MK Sharren Haskel, head of the Knesset Lobby for UNRWA Reform, is working to stop the organization's activities, or create a reform in UNRWA through the countries which fund it, Israel Hayom reported.
Hamas "has their hands on UNRWA administration workers," according to a Gaza resident, and Hamas manages UNRWA in Gaza. The terror group also ensures that its own operatives receive any aid first before it is distributed to the civilians of Gaza as intended.
On Tuesday, the lobby will meet in the Knesset, hosting experts on the "Palestinian" issue and UNRWA, as well as ambassadors of more than ten countries. At the meeting, Haskel's findings and those of other sources will be presented, with the goal of demanding that the countries end funding to UNRWA, or else to influence them to change the organization's educational activities, end the education to incitement in hundreds of UNRWA educational institutions, and end the recruitment of new workers in Gaza from among Hamas supporters.
Speaking to Israel Hayom, Haskel said, "In the past eight years, the Foreign and Defense ministries have refused to change their positions and attitude towards UNRWA, which basically provided a cover for Hamas' activities."
"I went out with delegations to warn members of parliaments and to try to stop the funds which are being transferred from various countries to this organization, and remove UNRWA's mask. Most members of parliament who I spoke with and briefed did not know that UNRWA is essentially run by Hamas and that it is one of the central problems in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
"The goal is to move UNRWA to be under the global organization and to cancel the special status Palestinian refugees have, but the path there is long. So, in the meantime, I am focused on the reform in UNRWA's educational system - to adopt the Emirates educational system, which has undergone a change and become more tolerant, unlike the existing system which educates children to be soldiers of hatred and antisemitism. The second stage is to change the Gazan staff, who are affiliated with Hamas, to an international staff."
Meanwhile, MK Avichay Buaron wrote to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, saying, "n accordance with official data from the Tax Authority, which was received in my office, just between 2015 and 2020, UNRWA transferred over 49 million liters of fuel to Gaza, receiving an excise exemption of over 143 million NIS."
Last month, the Swiss National Council voted on Tuesday to stop funding for The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) following several reports of the agency's support of the Hamas terror organization.
Stopping the funding should save the Swiss approximately 21 million dollars, and the agency will lose one of its top ten backers.
In March, a new report by UN Watch and the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found that teachers and schools at UNRWA, the UN agency that runs education and social services for Palestinian Arabs, regularly call to murder Jews, and create teaching materials that glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite antisemitism.
Created in 1949, UNRWA supplies aid to more than three million of the five million registered “Palestinian refugees” in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and territories assigned to the Palestinian Authority.
However, it is also notorious for its anti-Israel activities. During the 2014 counterterrorism Operation Protective Edge, Hamas rockets were discovered inside a school building run by UNRWA.
Likewise, a booby-trapped UNRWA clinic was detonated, killing three IDF soldiers. Aside from the massive amounts of explosives hidden in the walls of the clinic, it was revealed that it stood on top of dozens of terror tunnels, showing how UNRWA is closely embedded with Hamas.
In 2021, a UN Watch report revealed that more than 100 of UNRWA’s educators and staff have publicly promoted antisemitism and violence on social media, and that on numerous occasions the agency has failed to dismiss teachers who incited such hate.