The welcome news that UNWRA has finally been unmasked as not only a supporter of Hamas terrorism, but as actually employing people who are themselves members of the Hamas organization, has been long in coming. For years, UNWRA educational materials — some of it created by the Palestinian Authority, which is also a terrorist organization, although as yet unmasked— have demonized Jews, and erased Israel from the map. The “teachers” in UNWRA schools, far from teaching their students, have indoctrinated them in the kind of hatred that led to the sheer barbarism of October 7.
This has led me to reopen a novel I wrote in 2004 called “The Covenant” which was about — believe it or not — Hamas kidnapping of an Israeli doctor and his small daughter. Being held captive in the house of a Hamas family, he has a number of interchanges with one of the younger children, who brings him food. In the following passage, the doctor compares the younger child to his older brother, who is already a hardened, hate-filled terrorist.
“Closing his eyes, he tried to imagine what had turned a ten-year old’s childish openness into a sixteen year-old’s fossilized hardness. What had intervened to destroy a child’s natural sympathy towards his fellow man, his instincts toward generosity and goodness? What terrible machine had succeeded in deadening the expression of those eyes, draining them of inquiry, replacing them with the unseeing, blinded eyes of the fanatic?… A child did not become a hate-filled fanatic, a terrorist, without entire elaborate structures of educational institutions, training camps, expensive weapons, and the backing of legitimate national support. It was a gargantuan beast, and it had spread its tentacles throughout the world. Like the ancient Canaanite cult of Molech, which sacrificed children to a Satanic god in beastly rituals, this new beast demanded the lives of its children, forcing them to kill and convincing them it was a good thing to die…
“He thought of his own tiny country, his own small and scattered people. A land so small no map could fit its name inside its land mass. A people so small they represented one-tenth of one percent of the world’s population, a few million. A tiny creature, the Jewish people in the land of Israel. And right now, it was facing the beast alone.” (The Covenant, Naomi Ragen, page 263).
Meticulously documented intelligence released by the IDF, proves conclusively that twelve employees of UNWRA participated in the October 7 massacre: a school counselor from Khan Yunis abducted a woman from Israel in collaboration with his son; a social worker from Nuseirat distributed ammunition and coordinated vehicles during the attack, as well assisted in bringing the dead body of an Israeli soldier to Gaza; a school counselor participated in a massacre that left 97 dead.
Apparently, Israeli intelligence traced the movement of six of the employees inside Israel through their cell phones. Others, according to Israel, had phone calls intercepted in which they discussed their participation in the attacks, while three others received text messages ordering them to report to muster points, including one who was ordered to bring rocket propelled grenades they had stored in their home (!)
Seven out of the twelve terrorists involved in the massacre were employed by UNWRA as… teachers.
While people like the new commissioner-general of UNWRA, Philippe Lazzarini, are trying the “few bad eggs” strategy, it is estimated that at least ten percent of the 12,000 UNWRA workers in Gaza are Hamas and Islamic Jihad members. In fact, if you’ve been following this diary, early on in the war I reported that in a conversation between the IDF and a Gazan complaining he could not evacuate because of Hamas roadblocks, the IDF suggested he call on UNWRA for help. The Gazan’s reply: “They are all Hamas.”
The Gazans should know.
So the cynically crafted script of the hand-wringers who are talking about how defunding UNWRA by the US, EU, Japan, Italy and a host of other contributors “would be immensely irresponsible [just because] of allegations of criminal acts against some individuals, especially at a time of war…”
No, no sorry. Since the “time of war, displacement, and upheaval” is the work of UNWRA teachers, schools counselors, and social workers, among thousands of others on the UNWRA payroll they can’t now be allowed to “help” the Gazans anymore to escape the horror they helped to create. That would be ludicrous.
There is speculation that the timing of the release of these facts by the Americans, who have been in possession of this Israeli intelligence for some time, might be the result of the upcoming January 30 hearing by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in which, according to Israel Today, “even more embarrassing information about UNWRA will be exposed.”
UNWRA has been in the sights of Israelis, as well as certain intelligent American politicians, who have argued that the Agency has long ceased to serve refugees. In fact, UNWRA – which the UN funds separately in addition to the UNHCR which serves the rest of the world – has worked tirelessly to perpetuate refugee status among the descendants of Palestinians, who should by now be settled and prosperous, considering the billions and billions of dollars that have flowed unceasingly through UNWRA. Instead, it has supported a culture of dependence, fueling an endless grudge and desire for revenge, which is just dandy for terrorist groups to cash in on.
UNWRA is not coming back to Gaza, Israeli officials say. It should be erased from the world. If someone actually wants to help the Gazans, don’t allow the UN to have any hand in it ever again.
I can’t end this without pointing out the following: The culture of UNWRA that allowed its employees to rape, murder and kidnap Israelis, did not happen overnight. Pierre Krahenbuhl was appointed commissioner-general of UNRWA in 2014. He resigned from that position in 2019 amid an internal probe, which described alleged “mismanagement and ethical abuses at the organization.”
In case his fate is keeping you up nights, not to worry! Pierre has landed on his feet. On December 22, 2023, the Assembly of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) appointed Pierre Krähenbühl as the organization’s next director-general. With what we all now know about the International Committee of the Red Cross, I think it’s a perfect match.
Let’s work on defunding them next.
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