Yet Another Proud Moment for the United Nations

"At present we are dealing with allegations, not findings."
"UNRWA is awaiting the outcome of the investigation and will not hesitate to take firm corrective measures or other management actions as may be required."
UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai

"[The document describes] credible and corroborated [allegations of abuses at the top of the organization, including] sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain, to suppress legitimate dissent, and to otherwise achieve their personal objectives."
Agence France-Presse

A closed section of the UNRWA Hebron Boys School in the West Bank city of Hebron, on May 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

"… The responsibility for the protracted nature of the Palestine refugee-hood, the growing number of refugees and the growth in needs, lies squarely with the parties and in the international community’s lack of will or utter inability to bring about a negotiated and peaceful resolution of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The attempt to make UNRWA somehow responsible for perpetuating the crisis is disingenuous at best. … Our commitment to accountability, strict and sound financial discipline, to setting priorities and acting decisively when the Agency’s neutrality is challenged, are matters of public record. In 2018, UNRWA introduced stringent management measures as its own necessary contribution to overcoming the financial crisis."
“Open Letter to Palestine Refugees and UNRWA”, UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl

Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency Pierre Krähenbühl APAImages/REX

Back in December, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres received a report issued by the ethics office of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The confidential report recently came into the hands of The Associated Press, claiming the top management of UNRWA, Commissioner General Pierre Krahenbuhl in particular, "have engaged in sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority." Interestingly enough, AP wasn't the first to reveal the presence of the report and its details, Al Jazeera was.

Now, the United Nations has taken it upon itself to investigate its own agency. An agency that in fact, should long ago have been disbanded. It is the only refugee relief agency that was ever created for a singular purpose which has continued existence and its original purpose for generations. Of the original 750,000 Palestinian 'refugees' that left Israel when statehood was declared and the combined Arab armies marched on the new state to uproot it and failed for the first time, only to repeat the aggression time and again, UNRWA now supports the originals and their descendants, numbering over six million.

At the same time that Palestinians streamed out of Israel with the intention of returning as soon as Israel was destroyed as promised by its Arab neighbours, 800,000 Jews were expelled by those same Arab neighbours, to find desperate haven in Israel, deprived of their property and personal belongings, all of which had been confiscated by the Arab state governments. No compensation, nor official recognition of the plight of these refugees has ever been suggested by the United Nations.

UNRWA employed the local populations of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, giving much-needed employment to a population whose leaders felt no need to build vital infrastructure for the state they claimed they aspired toward, and where unemployment is rife. Many Palestinians worked in Israel and continue to find employment there. UNRWA, like the Arab nations surrounding Israel, worked hard to ensure that the refugee status of Palestinians would endure. The Arab nations by refusing Palestinians in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt citizenship.

And the United Nations by continuing to view them as refugees, soliciting international donations in support of UNRWA operations and to be distributed directly to the Palestinian authorities. Who themselves have been notoriously corrupt, enriching themselves at the expense of the ordinary Palestinians. UNRWA has been complicit in supporting Hamas and Fatah in their violent conflict with Israel, and under its auspices school curricula for Palestinian children have incited hatred toward Jews and Israel as 'occupiers' of Palestinian land.

The role of 'occupier' was foisted on Israel as a result of the Palestinian culture of 'resistance' and avoidance of 'normalization' of the recognition of Israel whose presence is legitimate and a reflection of a need for restoration of the Jewish homeland for a people whose historical, forced diaspora had continued to suffer vicious discrimination and the violence of ongoing pogroms wherever they settled, eventually leading to the Holocaust.

Corruption within the United Nations, the world body whose ostensible purpose is to promote peace, security and equality has led to groups like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Non-Aligned Group isolating and slandering Israel without end. All too many of the United Nations' extended programs have become dysfunctional parodies of what they are meant to represent. UNRWA is just another of them, riven with corruption and political malice.

Palestinian men pile bags of flour outside an aid distribution center run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the central Gaza Strip refugee camp of Dair Al Balah, on Wednesday. Photo by Ismael Mohamad/UPI

"The government of China supported UNRWA's work for many years."
"This year, with regard to the financial difficulty UNRWA faces, China continues to support UNRWA and its work [to the tune of $1 million]."
China's Ambassador to Palestine Guo Wei 

The U.S. administration decided last year to discontinue its annual funding of UNRWA of $350 million. UNRWA appealed to other nations to take up the slack in its funding to enable it to continue providing the necessities of life to Palestinians, which its own Palestinian Authority and Hamas in Gaza has proven incapable of, including the opportunity for employment in thriving communities which would exist if they refused to expend energy, time and funding to attempts to destroy Israel.