hamas and other terrorist organization members as well as individuals with close family ties to terrorists. One former Commissioner-General of UNRWA shamelessly declared: “Oh, I’m sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll, and I don’t see that as a crime. Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant, and we do not conduct political vetting to exclude individuals based on their affiliations.” Another former Commissioner-General remarked: “Our employees are part of the social fabric of Gaza and its ecosystem. And as part of that social fabric in Gaza, you also have Hamas.”.