Given the role that the UN will almost certainly play in Gaza’s reconstruction, an independent investigation of the allegations against UNRWA front-line staffers, as well as of top agency leaders in New York, is urgently needed. In fact, case law in France makes clear that criminal prosecutions also may be justified.
PARIS – There is growing evidence that some employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have been involved in terrorism-related activities in Gaza. If true, and if the problem turns out to be more widespread than is currently known, the implications would be profound. An official UN body being complicit in war crimes would be one of the greatest scandals in the organization’s history.
According to an Israeli intelligence document, a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in Hamas’s attack on October 7, when 1,200 people were murdered and more than 200 taken hostage. “We were shocked, we took this seriously because these were very serious allegations,” UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma told France24. As soon as the revelations were made known, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini summarily dismissed the employees in question. Such a hasty move may suggest that the UNRWA had been turning a blind eye to the problem.
Earlier accusations of the UNRWA tolerating, if not supporting, the dissemination of textbooks encouraging Gazan children to take revenge against Jews seem almost trivial compared to the crimes that its employees are now alleged to have committed. Given the role that the UN will almost certainly play in Gaza’s reconstruction, an independent investigation of the allegations against UNRWA front-line staffers, as well as of top agency leaders in New York, is urgently needed.
PARIS – There is growing evidence that some employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have been involved in terrorism-related activities in Gaza. If true, and if the problem turns out to be more widespread than is currently known, the implications would be profound. An official UN body being complicit in war crimes would be one of the greatest scandals in the organization’s history.
According to an Israeli intelligence document, a dozen UNRWA employees were involved in Hamas’s attack on October 7, when 1,200 people were murdered and more than 200 taken hostage. “We were shocked, we took this seriously because these were very serious allegations,” UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma told France24. As soon as the revelations were made known, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini summarily dismissed the employees in question. Such a hasty move may suggest that the UNRWA had been turning a blind eye to the problem.
Earlier accusations of the UNRWA tolerating, if not supporting, the dissemination of textbooks encouraging Gazan children to take revenge against Jews seem almost trivial compared to the crimes that its employees are now alleged to have committed. Given the role that the UN will almost certainly play in Gaza’s reconstruction, an independent investigation of the allegations against UNRWA front-line staffers, as well as of top agency leaders in New York, is urgently needed.