THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 127, May 20, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
DEFUND UNRWA
By Asaf Romirowsky
THE UNITED NATIONS RELIEF & WORKS AGENCY & ITS INVOLVEMENT IN THE ISRAELI-ARAB CONFLICT: UNRWA AS
FACILITATOR, INSTIGATOR, & PROMOTER OF PALESTINIAN ARAB TERRORISM -- UNRWA AS A MAJOR CAUSE &
PERPETUATOR OF THE ISRAELI-ARAB CONFLICT, INCITING A WHOLE GENERATION OF PALESTINIANS TO TERRORIST
VIOLENCE AGAINST THE STATE OF ISRAEL -- THE POLITICAL & MILITARY ALLIANCE BETWEEN UNRWA & HAMAS -- HOW
TO END THE THREAT: DISSOLVE UNRWA & TRANSFER ITS FUNCTIONS & FUNDING TO OTHER, LESS POLITICIZED
AGENCIES
FULL STORY:
A few days ago, an Israeli air strike killed a member of a Palestinian missile team that had been firing rockets from Gaza.
Now, the United Nations has come out with an unusual statement of bewilderment and utter shock as the truth has come
out. The dead man, Awad al-Qiq, was a UN employee and Headmaster of a top prep school in Gaza. He was also the
chief rocket-maker for Islamic Jihad.
Mr. Al-Qiq — not surprisingly, a science teacher — worked for one of the schools run by the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Now that he is out of the rocket business, the
employment of such a "respectable" individual by the sole UN agency devoted to Palestinian refugees deserves an
explanation.
In a new report by the Global Research in International Affairs Center, weitten by this author and Professor Barry Rubin,
UNRWA: Refuge of Rejectionism, the case is made that this group is a major cause of the continued Arab-Israeli
conflict, the incitement of a whole generation of Palestinians to terrorist violence and even the suffering of the refugees
themselves.
The report's recommendation is simple and workable: UNRWA should be dissolved and its functions divided between the
far more effective and depoliticized UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Since Hamas came to power in 2006, Palestinians in the new Islamic state of Gaza have been crying out for more and more
UNRWA aid. Historically, UNRWA has been the main vehicle for the perpetuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict in the United
Nations. Where once it was charged with resettling Palestinians, its explicit mandate in recent decades has been to maintain
them in the camps where Arab states left them some 60 years ago. Education, health, and limited vocational training are
provided, just enough to keep Palestinians as "refugees." UNRWA is an apparatus that maintains the status quo — a huge
bureaucracy with no incentive to move toward a resolution of the Palestinian refugee problem. This arrangement is ripe for
abuse.
As one of the largest employers in the host countries with Palestinian refugee camps, UNRWA is staffed mainly by local
Palestinians — more than 23,000 of them, with only about 100 international UN professionals. The pattern of hiring within
the served population is unique in the UN system. By contrast, UNICEF (to cite one example) avoids employing locals who
are also recipients of agency services, considering it a conflict of interest. The UNRWA bureaucracy has created an
infrastructure for Palestinian dependency. Refugees, now in their third generation, rely on the services UNRWA provides
and have no incentives to plan or implement solutions that may endanger their livelihood by rendering UNRWA's services
obsolete.
It was under the leadership of former UNRWA Commissioner Peter Hansen that the organization's complicity with terror
was openly exposed. In a statement to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Mr. Hansen admitted: "I am sure that there
are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll, and I don't see that as a crime."
As Hamas' genocidal agenda has become impossible to cover up, UNRWA has now resorted to professions of shock and
promises of "zero tolerance." For some, UNRWA's affiliation with terrorism is not a detraction, but an added value that
shows "diversity." As Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, notes:
". . . humanitarian and charitable institutions throughout Palestine
employ personnel, regardless of sectarian or political affiliation
and offer services on a similar basis. Thus, UNRWA, NGO-run
institutions [and] public hospitals and clinics, for example, employ
members of different political groups such as Fatah, the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hamas and Islamic Jihad,
without reference to their belonging to a specific group."
As we look for ways to crack down on terrorism and terrorist activity, looking at UNRWA is a good start. American taxpayer
dollars fund approximately one-third of UNRWA's operating budget. UNRWA provides food, medicine, economic aid, jobs,
radical education, political opportunities, and even logistical assistance to Hamas and other extremist groups. UNRWA's
budget, which exceeds $365 million, is funded by many nations, but the United States and other Western nations are the
largest contributors.
Cutting off UNRWA's budget would be detrimental to Hamas in Gaza, which would be forced to either provide services to
Palestinians or admit it has no intention of doing so. It would also send an important message to the United Nations, which
perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem and lends legitimacy to groups like Hamas through UNRWA's continued
existence.
Transferring UNRWA's services to other agencies, notably the High Commission for Refugees, which has a long and
productive experience, would be another important move. And lastly, actually having the Palestinian Authority take
responsibility for the social services, if it is to truly govern the Palestinian people, would send a signal to all parties that a
future state of Palestine would be prepared to live in peace with its neighbors and itself.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The United Nations, Its Agencies, & U.S. National Interests
Israel & the Arabs -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Asaf Romirowsky is an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum and the Manager of Israel & Middle East Affairs for the
Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
The foregoing article by Romirowsky was originally published in the Washington Times, May 19, 2008, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/1896)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
May 20, 2008
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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