Would you find it conceivable that an entire UN agency was created to perpetuate a conflict rather than solve it? Would it sound reasonable to you that a UN agency would knowingly pay salaries to terrorists? Would you agree to donate money to an organisation whose teachers educate to kill and abduct people and whose employees are recorded abducting innocent people? Does it sound reasonable that the intelligence branch of a terrorist organisation is embedded under a UN facility that feeds it with electricity and communications? That terrorists use UN institutions like schools and hospitals? That terrorists steal humanitarian assistance and use it to extort and control the population?

The answer to these questions is pretty clear to any reasonable person. However, believe it or not, this is the reality in West Asia with an organisation called the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). While Israel successfully absorbed 800 thousand Jewish refugees from the Arab world who were never compensated by anyone for the property left behind nor the loss of their livelihoods, 700 thousand Arabs who had to flee following the attempt of seven Arab armies to destroy the newly established Israel in 1948 received a completely different treatment. UNRWA was formed to perpetuate their status as “refugees” and never allow them to normalise their lives unless they manage to reverse the results of 1948.

That’s exactly what UNRWA is doing. With tens of billions of dollars so far in financing, it educates millions of Palestinian descendants that they shouldn’t rebuild their lives in the places they reside. Many of them were denied citizenship in the places they live in and where their children were born, like in Lebanon, for example, where they are denied not only citizenship but also banned from owning land or from practising certain professions. And even in those places where citizenship was granted to them, like in Jordan, they are still illegally entitled to refugee status which contradicts UNHCR rules. Instead of helping people to settle in, it educates them to go back to the places their ancestors had to leave four generations ago.

Unfortunately, UNRWA has been “successful” in fulfilling its mandate to the extent that millions of graduates from its schools have been taught to object to Israel’s existence for the last 76 years. Many of them became active members of terrorist organisations. No institution has been doing that “better” than the UNRWA schools in Gaza, where Hamas took over in 2007, where the teachers’ union is controlled by Hamas and many of its teachers are leaders in the Hamas terrorist organisation. Or, in Lebanon, where the leader of Hamas was in charge of educating 39,000 children, and the UN refused to fire him. Israel has presented multiple evidence to the UN on many occasions. Most of it was completely ignored.

Yesterday the overwhelming majority of the Israeli parliament said: Enough is enough. Israel will no longer cooperate with UNRWA. The legislation gives the government 90 days to make necessary arrangements to ensure humanitarian assistance to needy Palestinians — cynically used as pawns to advance political goals — are extended through other UN agencies and NGOs. Israel will continue to facilitate international assistance to this Palestinian population. We will continue to abide by international law. But we will not agree to continue to cooperate with UNRWA, a corrupt organisation that is completely compromised by terrorist organisations like Hamas. Their sole reason for existence is to eradicate the State of Israel. Israel calls all parties interested in de-escalating the conflict in the West Asian region to dissociate themselves from UNRWA in order to advance and secure peace and stability in our region.

The writer is Israel’s Ambassador to India

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