The Knesset approved, in a preliminary reading on Wednesday, a bill to ban the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the sovereign territory of Israel.
The proposal was supported by 33 Knesset members, with 10 opponents, and will be forwarded to the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee for discussion.
The bill proposes to prohibit the organization from operating in Israel's sovereign territory and to instruct the Israel Police Force to enforce this prohibition
The bill's explanation states that "UNRWA's role is only to tend to the Palestinian refugees and hence there is no place for them to be providing services in the territory of the State of Israel, where there are no Palestinian refugees, rather residents of the state who receive services from its various institutions."
The bill also states that "UNRWA is used as a stage for incitement and education of hatred toward Israel and harms its Jewish inhabitants. Schools that it runs in Jerusalem teach antisemitic content and textbooks praise terrorists who murdered children and women. UNRWA's institutions are 'fertile ground' for actions and incitement against the State of Israel."
It concludes: "Reports by the UN and UNRWA itself found that UNRWA is a body which is corrupt, inefficient, and interspersed with managerial irregularities which has completely failed at providing services to Arab residents. The few services provided by UNRWA in Israeli territory are at a low level, and even the few residents who use them complain about it."