Under Israeli law, UNRWA is about to become a terrorist organisation

Moncef Khane

Since it launched its genocidal war against the Palestinian people, Israel has crossed many red lines.

Neither the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the supreme judicial organ of the United Nations, to stop its “plausible” genocide in Gaza, nor the damning advisory opinion of the same court ordering it to end its illegal occupation of Palestine and apartheid policies against the Palestinians gave Israel pause.  The request of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Nethanyahu and his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant be issued did not have much effect on its conduct either. In fact, not even the gathering criticisms of some of its allies is making Israel rethink its murderous apartheid and genocidal policies.

And now, Israel is crossing yet another red line by defying the entire international community of nations – the United Nations itself. On July 22, the Israeli legislature, the Knesset, gave preliminary approval to a bill declaring the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) a “terrorist organisation”.

This latest move follows last January’s stunt – which worked, at least initially – where Israel accused 12 UNRWA workers of having participated in the October 7 attack by Hamas and other Palestinian groups against it and alleged widespread collusion between the UN agency and Hamas.

The UNRWA High Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres responded to the accusation by hastily and credulously firing all UN staff members named by Israel on the basis of allegation made without any evidence. The decision seemingly encouraged some Western donors to suspend their funding of the humanitarian agency employing some 30,000 staff and mandated by the General Assembly to provide essential services to millions of Palestinian refugees.

In April 2024, however, an independent review into the Israeli accusations against UNRWA commissioned by Guterres and led by the former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, concluded that Israel’s blanket accusations of collusion between Hamas and UNRWA were unproven. To date, no evidence implicating the 12 accused UNRWA staff has been provided.

Consequently donor countries including Germany, Italy, Australia and Canada gradually began to resume their much needed funding of the agency against the backdrop of growing and dire humanitarian needs in Gaza. On July 19, announcing a resumption of its funding, the UK’s new foreign secretary, David Lammy, declared: “Humanitarian aid is a moral necessity in the face of such a catastrophe […] UNRWA is absolutely central to these efforts. No other agency can deliver aid at the scale needed.” But even such statements from staunch allies did not persuade Israel to cease its targeting of the UN agency.

Whether it becomes law or not, the Israeli Knesset’s move to designate UNRWA as a terror organisation is an unprecedented attack on the UN itself, as the refugee agency was established in 1949 by the General Assembly. Should it become Israeli law, the terrorist designation would give a domestic legal cover (albeit in violation of international law) for the Israeli regime to attack UNRWA’s staff and infrastructure, as it has already done by murdering close to 200 personnel, but this time without having to seek to justify itself or claim the slaughter of UNRWA’s staffers were “tragic mistakes” whenever it faces criticisms from its allies.

If it officially declares UNRWA a “terrorist organisation” under its domestic law, for Israel, eliminating the 30,000 staff of UNRWA including, presumably, its head Philippe Lazzarini, would become not only “a right, but indeed a duty”, to paraphrase US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who repeated ad nauseam since October 7 what the ICJ deems illegal, namely the use of force to defend an illegal occupation. It is against this prospect that the UN ought to react, forcefully, to this latest Israeli provocation before the wanton slaughtering en masse of UNRWA staff starts.

In April, Lazzarini told the UN Security Council: “Today, an insidious campaign to end UNRWA’s operations is under way, with serious implications for international peace and security.” This campaign is advancing, and considering its chilling goals, Guterres ought to react strongly and unashamedly. Once attacks against UN staff and facilities start under the heralded Israeli legislation, it would be too late to stop the killings. He already knows, as he himself stated, that many UNRWA humanitarian workers are already illegally detained by Israel’s forces and reportedly being mistreated and even tortured. Once enacted, the prospective law will open the floodgate of repression and murder of UN staff en masse.

The law would also put Israel’s allies in a bind. Should they choose to continue funding UNRWA, which they deem a humanitarian imperative, they would be aiding and abetting a “terrorist organisation” under Israeli legislation. How would Lammy and other governments supporting Israel walk that tightrope, and how would Tel Aviv react, remains to be seen.

Never before has a member state of the United Nations classified by law a UN entity a terrorist organisation. Hence, an Israeli law declaring UNRWA a “terrorist organisation” would put the UN in uncharted territory. By so doing, Israel would in effect place Guterres, whose resignation it has repeatedly demanded, at the helm of a “terrorist organisation”.

Should Israel cross that line, the Secretary-General, the General Assembly and the Security Council will have to reach the inescapable conclusion that Israel’s continuing membership in the UN would not only be inconsistent with it charter, but be in frontal conflict and contradiction with it.

Thus, if this law is enacted, serious consideration ought to be given to taking measures against the rogue Israeli regime in accordance with Article 6 of the UN Charter which provides that “a Member of the United Nations which has persistently violated the Principles contained in the present Charter may be expelled from the Organization by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council”.

Secretary-General Guterres should take the lead to convince the Security Council and the General Assembly that having a member state declare him and his staff terrorists would be simply outrageous and unacceptable. In practical terms, he would need to demonstrate leadership by convincing the President of the United States to stop shielding Israel in the Security Council and exact consequences for Israel’s latest affront on the entire international community.