ISRAEL’S plan to ban a key Palestinian aid organisation amounts to an attack on the United Nations and “the international order itself”, according to a surgeon who worked in the region.
The decision by the Israeli parliament to ban UNRWA, the Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, has been met with widespread condemnation – with critics saying it will paralyse efforts to get aid to Palestine.
Former MP Philippa Whitford, who worked in Palestine in the early 1990s, told The National the Knesset’s move to ban UNRWA – expected to come into force in the next three months – would be catastrophic for Palestinians.
And, calling the decision an “overt and direct attack on the UN itself”, Dr Whitford said that “allowing Israel to tear the fabric of the multilateral system” risked undermining the rule of international law.
She said: “This whole situation actually destroys international law itself. How can the West criticise Russia or China if it invades Taiwan or North Korea or anybody else when they are defending Israel?”
Dr Whitford said the move, which has been criticised by Israel’s allies including the US and the UK, fitted with a wider distrust of the UN from the Israeli establishment, which considers it to be biased and antisemitic.
She said: “Israel has for a long time been anti-UN and particularly anti-UNRWA because they want to undermine the rights of Palestinians as refugees.
“They don’t accept that Palestinians displaced out of what became Israel are refugees and they want their rights as refugees to be removed.
“They see that getting rid of UNRWA removes that definition of Palestinians as refugees that have any rights under international law.”
UNRWA was set up in the wake of the Nakba, which saw around 750,000 Palestinians expelled from their homes in what was British Mandatory Palestine when the state of Israel was founded.
It provides a “backbone” of support for Palestinians, including education and healthcare. It helps get medicine, vaccinations and other supplies into Gaza and the West Bank and distributes them within the territories.
Crucially, according to 52 charities including Medical Aid for Palestinians and Oxfam, there is “no viable alternative to UNRWA”, adding that the Israeli ban will hamper “the ability of other UN and humanitarian agencies to operate”.
Dr Whitford, who worked in the Al-Ahli between 1991 and 1992, said that it was the “nature of Gaza” to work “closely” with UNRWA if you were working in healthcare at the time.
She added: “They are the backbone of delivering what humanitarian aid and medical supplies are getting into the strip or being distributed within the strip.
“So right now, trying to respond to the catastrophe that is happening in the Gaza Strip without UNRWA is just simply not possible.”
Israel’s ban, passed by the Knesset on Monday, will see contact between their officials and UNRWA employees banned.
Israel previously claimed that 19 UNRWA workers were involved in the Hamas attacks of October 7. The UN investigated and fired nine of those accused but Israel had failed to provide enough evidence for other accusations.
While the ban has sparked strong words from Israel’s allies, with Foreign Office minister Anneliese Dodds (above) warning there would be “very severe consequences” if UNRWA's work was disturbed, no action has yet been taken.
Dr Whitford said she doubted the move would cross a red line for Israel’s backers.
“There should really be sanctions on Israel. It is literally becoming a rogue state. There should be debate about excluding it from the UN if it doesn’t accept the UN. But the problem is we have seen red line after red line crossed,” she said.
“Much as I’d like to think that this would be a game-changer, I don’t hold out great hope.”
