The appointment of Swiss diplomat Phillpe Lazzarini as the new head of UNRWA is a window of opportunity for UNRWA donor nations, which oversee UNRWA policy, to demand a reform of UNRWA. This is especially true regarding the UNRWA schools, which for the past 20 years have used the Palestinian Authority curriculum to indoctrinate Palestinian Arab children to conquer all of Palestine by force of arms, a goal hardly appropriate to a UN agency.

Here are 15 policy challenges which the new UNRWA commissioner will now have to grapple with.

  1. UNRWA textbooks which do not match UN values of peaceful reconciliation.UNRWA has introduced a new schoolbook which features Dalal el Mugrabi, whose terror squad commandeered a bus and murdered 38 passengers, including 13 children, as a role model for UNRWA pupils. In the new UNRWA text, Dalal is portrayed in full terror garb, followed by a lesson plan which presents her life story for adulation and emulation. In another new text, UNRWA pupils are taught to chant and sing a poem which encourages children to “exterminate the usurpers” after the Arabs return to control of Palestine. The new UNRWA commissioner could confiscate such textbooks.
  1. UNRWA contracts for exclusive use of Palestinian Authority schoolbooks in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and Gaza. UNRWA, like all UN agencies, is supposed to run schools based on the UN slogan “Peace Begins Here”. PA education, however, runs schools based on the ideology of the Palestine Liberation Organization: Conquest of Palestine by force of arms. The new UNRWA commissioner can cancel the UNRWA-PA contract.
  1. UNRWA schools are adorned with posters and murals of “martyrs”who died while murdering Jews. The new UNRWA commissioner can order the removal of all violent images in UNRWA facilities.
  1. El Kutla youth clubs in UNRWA schools inspire pupils with the mantra of the armed struggle from a young age. The new UNRWA commissioner can order El Kutla clubs to cease and desist from violent incitement.
  1. Military parades frequent UNRWA premises. The new UNRWA commissioner can order an end to military parades in any UNRWA facility.
  1. Hamas terror groups present candidates to lead teachers and workers unions of UNRWA. The new UNRWA commissioner can demand that any UNRWA employee who runs on a “Hamas ticket” be barred from the payroll. Even the UN defines Hamas as a terrorist organization.
  1. Nakba events are scheduled again for this May 15, the day when the PLO mourns the defeat of the Arab armies which invaded Israel in 1948.These rallies call for violence. The new UNRWA commissioner can issue a directive to refrain from any call to violence at the Nakba ceremonies in UNRWA facilities.
  1. Popular Gazan singer Mohammad Assaf, claiming to be “UNRWA Youth Ambassador”, whips up crowds to violence. The new UNRWA Commissioner can issue a policy statement that UNRWA dissociates itself from Assaf and his message.
  1. Memorial Events for Arabs killed in the act of murder occurin UNRWA schools. The new UNRWA commissioner can cancel such ceremonies.
  1. Fiscal Transparency. With a flow of $1.2 billion in donations from 67 nations and 32 NGOs, much of which arrives in cash, the new UNRWA commissioner must ensure that all funds and equipment are used for humanitarian needs, and not stolen, transferred to the hands of terror groups or sold on the open market. The time has come for a new UNRWA commissioner to put an end to cash payments, which makes donor transparency nearly impossible.
  1. Export of UNRWA school texts. Using the diplomatic pouch of donor nations, UNRWA exports schoolbooks which promote the right of return and the replacement of Israel with “Palestine.” The New UNRWA commissioner can put an end to this.
  1. Obfuscation of the UNRWA financial situation.Following the US funding cutback of $365 million in August 2018, UNRWA announced that all US funding had been replaced by increase of funds from Germany, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Norway. Ever since the US cutback, however, UNRWA issues statements which attribute the UNRWA financial difficulties to the US cutback. At no time has UNRWA ever specified how it spends its budget. The new UNRWA commissioner could immediately publicize an accounting of expenditures.
  1. Non-recognition of Israel on the map. UNRWA distributes world and regional maps which obliterate Israel and replace all Israeli locations with Arab names. Should Israel, a UN member in good standing, not appear on a map issued by a UN agency? The new UNRWA commissioner can now make it his business to ensure that all maps show Israel.
  1. Fake News: Jews cause COVID-19. For the past few months, official PA sources have swamped the public domain with statements that Israel spreads COVID-19. The new UNRWA commissioner can ensure that the PA personnel who dominate the UNRWA payroll never utter such a statement.
  1. Arms training summer camps. For the past twenty years, thousands of UNRWA students, age 9-16, have participated in summer camps which feature arms training with live weapons. With summer now approaching, the new UNRWA commissioner can act to curb arms training of “child soldiers”, which flies in the face of UN resolutions that protect the health and well-being of children.

*David Bedein, head of Israel Resource News Agency at the Center for Near East Policy Research, locatd at Beit Agron in Jerusalem, has provided news coverage of UNRWA since December 1987, assisted by a team of Jewish and Arab journalists. CNEPR has produced 24 short films shot on location, along with two books and hundreds of news articles.

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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