United Nations convenes to gather donations for UNRWA
New York – The UN General Assembly Committee will hold a meeting at United Nations Headquarters on Friday in a bid to bolster countries’ donations for the agency.
The UN refugee agency for Palestinians is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that solving the “chronic financial problem” facing the agency requires political will to match the support of the various parties to the UNRWA mission.
In a press conference in New York, Lazzarini said that the problem “lies in the contradiction between what UNRWA is expected to do and the resources available to it,” pointing to “the unique nature of UNRWA’s work, as it is the only agency mandated to provide services similar to government services.”
The UN official stressed the importance of keeping up with the resources to the needs, warning that “UNRWA will not have funding or cash as of next September to continue operating its schools, and the resources necessary for the operation of its health centers and other vital services are running out.”
UNRWA supports about 5.9 million Palestine refugees in its five areas of operations: Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank including East Jerusalem, Lebanon and Syria.
‘An ugly scar on Israel’s justice system’
Attorney Avigdor Feldman, who represented Amiram Ben Uliel before the Supreme Court, claims that Ben Uliel’s confession was obtained under torture and should be treated as such. Feldman was hosted on Arutz 7 Hebrew site against a backdrop of calls to allow Amiram to celebrate Shavuot outside his solitary confinement. Although this was agreed to, it did not happen.
“In my opinion, Ben Uliel’s verdict is an ugly scar on our legal system,” says Feldman. “The General Security Service admitted in this case, which it does not do in other cases, that they inflicted incessant physical torture on Amiram for two nights. I am forbidden to provide details of the torture, but it is the type that causes continuous physical pain. The court rejected the confessions made immediately after the torture, but accepted his confessions given 36 hours later.
“The court ignored the fact that Ben Uliel was prevented from meeting with a lawyer during those 36 hours and that he was completely under the authority of the Shin Bet, making the threat of continued torture a constant possibility. In my understanding, the court should have rejected ALL confessions made by Ben Uliel.”
Feldman emphasizes that aside from these confessions, there is no evidence linking Ben Uliel to the crime he is accused of (arson in the Arab village of Duma). As for the claim that there is sufficient evidence of his guilt due to the details that Ben-Uliel gave to his investigators, attorney Feldman states, “Absolutely not. The details in his confessions were public knowledge. There are no unique details in them that could have been known only to the person who committed the crime.
“There is absolutely no forensic or biological evidence that ties him to the crime.”
In Feldman’s eyes, Ben Uliel should be released immediately. “They had no evidence against him until they started torturing him. There is no evidence from the field that could support his confession made to the Shin Bet operative who was responsible for the torture.”
Ben Uliel was returned to the site of the crime for a re-enactment of the crime with a policeman and a Shin Bet agent who threatened that if he did not confess, they had other means of making him talk, implying that the torture would resume.
Feldman also pointed out that the defense argued that the confession might have been admissible if Ben Uliel had been allowed to consult with a lawyer between the confessions, and if the interrogation would have been conducted by the Israel Police and not by the Shin Bet. “But none of this happened. On the contrary. The Shin Bet was present in a threatening manner during the confessions. When Ben Uliel finally met with his lawyer, Itamar Ben Gvir (now a gov’t minister), he retracted the confession. Therefore, his confession is a confession that was extracted under torture and our experience shows that confessions obtained through torture are usually false. They are coerced confessions to satisfy what the torturer and provide him with what he wants to hear. ”
Attorney Feldman pointed out that it was clear to the investigators that there was more than one person at the scene of the incident, and for that reason, they interrogated a Jewish minor, trying to implicate him, but he did not confess. “The Shin Bet admits that the torture produced a confession that does not match the facts on the ground. “
“Everyone agrees that torture may be acceptable in the case of a ‘ticking bomb,’ where the suspect is aware of a person who is planning to commit an imminent terrorist act threatening human life. Even the Supreme Court, which ruled out torture as a means of obtaining confessions, ruled that any means can be used to extract information to prevent a terror attack.
“However, no one ever claimed that Ben Uliel knew about anyone intending to carry out a terrorist act against Palestinians or others,” says Feldman. ”Therefore, he was tortured without fitting the profile of a ticking bomb.”
As for Ben Uliel’s chances of getting acquitted, Feldman says he doesn’t know.
A version of this article by Yoni Kempinski appeared on Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew site and was translated and edited by Ms. Shulman.
Saudi Normalization Does Not Mean Peace
Saudi Arabia heads the Arab League of Nations, whose charter, adopted in 1945, calls for the liquidation of the Jews in Palestine. Notably, Saudi Arabia and the Arab League launched total war on Israel in 1948 – a war that remains in effect until today.
Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties with Israel; Syria and Lebanon agreed to an armistice with the Jewish state; Saudi Arabia, however, loyal to the Arab League, has never agreed to any armistice or any peace whatsoever with the Jews.
What should Saudi peace normalization look like?
Begin with four steps:
1. Since the Saudis continue to finance PA education, the Saudis could demand removal of violent PA texts, teachers, youth clubs and summer camps in the Saudi-financed curriculum, which promotes full- scale war against Jews. It would fly in the face of normalization for peace if the Saudis continued to underwrite the PA war curriculum. The Saudis refuse to reconsider their financing of UNRWA schools, which indoctrinate the next generation of Palestinians for total war.
2. Saudi Arabia remains a key funder of UNRWA, which maintains 6.7 million descendants of Arab refugees from the 1948 war in the squalor of 59 “temporary” UNRWA refugee camps, under the premise of the “right of return” to 1948 villages that no longer exist. If the Saudis truly sought normalization for peace, they would advocate the dignified resettlement of Arab refugees. Yet, the Saudis refuse to do so.
3. The Saudis help finance the unprecedented PA statute: Murder a Jew, get a salary for life. How can there be normalization for peace so long as the Saudis underwrite the enforcement of an incentive for murdering Jews?
4. The Saudis could demand the removal of PA maps that delete Israel in Saudi-financed PA schools. The PA has recently replaced names of all Jewish communities in Israel with names of Arab villages in all Saudi-funded schools of the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA.
Saudi normalization in the context of peace would necessitate the presentation of maps in all schools that would depict all UN members of good standing, including Israel.
These four steps would provide normalization that would lead to peace with Saudi Arabia.
Yet normalization for peace is not on the agenda of Saudi Arabia, whose genocidal war launched at the dawn of Israel in 1948 continues to this day.
For the Saudis, normalization is a tool of war.
Those who support such normalization focus on business opportunities. Why would veterans of the IDF support such a policy? Look no farther than their handsome Saudi investment portfolios.
Nothing like a little bakshish, a gratuity, to sweeten the deal.
Bakshish is acceptable in Arabic society. Everywhere else, bakshish is defined as a bribe.
People must remember that Israel is the land of prophets, not the oasis of their profits.
UNRWA donors gather- Will they place conditions on donations?
This coming Friday, UNRWA donor nations gather at UN headquarters, as reported in the Jordan Times*, to discuss what UNRWA describes as a downfall in donations for UNRWA, operating 59 “temporary” refugee camps for 6.7 million descendants of the Arabs who left their homes in the wake of the 1948 war .
This is the full list of nations and relief agencies who donate to UNRWA:
https://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/pledges_2023_as_at_30_april_2023.pdf
As reported in this release, not all of the donors have fulfilled their pledges to UNRWA.
The largest donor to hold back its pledge to UNRWA is the US, which signed an accord with UNRWA in July 2021 which mandated that revisions of the UNRWA curriculum, devoid of incitement, would be the requirement for renewal of US funds to UNRWA













