Article two of the UN’s founding charter says that countries “shall give the United Nations every assistance” in its work. Meanwhile, international law requires that as an occupying power in Gaza, Israel must agree to relief programmes for those in need and facilitate them “by all the means at its disposal”.
The Knesset decision on Monday to close down the work of the main Gaza relief organisation, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Israel and ban government collaboration with it, is set to seriously disrupt food supplies and deepen the humanitarian catastrophe in the territory. The widely condemned move comes just days after the US belatedly warned Israel that it must take steps to improve the Gaza humanitarian situation or face potential restrictions on military aid.
Norway, meanwhile, is to ask the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ), which recently denounced the occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal, to rule on the legality of the ban. Despite protestations to the contrary, Israel remains indifferent, even hostile, to the international rule of law, not least the wide legal consensus that its continued bombing of civilians in Gaza is grossly disproportionate.
Israel has long demonised UNRWA, alleging it is prolonging and promulgating the case for the “return” of refugees displaced from Israel in 1948 and accusing it of collaborating with Hamas
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Israeli complaints prompted a widespread withdrawal of international funding in January, with the revelation that a dozen Hamas militants involved in the murderous October 7th attack were UNRWA employees. It claimed the organisation was “complicit” in the attack. UNRWA, which employs 13,000 staff in Gaza, fired nine employees immediately and vigorously denies it has been “overrun by Hamas”.
A subsequent inquiry into UNRWA , chaired by former French prime minister Catherine Collona, considered the agency, despite shortcomings, “irreplaceable and indispensable” to Palestinians and urged countries to resume their funding . All but the US have rightly done so.