The Truth about UNRWA
What's most disturbing is that the evidence has always been there for anyone to see.
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Back in August 2018, the Trump administration announced an end of all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). At that time, the United States’ total annual contribution was over $360 million.
This did not mean the United States would stop helping. As The Heritage Foundation explained at the time: “The U.S. would shift some of the agency funding to the government of Jordan and to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to address the refugees and humanitarian consequences of the Syrian conflict and explore alternative ways to assist Palestinians outside of the UNRWA.”
The Heritage Foundation goes on to make the case for the defunding:
Despite receiving ongoing assistance from the UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee problem has only grown larger. The relief agency was set up to address a temporary crisis involving over 600,000 refugees defined as “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.”
Many of these original refugees are deceased, but the refugee population has expanded to 5.3 million individuals because the UNRWA redefined and expanded its definition of “refugee.”
If you take away all the conflated numbers, the number of actual refugees from that conflict is estimated to be in the low tens of thousands.
Today, the agency has made refugee status available to the “descendants of Palestine refugee males, including legally adopted children.” It classifies a Palestinian as a refugee even if he or she lives in the West Bank or in Gaza (territory governed by Palestinians) or earns citizenship in another country.
This is not consistent with the 1951 Convention or the policy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Aviva Klompas correctly points out: “Inheriting refugee status is unique among the dozens of global refugee crises of the past century. In every other case—Vietnam, Syria, Venezuela—a separate UN agency called the High Commissioner for Refugees has sought to repatriate refugees. The goal was to create the conditions for families to reestablish themselves and give their children and grandchildren the opportunity for stability and prosperity.”
But that has never been the goal of UNRWA. If it succeeded in reducing the refugee problem, it would no longer receive funding and Hamas would no longer have the money to fight its ‘jihad’ war.
In 2018, the connection UNRWA had with terrorism was not a secret:
The agency has and likely continues to employ individuals affiliated with Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist extremist group in control of Gaza designated as a terrorist organization.
There have been frequent claims (backed by evidence) that Palestinian schools administered by the UNRWA, have used textbooks and allowed the presence of materials that delegitimize Israel, denigrate Jews, and venerate martyrdom.
The UNRWA encourages the Palestinian fixation on a “right to return” to Israel, which impedes negotiations for a permanent peace agreement.
Hamas has used the agency’s facilities and schools to store weapons and divert assistance to its purposes.
It was clear that, “Continuing the status quo will only ensure that the UNRWA and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continue their current dissatisfactory trajectories”.
If only our politicians and its propaganda arm, the mainstream media, had stood up for defunding UNRWA then, perhaps we wouldn’t be where we are now. Perhaps it would have led to an investigation into UNRWA and either its reform or dismantling. Such a transition would not be easy after so many years of dependency. And there is no question that Gazans would need aid during such a transition. But that aid should lead towards self-sufficiency, rather than perpetual helplessness.
But no, such a transition was not to be. President Trump was so hated that no matter what he did, even if it made sense, had to be rejected.
What did the Biden administration do the minute Biden became president? Forbes:
In April 2021, President Joe Biden agreed with the PLO, not Trump, and restarted aid to the Palestinians. Weeks later, rockets were again landing on Israelis and the region was at war.
That aid included:
a $115 million Palestinian-aid package, including $40 million from 2016 to 2017 and $75 million for 2020 to make up for the aid they lost from Trump.
as well as $110 million in new economic assistance including $5.5 million in immediate relief to Gaza.
This despite the PLO’s policy of paying pensions to families of dead terrorists – that they call “martyrs,” which The Wall Street Journal called, “pay for slay.”
In July 2022, UNRWA proudly announced that in the year since Biden took office, the US had contributed $618 million. That’s twice the US annual contribution ended by Trump during his presidency.
No one seemed to want to learn from history. Easy to fool the public since very few studied actual history anyway.
The current war was ignited by the heinous Oct 7th attacks against Israeli citizens, but it didn’t start there. For every action there is a reaction, and Oct 7th was not an isolated incident. Palestinians celebrated the attacks in the streets just as they had celebrated the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center
Gazans currently support Hamas. Polls show that since Oct 7th support has risen to 90%. One could try to blame that support on Israel fighting back. But it has always been there.
In 2012 Hamas supporters gathered in Gaza to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
"We are not giving up any inch of Palestine. It will remain Islamic and Arab for us and nobody else. Jihad and armed resistance is the only way," Khaled Mashaal told the roaring crowd, referring to holy war. "We cannot recognize Israel's legitimacy."
How does Israel negotiate with a “government” that refuses to even acknowledge it exists and vows its total annihilation?
And yet, here we are with statements being made on social media and by professors in our most prestigious academic institutions, claiming that “jihad” is some fuzzy term calling for peace and justice.
It might mean that on a shady American college campus. It doesn’t mean that in any Muslim country, let alone in Gaza.
For years, we have been fed a false history of the very real violence perpetrated against Israel; events that led us to where we are today. If people have been fed lies, they will not believe the truth when it is presented to them. Especially if the lies feed into an already fermenting hatred for Jews. Now, that hatred is exploding to the surface.
This is why in Hard Facts: From the River to the Sea, I go back in history, listing every terrorist attack by Yasar Arafat and Fatah/PLO since the 1950s until 2004. The list is long. But if you haven’t yet, please read these hard, cold facts. Even if you disagree with me. Just read the facts.
It drives home the reality of what Israelis have faced year after year after year. For some people, anger will rise, and they will stop reading. The truth goes against what they want to believe.
Before Hamas took over in 2007, Israelis will tell you (and that’s not just Jews but Christians and Muslims) that they traveled freely back and forth to Gaza. The coast and beaches were nice places to hang out. Some 120,000 Gazans worked inside Israel.
But then, due to a rise in terrorism borders were closed and fear descended. Nearly all Gazans lost their permits to work inside Israel. While Hamas and UNRWA collected billions of dollars, the economy all but collapsed.
Human rights groups blame Israel for “collective punishment” of Palestinians by tightening border controls, but what would you expect of your government in a similar situation?
Oh wait, citizens in the United States, Europe and the UK are already angry at their open borders. And they don’t even have rockets pummeling their towns—not yet anyway.
Read that history of terrorist attacks on Israelis again. How would you feel if that started happening in your country, to members of your own family. Or how about it had already been going on for years. And years. And years.
If blame is to be put on Israel surely, it’s only fair that Arab nations share in that blame. Yet, there are no protests against Egypt, Syria, Lebanon or Jordan. Their borders are closed to Palestinian refugees and citizenship is refused to those living within their borders. These include a half-million each in Syria and Lebanon, where they are not allowed to work most jobs and can't receive any public assistance.
So, let’s bring this sorry state of affairs up to the present. Here are some of the current ways UNRWA aids terrorism:
UNRWA operates hundreds of schools in Gaza and around the Arab world with curricula and textbooks promoting terrorism and antisemitism. Here’s a couple of examples from a 2023 Impact-se Report:
a. UNRWA-created Arabic reading comprehension exercise for 9th graders, which celebrated a Palestinian firebombing attack on a Jewish bus as a ‘barbecue party.’
b. Fifth graders taught to glorify Dalal Mughrabi as a role model for children, a terrorist who carried out the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre in which 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, were murdered on a civilian bus.”
A number of UNRWA employees participated in Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack. These included a social worker who carried a murdered Israeli's body into his car and drove the dead man into Gaza and an UNRWA teacher who said he had captured an Israeli woman on October 7th as a "sabaya," a jihadi term for sex slave.
Evidence of Hamas's network of terror tunnels includes a sophisticated underground data center used for intelligence, complete with living quarters, built beneath UNRWA's Gaza headquarters and a nearby UNRWA school.
And now at last, after months of hateful and derisive comments on social media (especially X), attacking anyone who dared say rape and other acts of sexual violence were carried out against Israeli women on Oct 7th, the UN is finally acknowledging proof that such crimes occurred, and that the violence may be ongoing against women still in captivity.
What I find most disturbing is that the evidence has always been there for anyone to see, just as I recount here. And yet, still, it is all Israel’s fault.
Why are there not protests all over the world against Hamas leaders who amassed billions by using and abusing Gazans, were seen celebrating in Qatar as they watched the Oct 7th massacre unfold and are now hiding abroad like the cowards they are.
Why are there not protests against neighboring Arab nations to do more to take in those who are now, legitimately, refugees. And yes, protest against Netanyahu’s government and the United States government for funding Hamas. Protest for peace and not war. All of that makes sense.
But don’t deny Israel the justice it deserves, a justice that anyone, if they are honest, would demand of their own government if they had faced years of attacks, culminating in the massacre of Oct 7th and now, surely, the torture and death of the remaining hostages.
A note to my readers and listeners:
I realize this is a touchy topic—which is why a lot of people stay away from it, they don’t want to lose subscribers. But that’s not me. I value diverse opinions and healthy debate. It makes life more interesting. Plus, there’s always something to be learned from those we disagree with. However, if what I’ve written makes you so angry that you simply must resort to vicious, derogatory remarks, not only directed at me, but at other readers, then I suggest you go elsewhere. There are plenty of other Substacks, no doubt, that will welcome you.
Thank you and God Bless!
One more "comm-mint!"--a little history for those fist bumperz wantin' to "restore Palestine" to it's historical "rightful owners" (not sure whom ta credit but sum'buddy did his/her homework!)
1. Before Israel, there was a British mandate, not a Palestinian state.
2. Before the British Mandate, there was the Ottoman Empire, not a Palestinian state.
3. Before the Ottoman Empire, there was the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, not a Palestinian state.
4. Before the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, there was the Ayubid Arab-Kurdish Empire, not a Palestinian state.
5. Before the Ayubid Empire, there was the Frankish and Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, not a Palestinian state.
6. Before the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there was the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, not a Palestinian state.
7. Before the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, there was the Byzantine Empire, not a Palestinian state.
8. Before the Byzantine Empire, there were the Sassanids, not a Palestinian state.
9. Before the Sassanid Empire, there was the Byzantine Empire, not a Palestinian state.
10. Before the Byzantine Empire, there was the Roman Empire, not a Palestinian state.
11. Before the Roman Empire, there was the Hasmonean state, not a Palestinian state.
12. Before the Hasmonean state, there was the Seleucid, not a Palestinian state.
13. Before the Seleucid empire, there was the empire of Alexander the Great, not a Palestinian state.
14. Before the empire of Alexander the Great, there was the Persian empire, not a Palestinian state.
15. Before the Persian Empire, there was the Babylonian Empire, not a Palestinian state.
16. Before the Babylonian Empire, there were the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, not a Palestinian state.
17. Before the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, there was the Kingdom of Israel, not a Palestinian state.
18. Before the kingdom of Israel, there was the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, not a Palestinian state.
19. Before the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, there was an agglomeration of independent Canaanite city-kingdoms, not a Palestinian state.
If anybuddy has a connection with the place, seems it ain't the fictional "State of Palestine"... jus' sayin'! (I know this might be an uncomfortable / unpopular concept here'bouts but "his-story" is often a bitter pill fer som'buddy ta swaller an' the pendulum swings both ways ...)
Congrats. Sounds like you have a good sense for the truths that are being deluged with lies.
You are in one of the smallest existing minorities.
Standing for Jews and Israel is very similar to standing against the worldwide depopulation agenda.
No other people or country is held to the standard they seek to impose on Israel.
The land does not belong to Israel or the Palestinians (muslims) but to God. It is the land of Immanuel. And He will measure it out to whomever He pleases for their use.
Seems that things are moving at an increasing velocity to His direct intervention.