Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, on Sunday said he backed a letter sent by members of parliaments from 14 European countries, including France, Spain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, urging UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to remove UNRWA as an official UN body.
“Following the long-awaited release of the Israeli hostages held by the terrorist organization Hamas, the press alerted the international community to the fact that these hostages were being held captive on the premises of UNRWA, an agency for which you are responsible,” the lawmakers wrote to Guterres in the letter which was sent late last week.
“As UNRWA is also financed by the European budget, we, Members of the European Parliament, representing various European countries and political parties, call on you to put an end to the operations of UNRWA, which contravene the neutrality of the United Nations and do great harm to your essential work and to the image of the organization you represent,” they added.
The European lawmakers pointed out that “UNRWA has contravened all its missions and has helped a terrorist organization to hide hostages, which is politically, morally and legally highly reprehensible.”
“Of course, we understand that refugee management is an important part of the UN's mission, but we believe that it can be managed by UNHCR,” they added.
“The universality of the values espoused by the UN requires intransigence towards organizations that contravene these values. We count on you to remove UNRWA from the United Nations agencies so that the values we collectively defend are not tarnished by the actions of a few,” wrote the lawmakers.
Danon, who shared the letter on social media site X, wrote, “I support the parliament members in their demand from the UN Secretary-General and their support for what we have long proven - Hamas has taken control of UNRWA.”
“Supporting UNRWA is supporting Hamas. The Secretary-General's and UNRWA Commissioner-General Lazzarini's turning a blind eye is not the solution,” added Danon.
Israeli legislation banning UNRWA’s activities went into effect last week, after being passed by the Knesset in October.
UNRWA has long been criticized for its cooperation with Hamas and that criticism has increased since Israel revealed a year ago that UNRWA staff participated in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.
It then presented a dossier showing that the UNRWA workers who participated in the Hamas massacre kidnapped a woman, handed out ammunition and actively took part in the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri, where 97 people were murdered.
Following the Israeli revelations, Guterres announced the creation of a review group, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, to look into the Israeli allegations.
The group, which released its report last April, said it found neutrality-related issues" in UNRWA but also claimed that Israel had yet to provide evidence for allegations that a significant number of its staff were members of terrorist organizations.