The Palestine Chronicle / October 8, 2024
As the Israeli Knesset endorses two bills to halt UNRWA operations, the organization chief describes the genocide on the Strip as “a free fall descent into barbarism”.
Marking the first anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, the Israeli Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee endorsed on Monday two bills, pending final approval to be passed as a law, to halt the operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Israel, Israeli media reported.
The Israeli newspaper the Jerusalem Post indicated that the first bill stipulates that UNRWA cannot “operate any institution, provide any service, or conduct any activity, whether directly or indirectly” in Israel.
The second instructs to instantly end the agreement between Tel Aviv and the international organization, which was signed following the 1967 war.
The second bill also reportedly annuls the immunity and special rights previously granted to UNRWA staff.
According to the Jerusalem Post, both bills are expected to return to the Israeli Knesset for final approval on October 28 when the winter session kicks off.
Guterres pleas to retreat bills
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged in a letter Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to impede the proposed bills while warning that if they do go into effect, they will halt UNRWA’s much-needed services and aid to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza.
Guterres stressed in his letter that the international organization operates nearly 400 schools and 65 medical centers in the West Bank and Gaza, providing services to over 350,000 children and supporting much of Gaza’s population, MEMO said.
The Secretary-General voiced his deep concern over any legislation that halts relations between a UN member state and a UN agency, labelling it as a “very worrisome development”, stressing that if the bills are to pass, he will take on the matter with the UN General Assembly.
Palestinian condemnation
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its part, slammed in a statement on Monday the Knesset’s approval of the two legislations targeting UNRWA’s operations.
The ministry described the Israeli move as “a blatant attack on the United Nations and its agencies”, and “an extension of Israel’s ongoing violations and attacks on UNRWA, its institutions, staff and schools,” MEMO said.
The statement added that the Israeli legislation is part of “Israel’s broader war against the Palestinian people and their rights, particularly the right of return as outlined in UN Resolution 194.”
‘Free fall descent into barbarism’
The approval of the bills coincided with the one-year anniversary of the start of Israel’s genocide on the Gaza Strip, which the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini highlighted in a long post on his account on X.
Lazzarini wrote that the twelve-month “brutal war” has “transformed the Gaza Strip into an unrecognizable sea of rubble, and a graveyard for tens of thousands of people, among them far too many children,” labelling it as “a free fall descent into barbarism.”
“One year has passed and not a day goes by without families in Gaza being subjected to unspeakable suffering, as forced displacement, disease, hunger, and death have become the daily norm for 2 million people trapped in a bombed- out and besieged enclave,” he said.
He added that Palestinians in Gaza continue to “bear the brunt of the war,” stressing that UNRWA has endured the highest death toll in the UN history with 220 of its staff killed during this war.
Lazzirini accentuated in his X post the devastating situation of children in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“Children have been the first and most to suffer. Beyond the killing and injury, every child in Gaza is traumatized many with life-long invisible scars,” he wrote.
According to the Commissioner-General, more than 650,000 children are out of school for the second consecutive year.
“Instead of being in classrooms, they are sifting through the rubble in despair and fear,” he said.
Lazzirini labelled the massive destruction of infrastructure in the Strip as catastrophic, stressing that “more than two-thirds of UNRWA buildings have been hit and deemed unusable, the vast majority while sheltering displaced people under the UN flag.”
As for the ongoing military operations in the West Bank, Lazzirini said that it brought “destruction, fear and anxiety” on Palestinians, emphasizing that “poverty is deepening as people lose income and as movement restrictions are reinforced.”
On Lebanon’s war, the UNRWA chief said that it is “wreaking havoc on civilians, many forced to relive traumas of the past.”
He concluded his post by urging for courage to broker a ceasefire deal to relieve the people in Gaza, Lebanon, Israel, and the entire region and allow for the release of captives and unrestricted flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
“There are no winners in wars. The only way out is through a diplomatic and peaceful solution. It’s time to heal the wounds. It’s time to choose peace!” he ended.
