Replace UNRWA!

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, UN Secretary-General Guterres, U.S. President Biden, British PM Sunak, German Chancellor Scholz, EU High Representative Borrell, French President Macron

Enough is enough. UNRWA must be dissolved and replaced.

It has recently been revealed that:

  • 14 UNRWA staff took part in the October 7th massacre
  • 1,200 UNRWA staff in Gaza are members of terrorist groups
  • 3,000 UNRWA teachers were in a Telegram group that celebrated October 7th
  • Hamas built a terror tunnel directly below UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza, hiding a computer intelligence center that was powered by the agency’s electrical grid

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” by this news. Yet for the last decade, UN Watch sent the world body countless warnings about UNRWA staff support for terrorism. Inexcusably, UNRWA refused to meet with UN Watch. UNRWA did nothing — except to attack the messenger.

Only in January 2024, faced with mounting pressure in wake of UN Watch's exposé about the UNRWA Terrogram, Commisioner General Philippe Lazzarini announced an "independent review." On April 20th, the review group found that UNRWA had a "robust framework" for upholding neutrality, and declared the agency to be "irreplaceable" and "indispensable." In fact, as exposed by UN Watch, the inquiry was completely rigged: the investigators were all known defenders of UNRWA.

Even after this review, UNRWA is refusing to fire known Hamas terrorist Fathi al-Sharif who heads the UNRWA teachers union in Lebanon, overseeing 65 schools and 39,000 students.

Sadly, after a massive influence campaign organized by UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese — and despite all the evidence of UNRWA ties to terrorism — many member states have reinstated funding for UNRWA.

That terrorism would find a haven in UNRWA is no surprise. The entire purpose of the agency is to perpetuate grievance, hatred, and war, by refusing to resettle Arab refugees from 1948 and their descendants.

Today, UNRWA absurdly deems 70% of Gaza’s population — who live in what they call Palestine — as “refugees.”

Since its creation in 1949, the agency has brainwashed Gazans into believing that their home is not Gaza, but rather on the other side of the fence, in Israel.

There is a direct line between this narrative, part of a radicalization process that took place over many years in UNRWA schools, and the invasion of Israel by thousands of Gazan terrorists breaking through the fence and massacring Israeli civilians on October 7th. For Hamas, they were merely exercising their UNRWA-promoted “right of return.”  

The lie that UNRWA’s humanitarian work is “irreplaceable” is now being used to further entrench the agency’s poisonous ideology of Palestinian “return” to Israel.

Don’t let your government continue spending your money on the radicalization of Gaza. Humanitarian aid and UNRWA’s toxic mandate must be immediately decoupled.

Aid should flow through other agencies which already operate in Gaza, and which are experts at this task everywhere else in the world, such as the WHO, the World Food Programme, or UNICEF.

Enough is enough. It’s time to stop the perverse logic of an agency that perpetuates war. It’s time to replace UNRWA.

#ReplaceUNRWA

Petition by
UN Watch
Genève, Switzerland

To: Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, UN Secretary-General Guterres, U.S. President Biden, British PM Sunak, German Chancellor Scholz, EU High Representative Borrell, French President Macron
From: [Your Name]

Enough is enough. UNRWA must be dissolved and replaced.

It has recently been revealed that:

• 14 UNRWA staff took part in the October 7th massacre
• 1,200 UNRWA staff in Gaza are members of terrorist groups
• 3,000 UNRWA teachers were in a Telegram group that celebrated October 7th
• Hamas built a terror tunnel directly below UNRWA Headquarters in Gaza, hiding a computer intelligence center that was powered by the agency’s electrical grid

UN chief Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” by this news. Yet for the last decade, UN Watch sent the world body countless warnings about UNRWA staff support for terrorism. Inexcusably, UNRWA refused to meet with UN Watch. UNRWA did nothing — except to attack the messenger.

Only in January 2024, faced with mounting pressure in wake of UN Watch's exposé about the UNRWA Terrogram, Commisioner General Philippe Lazzarini announced an "independent review." On April 20th, the review group found that UNRWA had a "robust framework" for upholding neutrality, and declared the agency to be "irreplaceable" and "indispensable." In fact, as exposed by UN Watch, the inquiry was completely rigged: the investigators were all known defenders of UNRWA.

Even after this review, UNRWA is refusing to fire known Hamas terrorist Fathi al-Sharif who heads the UNRWA teachers union in Lebanon, overseeing 65 schools and 39,000 students.

Sadly, after a massive influence campaign organized by UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese — and despite all the evidence of UNRWA ties to terrorism — many member states have reinstated funding for UNRWA.

That terrorism would find a haven in UNRWA is no surprise. The entire purpose of the agency is to perpetuate grievance, hatred, and war, by refusing to resettle Arab refugees from 1948 and their descendants.

Today, UNRWA absurdly deems 70% of Gaza’s population — who live in what they call Palestine — as “refugees.”

Since its creation in 1949, the agency has brainwashed Gazans into believing that their home is not Gaza, but rather on the other side of the fence, in Israel.

There is a direct line between this narrative, part of a radicalization process that took place over many years in UNRWA schools, and the invasion of Israel by thousands of Gazan terrorists breaking through the fence and massacring Israeli civilians on October 7th. For Hamas, they were merely exercising their UNRWA-promoted “right of return.”

The lie that UNRWA’s humanitarian work is “irreplaceable” is now being used to further entrench the agency’s poisonous ideology of Palestinian “return” to Israel.

Don’t let your government continue spending your money on the radicalization of Gaza. Humanitarian aid and UNRWA’s toxic mandate must be immediately decoupled.

Aid should flow through other agencies which already operate in Gaza, and which are experts at this task everywhere else in the world, such as the WHO, the World Food Programme, or UNICEF.

Enough is enough. It’s time to stop the perverse logic of an agency that perpetuates war. It’s time to replace UNRWA.

#ReplaceUNRWA