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Who will protect Palestinian children from Hamas?
It is no secret that well before the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Fatah began recruiting, radicalizing and training children to serve as soldiers in the war against the Jewish state.
Given its professed concern for human rights and international law, we must ask: Why has the U.N. given a free pass to these terrorist organizations, which serially abuse Palestinian children and publicly declare a total lack of concern for all Palestinian civilians?
A senior Hamas official recently made it clear that the terror group does not care about civilian casualties, declaring that it’s up to the U.N. to build shelters in Gaza. Apparently, Hamas was too busy building a 500-mile underground superhighway of terrorism underneath hospitals, mosques and civilian neighborhoods, using children’s bedrooms and kindergartens to store explosives and arms.
Tragically, Arab children and teenagers have been active participants in violence against Jews since before the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, dating as far back as the Ottoman and British occupations of Palestine. Youths were at the forefront of the opposition to Jewish immigration and an attitude developed that children had a “duty to sacrifice themselves.”
The practice of training child soldiers picked up with the establishment of the PLO in 1964. During the Second Intifada from 2000-2005, children were used to carry out suicide bombings. Palestinian Authority curriculum used in schools run by the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA became increasingly antismetic and pro-terrorist, encouraging children to follow in the footsteps of “martyrs” in the genocidal struggle to “free Palestine from the river to the sea.”
Hamas gained control of Gaza in 2007 and established its own military training program for children. The monitoring group MEMRI has reported on Hamas’s military “summer camps,” named “Shield of Jerusalem,” which are attended by some 100,000 children and teens. Recruited from UNRWA elementary and high schools throughout Gaza, children in these camps are indoctrinated with a deadly jihadist ideology. Hamas taught these children how to use various weapons, including AK-47s, sniper rifles, RPGs, mortars and machine guns, as well as how to engage in urban and tunnel warfare. The summer camp director in Rafah said that these camps are part of “Hamas’ activities that focus on the younger generation due to its importance” as “the generation of liberation and victory.”
Hamas knows they’re putting civilians, especially children, in mortal danger, but as far as its concerned, the more dead Palestinian children the better, because it will increase global outrage against the IDF.
Since Oct. 7, the world has seen what these terrorists have done to their own people, but still refuses to condemn them, let alone take action to save the bodies and souls of Palestinian children.
This is utter hypocrisy and a violation of international law. The U.N.’s own website states: “Recruiting and using children under the age of 15 as soldiers is prohibited under international humanitarian law—treaty and custom—and is defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court.”
The spokesperson for the U.N.’s Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, declared of the Israel-Hamas war, “As per the implementation of the children and armed conflict, we condemn the recruitment and use, killing and maiming of children by all parties and call for parties to end and prevent these violations.”
However, even before Oct. 7, Ms. Gamba chose to blame Israel for any harm that befalls Palestinian child soldiers, rather than the terrorist organizations who recruited, indoctrinated and trained them. By blaming Israel for this, the U.N. is encouraging terrorist organizations to continue to abuse their children and teens with impunity.
Who will stop these horrific crimes? Not UNRWA teachers, thousands of whom have been exposed as Hamas functionaries and adherents. Not the P.A., which pays terrorists—including Oct. 7 war criminals—to kill Jews. Not Qatar, which has provided financial support for Hamas and a safe haven for Hamas leaders. And certainly not the U.N., which has contributed mightily to the perfect storm of anti-Israel animus through its silence in the face of terrorist crimes against Israelis.
To change this paradigm, it falls to the U.N.’s primary donor—the United States—to think outside the box, put an end to UNRWA, defang Hamas’s sponsor Iran, and identify and empower those among the Palestinians who want peace.
If this action is not taken, the world will see more child soldiers, who will die on the battlefield in service of war criminals and terrorists who consider children’s lives worthless.
Why Israel’s foreign and defence establishments lobby for continuity of UNRWA with no constraints?
False expectations
Justice when it applies to Israel and Jews has a completely different connotation to that applicable for the rest of the world.
This has been dramatically demonstrated in The Hague in recent days.
The indictment against Israel had nothing to do with justice and everything to do with a pre-ordained political agenda. As previously noted, the judges of the International Court of Justice are political appointments and therefore based on normal United Nations scenarios, Israel is deemed guilty even before the trial commenced.
Following the two days of advocacy and awaiting an interim decision many “experts” and commentators expressed an expectation that South Africa’s spurious allegations would be tossed out.
This was always a hopelessly naïve thinking adopted by individuals who thought that the lies and slanders recycled by Hamas’s surrogates in Pretoria would be kicked out of court. Anyone cognizant of the UN’s track record and the international community’s double standards could see what a sham was about to be enacted. Unfortunately, those infected with HHS otherwise known as “hyper hallucinatory syndrome” refused to see that “the Lord High Executioner” was waiting in the wings.
Some gullible commentators have waxed ecstatically that because the Court did not demand an immediate cessation of hostilities, Israel has scored a significant victory. In actual fact the Court’s decisions have given a green light to all those who promote the worst slanders against Israel.
In other words the copious amount of mud which South Africa and Hamas have thrown at Israel will, thanks to the ICJ ruling, now stick and be used to bludgeon it in every way possible. Today’s versions will be endlessly recycled just like the well poisoning and blood libel accusations of the Middle Ages.
As a result of the ICJ saying that “South Africa’s accusation of genocide has plausibility” the scene is set for casting Israel as a pariah nation with all the ramifications that this entails. By ruling that the lie of genocide may have some sort of validity, Hamas and its South African cheer leaders have achieved their major aim. Compelling Israel to submit a monthly report of “good behaviour” and proof of non genocidal activity immediately proves in the eyes of the haters that in fact something sinister is being covered up.
Despite the conclusive proof Israel’s representatives provided at The Hague that the real genocidal perpetrators are Hamas and their willing helpers, the Court minimized its significance. South Africa in its frenzy to stigmatize the Jewish State ignored the kidnapped hostages and the rockets launched at Israeli civilians over the years. It glossed over the music festival pogrom as though this was just a minor occurrence.
In one of its outlandish claims, South Africa asserted that by mentioning Amalek the Israeli Prime Minister was supporting genocidal intent towards Palestinians. Incredibly, the ICJ quoted this absurdity in the course of its interim judgment about genocide plausibility by Israel. Ironically, on the following Shabbat the Torah portion included the episode of the Amalekite unprovoked attack against the Israelites as they traversed the desert on the way to the Promised Land.
Yes, we are commanded to remember what the Amalekites did to our People and how the descendants of these Hebrew/Jew haters rise up in every generation to do the same. Defending ourselves against such types and ensuring that they cannot complete their genocidal ambitions is something that Israelis take seriously. Obviously the ICJ justices believe we should turn the other cheek and roll over.
The Court as constituted is a political creature of the UN. Its judges are appointed by the UN General Assembly and the Security Council. Proof that judicial independence is not a requirement for the job is provided in this week’s statement issued by the Ugandan Government. The Ugandan judge was the only one on the 17 member panel to vote against all six measures ordering Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza. She was also only one of two judges to oppose the Court’s assertion that some Israeli actions may violate the Genocide Convention. (The other was Justice Barak of Israel).
The Ugandan Government has now denounced its country’s representative and said that her dissent does not represent the Government’s stance. It added that Uganda supported the position of the Non Aligned Movement on the conflict.
This reaction and response encapsulates exactly where this court is coming from. It also explains why it did not throw out South Africa’s spurious allegations and why the court will continue to threaten punitive sanctions in the future. Now that the genocide “plausibility” suggestion has been planted, the media frenzy targeting Israel’s supposed guilt is in full swing. It takes the heat off North Korea, Russia, China and Iran where real crimes against human rights are occurring.
It also sets the scene for protest groups in vacillating democracies to apply pressure against Israel. That is the poisonous outcome of this whole sordid exercise.
Meanwhile UNRWA finally finds itself in the hot seat.
Despite many years of warnings from NGO’s which have investigated the corruption of this UN appointed Arab Palestinian refugee agency, false expectations and denial of the truth have allowed it to literally get away with murder. Examples of hate inciting textbooks used in UNRWA schools and children’s summer camps where youngsters have been taught how to murder Jews have all been ignored and dismissed. Perpetuation of permanent refugee status and promises of returning to “occupied Palestine” together with kowtowing to terrorist groups were all ignored by the international community which continued to pour millions of dollars into bottomless pockets.
The 7 October massacre finally exposed UNRWA’s culpability in being a silent partner to the terror groups controlling Gaza.
The revelation that Gaza’s terror tunnels are larger than the whole London underground raises the inevitable question as to why UNRWA and other UN agencies working in Gaza did not blow the whistle at any stage. The tunnel networks obviously took years to construct and their development was enabled by the millions of international aid filched and diverted by Hamas and its allies. Answers will need to be provided from Israeli officials who must have known about this but who preferred instead to facilitate Qatari cash infusions which supposedly were going to buy peace.
Revelations that these terror tunnels exist beneath UNRWA schools, hospitals, mosques and private homes makes one wonder as to what UN employees heard, saw and approved. UNRWA, when asked this question they replied that they “had seen nothing.” This response of course is as inane as that of those people living near extermination camps, who after the war also “saw and knew nothing.” It is this blatant aura of denial which has characterized UNRWA and UN activities in Gaza for decades.
The 7 October massacre finally exposed the cynical cover ups. Israel has now provided donor nations with irrefutable proof of UNRWA employees’ participation in the murder, rape and kidnapping of Israeli civilians. Faced with this evidence donor nations have now suspended aid. Note the use of the word “suspension” because herein lies a convenient loop hole. What is needed is an independent investigation of UNRWA’a activities with a view to closing it down.
Instead, the UN and UNRWA itself intend to look into the matter which is as useful as getting a burglar to investigate his own misdemeanors. The predictable outcome will be offending bodies giving themselves a clean bill of health which in turn will give a green light for donor nations to resume the flow of dollars. All will be forgiven and whitewashed and it will be business as usual. Already the US Administration has announced that UNRWA’s “important work must continue.” Having restored funding after it was stopped by President Trump, the Biden Administration facilitated, directly and indirectly, the building of the Gaza terror infrastructure. Now, having temporarily suspended aid the US is in effect preparing the ground for its resumption again.
The farce of international double speak continues.
False expectations will no doubt once again prevail and the ground prepared for the next disaster unless Israel and the rapidly diminishing number of democracies finally take a determined moral stand.
Weekly Commentary: President Biden Deputizes State Department To Engage In Lawfare Against Israel Without Needing A Court
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Weekly Commentary: President Biden Deputizes State Department To Engage In Lawfare Against Israel Without Needing A CourtWeekly Commentary: President Biden Deputizes State Department To Engage In
Lawfare Against Israel Without Needing A Court
Dr. Aaron Lerner 1 February 2023
Just two days after CIA Director Burns, acting as America’s “honest broker”
in negotiations to free the hostages, made clear in his Foreign Affairs
article that America’s goal is for Israel to stop its operations in the Gaza
Strip while accepting Hezbollah’s continued strategic threat in the north we
now have President Biden issuing an Executive Order which appoints the State
Department as judge, jury, and executioner to act against Israelis.
The full text of the Executive Order follows below this commentary.
This order can be extended to apply to:
Knesset members as well as Israelis who run for the Knesset who advocate
policies which the Secretary of State believes to ” threaten the peace,
security, or stability of the West Bank”.
Soldiers, cops and judges engaged in directing, enacting, implementing,
enforcing, or failing to enforce policies that, according to the Secretary
of State, threaten the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank
Building contractors, residents, visitors, suppliers, etc. who in any way
act in a manner which constitutes implementing policies that, according to
the Secretary of State, threaten the peace, security, or stability of the
West Bank.
Any Israeli involved in implementing the court ordered demolition of a
terrorist’s home? [The term “civilian” is not defined in the order.]
Anyone who provides goods or services to or engages in commerce with to any
of the above.
A technical note: The Executive Order defines “terrorism” to be “an
activity that involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life,
property, or infrastructure and appears to be intended to intimidate or
coerce a civilian population. An honest Secretary of State would find
himself taking action against a hundred times as many Palestinians as
Israeli as this is the ratio between Palestinian and Israeli “terror”.
==================
FEBRUARY 01, 2024
Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions on Persons Undermining Peace,
Security, and Stability in the West Bank
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the
laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency
Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National
Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), section 212(f) and section
215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and
8 U.S.C. 1185(a)), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,
I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, find
that the situation in the West Bank – in particular high levels of extremist
settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property
destruction – has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious
threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank and Gaza,
Israel, and the broader Middle East region. These actions undermine the
foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a
two-state solution and ensuring Israelis and Palestinians can attain equal
measures of security, prosperity, and freedom. They also undermine the
security of Israel and have the potential to lead to broader regional
destabilization across the Middle East, threatening United States personnel
and interests. For these reasons, these actions constitute an unusual and
extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the
United States. I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that
threat. Accordingly, I hereby order:
Section 1. All property and interests in property that are in the
United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or
hereafter come within the possession or control of any United States person,
including any foreign branch, of the following persons are blocked and may
not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in:
(a) any foreign person determined by the Secretary of State, in
consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, or the Secretary of the
Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State:
(i) to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly
or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in, any of the following:
(A) actions – including directing, enacting, implementing,
enforcing, or failing to enforce policies – that threaten the peace,
security, or stability of the West Bank; or
(B) planning, ordering, otherwise directing, or
participating in any of the following actions affecting the West Bank:
(1) an act of violence or threat of violence targeting
civilians;
(2) efforts to place civilians in reasonable fear of
violence with the purpose or effect of necessitating a change of residence
to avoid such violence;
(3) property destruction; or
(4) seizure or dispossession of property by private
actors;
(ii) to be or have been a leader or official of:
(A) an entity, including any government entity, that has
engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, any of the activities
described in subsections (a) or (b) of this section related to the leader’s
or official’s tenure; or
(B) an entity whose property and interests in property are
blocked pursuant to this order as a result of activities relating to the
leader’s or official’s tenure;
(iii) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided
financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to
or in support of, any person blocked pursuant to this order; or
(iv) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported
to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person blocked
pursuant to this order; or
(b) any foreign person determined by the Secretary of State, in
consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury:
(i) to have committed or have attempted to commit, to pose a
significant risk of committing, or to have participated in training to
commit acts of terrorism affecting the West Bank; or
(ii) to be a leader or official of an entity sanctioned pursuant
to subsection (b)(i) of this section.
Sec. 2. The prohibitions in section 1 of this order apply except to
the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or
licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any
contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the date of
this order.
Sec. 3. The prohibitions in section 1 of this order include:
(a) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or
services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and
interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; and
(b) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or
services from any such person.
Sec. 4. (a) The unrestricted immigrant and nonimmigrant entry into
the United States of noncitizens determined to meet one or more of the
criteria in section 1 of this order would be detrimental to the interests of
the United States, and the entry of such persons into the United States, as
immigrants or nonimmigrants, is hereby suspended, except when the Secretary
of State or the Secretary of Homeland Security, as appropriate, determines
that the person’s entry would not be contrary to the interests of the United
States, including when the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Homeland
Security, as appropriate, so determines, based on a recommendation of the
Attorney General, that the person’s entry would further important United
States law enforcement objectives.
(b) The Secretary of State shall implement this order as it applies to
visas pursuant to such procedures as the Secretary of State, in consultation
with the Secretary of Homeland Security, may establish.
(c) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall implement this order as
it applies to the entry of noncitizens pursuant to such procedures as the
Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State,
may establish.
(d) Such persons shall be treated by this section in the same manner
as persons covered by section 1 of Proclamation 8693 of July 24, 2011
(Suspension of Entry of Aliens Subject to United Nations Security Council
Travel Bans and International Emergency Economic Powers Act Sanctions).
Sec. 5. (a) Any transaction that evades or avoids, has the purpose of
evading or avoiding, causes a violation of, or attempts to violate any of
the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited.
(b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth
in this order is prohibited.
Sec. 6. I hereby determine that the making of donations of the types
of articles specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)) by,
to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in
property are blocked pursuant to this order would seriously impair my
ability to deal with the national emergency declared in this order, and I
hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 1 of this order.
Sec. 7. For the purposes of this order:
(a) the term “entity” means a partnership, association, trust, joint
venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization;
(b) the term “noncitizen” means any person who is not a citizen or
noncitizen national of the United States;
(c) the term “person” means an individual or entity;
(d) the term “United States person” means any United States citizen,
lawful permanent resident, entity organized under the laws of the United
States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign
branches), or any person in the United States; and
(e) the term “terrorism” means an activity that:
(i) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life,
property, or infrastructure; and
(ii) appears to be intended:
(A) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(B) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation
or coercion; or
(C) to affect the conduct of a government by mass
destruction, assassination, kidnapping, or hostage-taking.
Sec. 8. For those persons whose property and interests in property are
blocked or affected by this order who might have a constitutional presence
in the United States, I find that because of the ability to transfer funds
and other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures
to be taken pursuant to this order would render those measures ineffectual.
I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing
the national emergency declared in this order, there need be no prior notice
of a listing or determination made pursuant to this order.
Sec. 9. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the
Secretary of State, is authorized to take such actions, including the
promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to
the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this
order. The Secretary of the Treasury may, consistent with applicable law,
redelegate any of these functions within the Department of the Treasury.
All executive departments and agencies of the United States shall take all
appropriate measures within their authority to implement this order.
Sec. 10. Nothing in this order shall prohibit transactions for the
conduct of the official business of the Federal Government or the United
Nations (including its specialized agencies, programs, funds, and related
organizations) by employees, grantees, and contractors thereof.
Sec. 11. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the
Secretary of State, is authorized to submit recurring and final reports to
the Congress on the national emergency declared in this order, consistent
with section 401(c) of the NEA (50 U.S.C. 1641(c)) and section 204(c) of
IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1703(c)).
Sec. 12. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or
otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or
agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management
and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and
subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or
benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any
party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its
officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
THE WHITE HOUSE,
February 1, 2024.
________________________________________
IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis
Since 1992 providing news and analysis on the Middle East with a focus on
Arab-Israeli relations
Website: www.imra.org.il
UNWRA has been teaching Palestinian kids to hate and fight Israel for decades
How did seemingly innocuous United Nations summer camps for thousands of Palestinian children jump to the forefront of the horrific war in the Middle East?
The UN Relief and Works Agency provides summer camps for children of more than 5 million descendants of Arab evacuees of the 1948 war who live in 59 temporary refugee camps established in the wake of Israel’s War of Independence, which dislodged half a million Arabs, intentionally or unintentionally.
UNRWA established an elaborate school system that enables any journalist worth his salt to understand what the agency is teaching the next generation of Palestinian youth — who are instructed that they must adhere to the right of return, even by force of arms, to homes and villages their grandparents or great-grandparents left after 1948, though their villages are now Jewish communities in Israel.
UNRWA policy stands in contrast to the UN High Commission for Refugees policy for the rest of the world, which assures the next generation it won’t suffer the indignities of refugee-camp life.
As an independent journalist who wanted to communicate the Palestinian passion for war, I engaged Arab TV reporters to film summer camps in and around UNRWA schools in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem for the last 15 years.
You can see the footage at www.cfnepr.com/205640/Movies.
What the UNRWA summer camps preach is hardly a message of peace and reconciliation.
Instead, Palestinian children learn the art of guerrilla warfare.
These summer camps, financed by 67 nations, including America, through UNRWA donations, show fully armed children learning the art of kidnapping, throwing explosives, hijacking vehicles and invading Jewish collective farms.
They demonstrate a shocking prelude to the Oct. 7 incursion into 24 Jewish communities, when young Arab attackers gleefully applied the violent exercises they learned in UNRWA summer camps.
The youths’ UNRWA summer-camp experiences reinforced the violence taught in the Palestinian Authority school curriculum.
At the camps, Palestinian children learn the art of guerilla warfare.
How did I get access to the textbooks?
To get the curriculum, I met with Yasser Arafat, founding chairman of the PA.
It’s hard for the Western mind to grasp how the PA leadership expresses pride for its lethal curriculum.
He readily authorized our news and research agency to review the PA school texts UNRWA uses.
We were granted access to more than 1,000 textbooks.
![Girl in video saying "I want to fight against them [the Jews] and defeat them in war."](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/01/stills-kids-unrwa-summer-camps-75734156.jpg?w=1024)
Palestinian Authority-issued school books used in PA schools, including UNRWA schools, feature scores of maps labeling all of Israel “Palestine.”
They praise terrorists, such as Dalal Mughrabi, who took part in a 1978 attack that killed 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children.
Thanks to online technology, you can peruse our translations of Palestinian Authority textbooks UNRWA uses via the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center’s online site.
Before Oct. 7, few people showed interest.
But by December, we had 7.2 million hits on our site: IsraelBehindtheNews.com.
Denial of reality, which defined Israel before Oct. 7, no longer exists.
The public, thanks to modern technology, can instantly view videos or read about the chilling truth being played out daily.
David Bedein is the director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.
David Bedein reveals who is against shutting UNWRA and it’s Israel
A Palestinian man rides a vehicle in front of the logistics base of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on July 30, 2019. - An internal ethics report has alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees even as the organisation faced an unprecedented crisis after US funding cuts.
Lacking natural resources, the Gaza Strip suffers from a chronic shortage of water, electricity and petrol. More than two-thirds of the population depends on humanitarian aid. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo credit should read SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)
Revelations of UNRWA’s involvement in Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror came as no surprise for David Bedein, head of the Nahum Bedein Center for the Near East Policy Research. He’s been documenting the evil and antisemitism in UNWRA textbooks for decades. Now vindicated, Bedein told reporter Arieh O’Sullivan that despite some voices calling for the dismantlement of the UN Palestinian relief agency, it was the Israeli establishment who was against it.
Joint Subcommittee Hearing
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
The Subcommi,ee on Oversight and Accountability and Subcommi,ee on Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations
Subject: “UNRWA Exposed: Examining the Agency’s Mission and Failures”
Dear Distinguished Subcommi,ee Members,
I would like to take this opportunity to submit a statement on behalf of the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), a leading Jewish Global Human Rights Activist Organization. As a pediatrician with over three decades of clinical experience caring for children and young adults, the SWC’s first Children’s Advocate, and proud ci8zen of the State of New Jersey, as Chairman Chris Smith is aware, I was one of the first to have called out UNRWA for child abuse due to their educa8on that encourages young impressionable Pales8nian students to commit violent acts against Jews and encourages them to become martyrs. UNRWA has proven to be not only an Instrument of hate used by Hamas against Jews and Israel. It is also an instrument of hate against the civilized global community!
The 8me has come for all to realize that the United Na8ons Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA’s) mandate to provide services to now 5.9 million Palestinian “refugees” descended from the original 700,000
refugees of 1948 must come to an end. There is ample proof now that the barbaric terrorists of Hamas have co-opted UNRWA so that they are one and the same. Our US tax dollars should not be used to fund terrorist organizations that are the sworn enemy of the principles we hold dear: respect for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, in the West’s a,empt to assist the Palestinian people, that is exactly what we have been doing. If we want to help create the foundation for a peaceful and hopeful future for Israeli and Palestinian children, UNRWA must not be a part of that future.
UNRWA cleverly perpetuates the conflict that began following Israel’s War of Independence in 1948. It has done so successfully by uniquely bestowing refugee status on Pales8nians in perpetuity, by keeping the Palestinian people in overcrowded refugee camps for generations, by indoctrinating generation after generation of Palestinian children in a
belief that they are entitled to return to towns and villages of their ancestors that no longer exist in order to overtake Israel by sheer numbers if not by a violent overthrow, and by using the generous humanitarian aid provided over the years by Western Democracies to feather the nest of their terror state. Ironically, it is the very principles of Western civilization-personal and religious freedoms, tolerance, free elec8ons-that Hamas and likeminded terrorists seek to destroy.
The SWC has for years been providing evidence to a high up official in the office of the Secretary General of the United Na8ons of UNRWA’s blatant indoctrination of generations of Palestinian school children with the purpose of radicalizing impressionable minds to commit jihad and sacrifice their young lives in support of a radical genocidal Islamic ideology that has co-opted this UN organization. For nearly a decade I have made the claim that this cons8tutes “societal child abuse.” We warned that the curriculum they were subjected to in UNRWA schools was a war curriculum.
Tragically, our fears were played out on October 7, 2023. It is no surprise that many of the perpetrators of Hamas atrocities had been indoctrinated in UNRWA schools. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, The Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Ac8on for the SWC and the current chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, just a few weeks ago spoke directly with Secretary of State Blinken about what should be done about UNRWA going forward.
UNRWA is one of the largest employers of Gazans, second only to Hamas itself. “According to Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at Tel Aviv’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), “All the workers of UNRWA in the Gaza Strip—something like 13,000—all of them are approved by Hamas.”” h,ps://www.jns.org/terrorists-deeply embedded-within-unrwa-staff/ Moreover, UNRWA is mandated in its charter to implement the policies of the local government, which in the case of Gaza is Hamas. Thus, UNRWA serves at the pleasure of this extremist Islamist terror organization.
Now it is 8me to acknowledge reality. In Gaza, UNRWA is Hamas and Hamas is UNRWA. Since Oct. 7, we have the proof. UNRWA employees are either members of Hamas or are family and friends of Hamas members as these are coveted jobs. UNRWA schools, hospitals, medical clinics, and facilities are part of the Hamas terror infrastructure. UNRWA employees participated in Hamas atrocities. UNRWA aid meant for civilians is under the control of Hamas terrorists and either stolen by these terrorists or sold for profit to the suffering Palestinian people. Just exposed by UN-Watch, three thousand UNRWA employees celebrated the murder of Jews on Oct. 7 on Telegram.
h,ps://www.thefp.com/p/the-united-na8ons-terrorism-teachers
It is appalling that UNRWA employees participated in perpetrating the most unspeakable crimes against the Jewish people since the
Holocaust. En8re families living on peaceful kibbutzim butchered in their beds, babies decapitated, young girls and women gang raped, and their bodies mu8lated, people burned alive beyond recogni8on, hundreds of young people slaughtered at a music fes8val, Israelis and foreigners alike from infants to octogenarians taken hostage, tortured and abused in the most brutal condi8ons to this day, day 116 of hell.
Hamas is not only the sworn enemy of Israel. Their jihad starts with Israel but does not end with Israel. MEMRI did a report demonstrating this using Hamas’s own words:
“Hamas – the acronym for the movement’s full name, the Islamic Resistance Movement, in Arabic – is a Sunni Islamist terror organization that is part of the Muslim Brotherhood. Its goal is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in all of Palestine, “from the river to the sea,” by means of uncompromising jihad. This campaign is regarded as part of the Muslims’ ongoing jihad against the Jews that will continue until the Judgement Day and will end with the annihilation of the Jews…
Hamas also defines itself as part of the Islamic resistance movement whose ultimate goal is the establishment of a worldwide Islamic caliphate…
–The liberation of Palestine is a prelude to the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate. Rome will be conquered by Islam as Constantinople was once conquered, and then the rest of the world will be overtaken, including America and Eastern Europe.” https://www.memri.org/reports/ideology-hamas-–- its-own-words
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz this past weekend stated that Israel demands the leadership of UNRWA be dismissed, and in Gaza’s rebuilding, be replaced with agencies dedicated to genuine peace and development .https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-783945
We at SWC agree. UNRWA must be dissolved. Not one more cent of United States Tax Dollars should be given to this terror enabling UN agency. Third and fourth generation Palestinians must wake up to the harsh reality that they are not refugees, and instead should be given the
tools to make a better life for themselves and their families, not at the expense of their Israeli neighbors who too deserve a better future. Assistance to Palestinians going forward must be provided by humanitarian organizations that will work to improve conditions on the ground for Palestinians rather than using the billions of dollars given to them over the years to build a terror state. Their children must be educated in schools dedicated to tolerance and peaceful coexistence with their Israeli neighbors, their schools must be rid of teachers supportive of terrorist organizations, and the current curriculum must be replaced with one that does not indoctrinate children into a culture of jihad and martyrdom such as used in the UAE.
We make these recommendations not only for the sake of future generations of Israeli and Palestinian children, but for the prevention of this hateful ideology spreading to our own shores.
Respectfully Submitted,
Deborah Soffen MD
Child Advocate
Simon Wiesenthal Center
dsoffen@wiesenthal.com
UNRWA school students in East Jerusalem say ‘stabbing Jews brings respect for Palestinians’
“I am ready to carry out a suicide attack” is what a student at a UNRWA school in East Jerusalem says to the camera, in a video filmed in 2022 by the Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research. Another student says that “we have to fight the Jews to prove that we are stronger than them.” Watch the inciteful words of the students.
UNRWA:s politik efter kriget.
A Palestinian man rides a vehicle in front of the logistics base of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on July 30, 2019. - An internal ethics report has alleged mismanagement and abuses of authority at the highest levels of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees even as the organisation faced an unprecedented crisis after US funding cuts.
Lacking natural resources, the Gaza Strip suffers from a chronic shortage of water, electricity and petrol. More than two-thirds of the population depends on humanitarian aid. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo credit should read SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)
Den schweiziske diplomaten Phillipe Lazzarini, chef för FN:s hjälp- och arbetsbyrå kommer nu att möta en ström av påtryckningar från givarnationer att genomföra en genomgripande politisk förändring i ljuset av kriget.
Detta berör särskilt UNRWA:s skolor, som under de senaste 25 åren har använt den palestinska myndighetens läroplan för att indoktrinera palestinska arabiska barn att expandera hela Palestina och erövra det med vapenmakt, ett mål som knappast är lämpligt för en FN-organ.
Detta är grundprinciper som UNRWA-kommissionären måste hantera:
- UNRWA:s läroböcker överensstämmer inte med FN:s värderingar om fredlig försoning. Byrån har återinfört en ny skolbok som innehåller hyllning av Dalal el Mugrabi – vars terrorgrupp kapade en buss och mördade 38 passagerare, inklusive 13 barn – texter och bild presenteras som en förebild för UNRWAs elever. I den nya boken porträtterar texten Dalal i full skräckskrud, följt av en lektionsplan som presenterar hennes livshistoria för hyllning och efterlikning.
*Kommissarien bör konfiskera sådana läroböcker.
- UNRWA avtal är användning av den palestinska myndighetens skolböcker i Judéen, Samaria, Jerusalem och Gaza. Som alla FN-organ är det meningen att UNRWA ska driva skolor baserade på FN:s slogan “Peace Begins Here”. PA-utbildning driver dock skolor baserade på ideologin från Palestine Liberation Organization: Conquest of Palestine (Erövring av Palestina) med vapenmakt.
*Kommissionären måste säga upp avtalet mellan UNRWA och den palestinska myndigheten.
- UNRWA:s skolor är prydda med affischer och väggmålningar av “martyrer” som dött medan de mördade judar.
*UNRWA-kommissionären kan beordra borttagning av alla våldsamma sådana bilder i UNRWAs lokaler.
- El Kutla ungdoms och fritidsklubbar i UNRWA:s skolor inspirerar eleverna med mantrat om den väpnade kampen från ung ålder.
*UNRWA-kommissionären bör beordra El Kutla-klubbarna att upphöra med all sådan våldsam hets.
- Militärparader pågår frekvent i UNRWA:s lokaler.
*kommissionären kan beordra ett slut på militärparader i alla UNRWAs anläggningar.
- Hamas terrorgrupper presenterar och rekommenderar kandidater för att finnas i UNRWA som lärare och fackföreningsledare. FN definierar Hamas som en terroristorganisation.
*UNRWA kommissionären bör ställa kravet att alla personer i UNRWA som anställts genom en “Hamas-rekommendation eller har terror avlöning” ska stängas av från lönelistan.
- Nakba-händelser är schemalagda i UNRWA varje 15 maj, dagen då PLO sörjer arabiska arméernas nederlag efter att dessa invaderade Israel 1948. Vid dessa möten uppmanas til våldsamt störtande av den judiska staten.
*UNRWA-kommissionären bör utfärda ett direktiv om att UNRWA avstår från varje deltagande och uppmaning till våld vid Nakba-ceremonierna i UNRWA:s anläggningar.
- Den populära Gazas sångaren Mohammad Assaf, som påstår sig vara “UNRWAs ungdoms ambassadör”, piskar upp folkmassor till våld.
*UNRWA-kommissionären bör utfärda ett policy uttalande om att byrån tar avstånd från Assaf och hans budskap.
- Händelser och ceremonier för att minnas och hedra araber som dött i samaband med terrorattacker pågår kontinuerligt i UNRWA:s skolor.
*UNRWA-kommissionären bör kräva att UNRWA ställer in sådana event.
- Den ekonomiska insynen och systemet där donationsflödet till UNRWA från givarna är nästan omöjlig . 1,6 miljarder dollar kommer otransparent som bidrag till UNRWA från 67 nationer och 32 icke-statliga organisationer, där även kontanta medel. Möjligheten till stöld där bidrag överförs till terrorgrupper eller humanitära medel säljs på den öppna marknaden är idag maximal.
*Det är dags för UNRWA:s kommissionär att begära ett stopp för kontanta betalningar samt insyn så att alla medel och utrustning används enbart för humanitära behov.
- Idag pågår export av UNRWAs skolböcker. Med hjälp av givarländernas diplomatiska bidrag exporterar UNRWA idag skolböcker som uppmuntrar “rätten att återvända” och ersätta Israel med “Palestina”.
*UNRWA-kommissionären bör begära ett stopp för detta.
- Förvirring av UNRWA:s finansiella situation. Vid inget tillfälle har UNRWA någonsin specificerat hur man använder sin budget.
*kommissionären bör kräva omedelbar offentliggörande och en redovisning av alla utgifter.
- Icke-erkännande av Israel på kartan. UNRWA distribuerar världskartor och regionala kartor som har utplånat Israel och ersatt alla israeliska platser med arabiska namn. Bör Israel, som är en FN-medlem med gott anseende, inte få förekomma på en karta som utfärdats av ett FN-organ?
*UNRWA-kommissionären kan nu göra det till sin sak att se till att alla kartor sanningsenligt visar alla medlemmar i FN, inklusive lsrael.
14 . Sommarläger med vapenträning. Under de senaste tjugo åren har tusentals UNRWA-elever i åldrarna 9-16 deltagit och tränats i sommarläger som innehåller vapenträning med autentiska vapen. Detta strider mot FN-resolutioner där barns hälsa och välbefinnande skall skyddas.
*UNRWA-kommissionären bör starkt agera för att stävja vapenträning av barnsoldater.
- UNRWA:s skolor används som arsenaler för vapen, ammunition,missiler och tunnelingångar, vilket bevittnats och avslöjats under tiden det kriget pågått.
*Det är dags för en inspektion av alla UNRWA-anläggningar, även dessa i UNRWAs skolor i Betlehem och Jerusalem, vilka inte övervakas av IDF.
- “Rätten att återvända” bör inte vara det enda alternativet för UNRWA-invånares framtid.
*Organisationen bör tillhandahålla ett UNRWA emigrationscenter, för att hjälpa invånares att flytta från UNRWA och starta sina liv på nytt.
Avtalet mellan USA och UNRWA, som undertecknades den 14 juli 2021, var ett av de mest positiva och konstruktiva initiativen för USA:s utrikespolitik i Mellanöstern
https://israelbehindthenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Analysis-The– US-UNRWA-Accord-reached-on-July-14th-2021-1.pdf
För första gången ställde en stor givarnation villkor för att finansiera UNRWA. Dessa obligatoriska villkor var sådana att UNRWA bara kunde få tillgång till de hundratals miljoner amerikanska biståndsdollar efter att UNRWA tagit bort äroplanen med krigsutbildning.
I augusti 2021 frågade vår nyhets- och forskningsbyrå UNRWA:s taleskvinna om UNRWA skulle ändra läroplanen i ljuset av avtalet mellan USA och UNRWA.
“Absolut inte”, sa UNRWA:s talesperson.
Som ett resultat verkställdes USA-UNRWA-avtalet, till lagens bokstav. Eftersom UNRWA inte ändrade sin läroplan, kom inte ett öre av tilldelat amerikanskt bistånd till UNRWA under dessa två åren.
Detta avtal mellan USA och UNRWA upprätthölls enligt lagen.
Förra veckan blev jag inbjuden att vittna om avtalet mellan USA och UNRWA i Knessets parlamentariska kommitté för säkerhet och utrikesfrågor.
Efter att jag avslutat vittnesmålet om avtalet, vilket innebar att UNRWA inte skulle få tillgång till amerikanska medel förrän UNRWA gjort en förändring i UNRWA:s kursplan, kom en representant från det israeliska utrikesdepartementet som motsatte sig min försäkran. Denne informerade Knesset-ledamöter om att den amerikanska kongressen hade informerat om att USA inte längre kommer att följa USA-UNRWAs avtal.
Med andra ord kommer USA nu att tillåta att medel åter flödar till UNRWA, utan några begränsningar.
En ny era av UNRWA-indoktrinering med rätten att återvända via väpnad kamp kommer nu att bli följden.
*Skribenten David Bedein är chef för Israel Resource News Agency vid Center for Near East Policy Research, beläget vid Beit Agron Center i Jerusalem. Han har tillhandahållit praktisk nyhetsbevakning av UNRWA”” sedan december 1987, assisterad av ett team av judiska och arabiska journalister. som producerande 24 kortfilmer inspelade på plats, tillsammans med två böcker, GENESIS OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY och UNRWA; VÄGSPÄRR TILL FRED, tillsammans med hundratals nyhetsartiklar.
