[News] Israel and its allies seek to annihilate UNRWA and the Palestinian people

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Israel and its allies seek to annihilate UNRWA and the Palestinian people
By Ramona Wadi <https://english.palinfo.com/?p=250011>

Monday 29-January-2024 -
https://english.palinfo.com/opinion_articles/israel-and-its-allies-seek-to-annihilate-unrwa-and-the-palestinian-people/

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling on South Africa’s legal
case about Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza is the latest
example of normalizing the settler-colonial entity’s existence and its
actions. In its interim ruling, which consisted of six provisional
measures, the ICJ failed to call for a ceasefire. “Israel must prevent and
punish incitement of genocidal acts,” determined the court in language that
is much reminiscent of the UN’s futile condemnations which have become
normalized rhetoric. The wording used by the ICJ detracts from the fact
that incitement to genocide has already led to genocidal acts, and that by
now, there is an overt and prominent web of international complicity in
them.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared repeatedly that
Israel will continue “defending itself”, a statement that would ring
ludicrous if international law was truly upheld. For what is Israel
defending itself against? A colonized population whose legitimate right to
resist has been annihilated by the colonizer’s complicit diplomatic allies
and which is facing famine, as planned very deliberately by Defense
Minister Yoav Gallant.

When humanitarian “pauses” became the predominant narrative and
humanitarian aid started trickling into Gaza, the relief was inadequate and
Israeli soldiers fired on Palestinians attempting to reach the delivery
trucks. In comparison to the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, Israel’s
attack on humanitarian aid to enforce famine upon the Palestinian
population in Gaza garnered less international attention.

After the ICJ ruling, Netanyahu decided it was time to up the annihilation
ante.

And once again, the focus is shifted away from the Palestinian people and
onto the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine refugees, as nine
countries – the US, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada,
Finland, the Netherlands and the UK – decided to suspend funding to the
agency after Israeli allegations that twelve staff members were involved in
the Hamas incursion into Israel on 7 October last year. No evidence was
presented; just allegations against twelve employees out of 30,000 across
the agency’s areas of operation, upon which the nine governments acted like
the obedient lapdogs that they are.

A UN press release by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman noted
that UNRWA’s Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini was asked to
investigate the allegations, and that “any UNRWA employee shown to have
participated or abetted what transpired on 7 October or in any other
criminal activity, be terminated immediately and referred for potential
criminal prosecution.” Guterres also called upon countries to resume
funding, stating, “The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve
must be met.”

Former UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness pointed out, though, that: “The
Israelis have said they cannot win the war on Gaza unless UNRWA is
disbanded. So what clearer signal do you want?”

Truthfully, Israel is in no hurry to “win” in Gaza. The more it can extend
the parameters of what violence the world will normalize, the more Israel
gains in impunity. However, Gunness makes a valid point in reiterating
Israel’s intent to have UNRWA shut down. Earlier in January, former Israeli
foreign minister official Noga Arbell called for this to happen: “It will
be impossible to win the war if we do not destroy UNRWA.”

Of course, at this very precarious moment, Arbell’s words ring with much
more urgency and clarity of genocidal intent. UNRWA provides essential
services upon which Palestinian refugees depend, despite its many
shortcomings due to the agency’s existence serving the international
community’s humanitarian paradigm which, in turn, serves Israel’s
colonization plans. However, Israel’s concern is that the very existence of
UNRWA points towards its own historical trajectory of ethnic cleansing from
1948 until today, which in turn affirms the need for the agency. It is a
cycle in which only one winner emerges, either way, and Palestinians remain
pawns in the game because UNRWA takes priority, either because Israel calls
for its dismantling, or because Palestinians are in dire need of its
services.

Had famine not reached Gaza, how much would Israel’s renewed attack on the
agency have garnered attention? In 2018, the Trump administration cut off
US funding for UNRWA, and allegations of embezzlement of funds and staff
misconduct surfaced to substantiate the US decision. A similar pattern has
now emerged, this time linking UNRWA staff members to alleged involvement
in the Hamas-led incursion into Israel.

In December, Israeli media revealed a classified foreign ministry report
seeking to eliminate UNRWA from Gaza in three steps: alleged cooperation of
UNRWA staff members with Hamas; a reduction of UNRWA services in Gaza; and
ultimately the transfer of all of the agency’s duties to the entity
governing Gaza after Israel decides that it has quenched its thirst for
death and destruction.

During the Trump administration, the joint US-Israeli aim was to alter the
definition of who qualifies as a Palestinian refugee. Netanyahu has gone
many steps further; without Palestinians in the enclave, refugees or
otherwise, UNRWA would not need to function in Gaza. And this time, it has
the unabashed backing of nine countries so far, all of which are complicit
in using starvation as a collective punishment and weapon of war in Gaza.
Nine countries which have determined UNRWA’s funding levels throughout the
years have now determined a painful extermination for Palestinians.

The latest development should get the entire world thinking and up in arms.
What right does the UN have to determine that Palestinians only qualify for
attention under the humanitarian paradigm; and by what right do powerful
member states – many of them former colonial powers – dictate that
Palestinians in Gaza do not deserve access to the basic essentials that
they need to survive?

Putting UNRWA in the spotlight has been a tactic that Israel has used
frequently, and one that the UN has allowed. UNRWA exists for a purpose
that is more political than humanitarian due to the history that founded
it, and which allowed Israeli colonialism to thrive while preventing
Palestinians from their political right to return to their land and homes.
UNRWA’s almost total dependence on donor countries – many of them Israel’s
allies and all of which are two-state proponents – has in turn forced
Palestinians into what is clearly a vicious cycle of dependency. But the
focus has always been the agency’s survival as an entity, rather than it
being given the freedom to accomplish its objectives for the benefit of
Palestinian refugees. This means that Palestinians have long been
marginalized from the dominant narrative on UNRWA as a result of Israel’s
dehumanization of the population that it has colonized for decades.

The UN has sounded the alarm over the funding suspension, knowing full well
that some of its member states are complicit in Israel’s aim of destroying
UNRWA to make Gaza even more susceptible to annihilation. Since the UN’s
power lies largely with the same member states whose allegiance to Israel
is paramount, what stops this collective imperialist endeavor from
committing genocide against the Palestinian population? They are already
all complicit in this most serious of crimes.

*-Ramona Wadi is an independent researcher, freelance journalist, book
reviewer and blogger. Her writing covers a range of themes in relation to
Palestine, Chile and Latin America. Her article appeared in MEMO.*
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