ISRAEL - Outlawing UNRWA
The international community lashed out at Israel after the Knesset overwhelmingly passed two bills that would effectively shut down the United Nations Relief and Works Agency operations in east Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank.
EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell said he was “gravely concerned.” Such a step is in “stark contradiction to international law and the fundamental humanitarian principle of humanity.” He warned that the cessation of UNRWA operations would “only exacerbate an already severe humanitarian crisis, potentially halting essential services such as food, shelter, education and healthcare for millions of Palestinian refugees in these territories.”
Opposition to UNRWA in Israel has grown in the last year as the government has charged that some of the organization’s staff were involved in the kidnapping of Israelis on October 7 and that other staff members are Hamas and Hezbollah operatives.
Belgium spoke out, saying this sets a “very serious precedent for the work of the United Nations and for all organizations of the multilateral system.” In advance of the vote, seven countries issued a joint statement in support of UNRWA: Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesperson for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called on the international community to take “decisive action” against the dangerous legislation.
UNRWA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X, “This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to #Palestine Refugees. Putting an end to UNRWA & its services will not strip the Palestinians of their refugee status. That status is protected by another UN General Assembly resolution until a fair and lasting solution is found to the plight of the Palestinians,” he stated.
-www.jpost.com, 29 October 2024
Arno's Commentary
A number of nations are alarmed at Israel’s outlawing of UNRWA in Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank. Granted, at this time, UNRWA indeed plays “an irreplaceable role right now in Gaza,” according to US spokesperson Matthew Miller, but there is a problem.
According to a Google search, after the Second World War, “between 12 and 16.5 million German speakers lost their homes.” According to Wikipedia, “by 1950, a total of 12 million Germans had fled or been expelled from east central Europe … the West German government puts the total at 14.6 million.” What a tragedy. Yet, it was Germany who initiated the war against Russia and lost it. As always was the law for thousands of years, the loser lost all his rights, and the winner could dictate.
How diametrically opposed the system is where Israel is concerned. Arab Palestinians and the Arab League outright rejected the 1947 UN Partition Plan giving Jews the right to part of the land called by the British, Palestine. War was their answer, and that not once, but over and over again.
Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations continue to publicly proclaim death to the Jews. However, they found a safe haven under the auspices of the United Nations.
The above article from the Jerusalem Post by Tovah Lazaroff noted: “The Israeli Right has long opposed UNRWA, warning that it helps ensure an ever-expanding population of refugees and taking issue with incitement and antisemitism in the education material in its schools.” Instead of solving the refugee problem, the UNRWA became an outlet to supply Arab Palestinians with antisemitic educational materials in its schools.
This writer—who himself was a refugee—has difficulty in finding, during his frequent visits to Germany, those who still call themselves a “flüchtling” (refugee). That’s only part of written history.
According to Google, “as of 2021, there were an estimated 9.17 million displaced Palestinians worldwide, including 8.36 million refugees and 812,000 internally displaced people.” UNRWA has created an Arab Palestinian refugee problem like no one in history.
Conservative estimates place the number of Arab Palestinians displaced at 700,000, with some estimates as high as 1.2 million. Where did the number 8.36 million refugees come from? Simply put, they are not refugees. It’s a falsehood perpetuated and additionally fueled by the United Nations.
What does the Bible say? Nothing will change until prophecy is fulfilled in due time, such as Jeremiah 29:14: “And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.”
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
