Tobin: UNRWA Unleashes More Slanders of Israel

Jonathan S. Tobin
Commentary/Contentions
17 June '11

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/06/17/unrwa-unleashes-more-slanders-of-israel/

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is a UN body solely devoted to the political cause of the Palestinians–though not necessarily their best interests. For more than 60 years, UNRWA has worked tirelessly to keep the refugees and their descendants from Israel’s War of Independence stuck in camps rather than integrate them into new homes and lives elsewhere. That mission (which sets it apart from the UN’s other refugee aid organization, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that actually works to help those in its care) has made it a powerful force for keeping Arab-Israeli strife red hot.

UNRWA’s latest contribution to fueling the conflict are its efforts to blame Israel for a shortage of schools in Gaza. According to a report obtained by the Jerusalem Post yesterday, Israel has offered UNRWA help on building schools, but the refugee agency has never responded and has instead sought to blame all of the difficulties of the Gaza education system on Israel’s partial blockade of the Hamas-run strip of territory.

UNRWA has also just released a report blaming unemployment in Gaza on Israel though, as the Post points out, those refugees under the jurisdiction of the agency suffer far higher rates of joblessness than non-refugees who appear to be benefitting from an economic surge in the area due to Israel’s loosening of restrictions.

The problem with both of these UNRWA attacks on Israel is the real source of Gaza’s problems is an entity the UN group cannot or will not attack: Hamas. While conditions in Gaza have always been difficult, it was only after the Islamist terrorist group seized power there in a bloody 2006 coup that the civilized world sought to quarantine an area that had become the equivalent of Taliban-run Afghanistan prior to 9/11. But given the fact UNRWA has itself been infiltrated by Hamas, expecting it to take on the bloody tyrants of Gaza is unrealistic.

If UNRWA were sincerely interested in helping Palestinian refugees instead of subsidizing the effort to keep them homeless, it would have helped them build new lives rather than burnish their desire to eradicate Israel.

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