LAST UPDATE | 28 Oct

ISRAEL’S PARLIAMENT HAS passed a bill that bans the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) from working in Israel and occupied east Jerusalem, despite objections from the United States.

Lawmakers passed the bill with 92 votes in favour and 10 against, after years of harsh Israeli criticism of UNRWA, which has only increased since the start of the war in Gaza following Hamas’s deadly October 7 attacks last year.

The ban on the UN agency — which has provided essential aid and assistance across Palestinian territories and to Palestinian refugees elsewhere for more than seven decades — is a blow to humanitarian work in Gaza.

UNRWA workers involved in terrorist activities against Israel must be held accountable. Since avoiding a humanitarian crisis is also essential, sustained humanitarian aid must remain available in Gaza now and in the future.

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) October 28, 2024

UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said that the vote by the Israeli parliament this evening is “unprecedented and sets a dangerous precedent.”

“It opposes the UN Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law,” he said, in a post to X following the vote.

“It ⁠will deprive over 650,000 girls [and] boys there from education, putting at risk an entire generation of children. These bills increase the suffering of the Palestinians [and] are nothing less than collective punishment.”

The US said it was “deeply concerned” about the bill under consideration, reiterating the “critical” role the agency plays in distributing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.

US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller State spokesman urged Israel to “pause implementation” of Knesset legislation banning UNRWA, highlighting its “irreplaceable role in Gaza”.

He warned that it “could have implications under U.S. law,” and the administration “will consider next steps based on what happens in the days ahead”.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy expressed “profound regret” that Israel was “considering shutting down UNRWA’s operations”.

In January, Israel accused a dozen of UNRWA’s Gaza employees of involvement in the October 7 attack by Hamas, which sparked the deadliest war in the territory.

A series of probes found some “neutrality related issues” at UNRWA, and determined that nine employees “may have been involved” in the October 7 attack, but found no evidence for Israel’s chief allegations.

“There is a deep connection between the terrorist organization (Hamas) and UNRWA and Israel cannot put up with it,” Yuli Edelstein, a Likud party lawmaker and one of the sponsors of the bill, said in parliament as he presented the proposal.

“There is no place for enemies in the heart of the capital of the Jewish people.”

A number of UN personnel have already been banned from entering Israel, including UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem, including the annexed east, as its indivisible capital.

The proposed ban, a combination of two different private members bills presented to the Knesset by lawmakers from both the government and opposition, would effectively prevent UNRWA from operating in Israel.

The legislation would also target the agency’s operations in east Jerusalem, where it currently provides some essential services such as cleaning, education, and healthcare in certain neighbourhoods.

“There is a big gap between how UNRWA is viewed by some in the international community and how people in Israel see the agency,” Boaz Bismuth, an Israeli lawmaker who co-sponsored one of the pieces of legislation, told AFP.

UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies have accused Israeli authorities of restricting aid flows into Gaza, where almost all of the territory’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once in the war.

UNRWA itself has suffered heavy losses, with at least 223 of its staff killed and two-thirds of the agency’s facilities in Gaza damaged or destroyed since the war began.

The war in Gaza erupted with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 43,020 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry, figures which the UN considers reliable.

Over the weekend, a statement by foreign ministers from several Western countries slammed the proposed legislation targeting the UN agency.