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The Israeli parliament on Monday gave preliminary approval to a bill declaring a UN relief agency working for Palestinian refugees a terrorist organisation.
The bill, sponsored by Israeli politician Yulia Malinovsky, accused the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) of acting as a “fifth column within Israel”. The bill claimed many of UNRWA’s staff were members of terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, though no evidence was provided.
UNRWA, which offers essential services to millions of Palestinians, has faced increasing opposition from Israel, which has called for its dissolution.
This vote marks a significant escalation in Israel’s efforts to dismantle the agency, despite international pushback and some donor countries resuming funding, in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October surprise attack that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza. UNRWA suspended 12 workers accused of taking part in the attack.
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority condemned Monday’s vote, as did a number of countries including Jordan. Jordan’s foreign ministry on Monday said that the Israeli move was an “attempt to kill the agency, assassinate it politically and target its symbolism, which affirms the right of Palestinian refugees to return and compensation under the international law”.
UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma called the law “another attempt in a wider campaign to dismantle the agency”.
“Such steps are unheard of in the history of the United Nations,” she said.
When the bill was first proposed earlier in May the EU, the largest donor to UNRWA alongside its member states, highlighted the agency’s “crucial and irreplaceable” role in addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
“The European Union is deeply concerned about discussions in the Israeli Knesset on designating UNRWA as a terrorist organisation, and removing its staff’s immunities and privileges,” Josep Borrell, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, said in a statement at the time.
“The EU is a strong supporter to the agency, and remains, with its member states, its biggest donor. We are committed to continuing our support.”
Belgium, an EU member, also issued its own criticism of the bill. “Belgium condemns the Israeli parliament’s attempts to classify UNRWA as a terrorist organisation and to remove the immunity of its staff,” Belgium’s foreign minister Hajda Lahbib wrote on X.
And also speaking out over the matter in June, Saudi Arabia condemned the bill saying UNRWA employees “are doing their duty to alleviate the severity of the humanitarian catastrophe that the Palestinian people are going through”.
“The kingdom stresses that Israel, as an occupying state, must abide by international law and international humanitarian law and stop obstructing the work of international organisations,” the Saudi foreign ministry had said at the time.
Qatar’s foreign ministry had also said the attempt to brand UNRWA a terrorist organisation was “an extension of the systematic campaign aimed at dismantling the agency at a time when the need for its humanitarian services is dire due to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip”.
“By branding the UN agency created to aid Palestinian refugees as a terrorist entity, Israeli authorities would be perpetuating a narrative that vilifies and marginalises an entire population and those who provide them with assistance,” Christopher Lockyear, secretary general of MSF International said.
UNRWA’s 30,000 staff provide education, primary health care and other development activities to about six million Palestinian refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Sixteen countries halted funding for UNRWA, amounting to about $450m, following Israeli allegations that 12 of the agency’s 13,000 workers in Gaza participated in the 7 October attack on southern Israel.
UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said at that time he was “shocked” by the decisions taken by Western nations to pull aid funding as “famine looms” for the population of Gaza amid the continuing Israel-Hamas war.
