Israel’s parliament on Monday approved two bills that will ban the United Nations refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) from operating in Israeli territory.
The law passed by a vote of 92-10, which was initiated by members of the ruling Likud party, Boaz Bismuth, Eli Dallall, Hanoch Milwidsky, Tally Gotliv and Nissim Varuti, as well as Shas lawmaker Benyahu Bezalel and New Hope’s Sharren Haskel.
According to the law, Israeli government will no longer be able to coordinate with the UNRWA, thus making it impossible for the UNRWA to operate in Gaza or the West Bank since the agency would no longer be able to receive entrance permits to those areas.
UNRWA and Oct. 7
The UNRWA was established in 1949, by the UN General Assembly after Israel’s War of Independence. The UN body aimed to assist Palestinian refugees displaced following the Arab armies’ defeat and provide them with welfare, education, and health services.
The agency has since been at the center of controversy surrounding alleged funneling of funds and support for the terror group Hamas in Gaza.
Footage from October 7 showed a UNRWA employee dragging the body of Jonathan Samerano, who was killed at the Nova music festival. The UN launched its own probe into the alleged UNRWA personnel who took part in the onslaught that killed 1,200 people and another 251 hostages taken into Gaza, concluding that 9 staff members “may have been involved” in the attack, and were subsequently fired.
What do the bills say?
By advancing the second and third readings, Israel aims to create a UNRWA law that will halt the activity of the UN agency in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. The second bill is set to cease the UNRWA from tax exemptions and diplomatic state and immunity, striking a blow to the agency with employees suspected of participating in the October 7, 2023, massacre.
Furthermore, the second bill annuls the treaty between Israel and the UNRWA, signed after the Six-Day War in 1967, which expires seven days after the final vote in the Israeli parliament. Israel will continue its criminal proceedings into UNRWA employees involved in the massacre.
Israeli lawmaker Yuli Edelstein has called the bills “historic.” Edelstein has said that the first bill relates to East Jerusalem, and the second one bans UNRWA from working in Israeli territory and Israel from engaging with the agency.
Cecilia Lazzaro Blasbalg is the editor-in-chief of the Mideast Journal with a decade of news editing and reporting at Haaretz and Times of Israel. She is a PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University.