by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Israel on Monday (November 4) officially notified the United Nations that the Jewish state is withdrawing from the 1967 agreement through which it recognized and worked with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the Times of Israel (TOI) reports. In informing the UN that it no longer recognizes UNRWA, Israel contends that, as only 13 percent of aid to Palestinians comes through this agency, there are other sources of assistance for them.

The move follows last week’s vote by Israeli lawmakers to approve a bill that bans UNRWA from operating inside Israel on the grounds that a number of the agency’s staff were Hamas members who participated in the atrocities committed against Israel on October 7 last year. That bill will come into effect in three months. UNRWA will still operate in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority territory in the West Bank, and elsewhere.

UNRWA was established in 1949 to assist Arabs who were displaced following Israel’s declaration of independence on May 14, 1948, and the subsequent declaration of war against the new Jewish state by Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq on May 15, 1948. Eventually won by Israel, the war saw 750,000 Arabs displaced and housed in refugee camps in surrounding Arab countries rather than being absorbed as citizens.

UNRWA has been providing humanitarian aid, services, and education to the descendants of the original refugees, who now number around 5 million. The Palestinians are the only group to have their own UN organization; all other refugees are taken care of by the UN’s High Commissioner for Refugees.

Israeli Foreign Ministry Director-General Jacob Blitshtein sent the letter announcing Israel’s revocation of its recognition of UNRWA to UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang of Cameroon, TOI reports. “Israel will continue to work with international partners, including other United Nations agencies, to ensure the facilitation of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not undermine Israel’s security. Israel expects the United Nations to contribute to and cooperate in this effort,” the letter reads.

In a statement, Foreign Minister Israel Katz added: “UNRWA — the organization whose employees participated in the October 7th massacre and many of whose employees are Hamas operatives — is part of the problem in the Gaza Strip and not part of the solution. The UN was presented with endless evidence about Hamas operatives working at UNRWA and about the use of UNRWA facilities for terror purposes, and nothing was done about it.”

Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.

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