Israel Moves Toward All-Out War—With UNRWA
11th October 2024
And about time, too.
A series of Israeli legislative, diplomatic, and military actions this month have threatened UNRWA’s presence along the country’s borders like never before. A consensus has emerged in Jerusalem that the agency is part of a terrorist menace that can no longer be tolerated following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“UNRWA encourages terrorism and encourages massacres like Oct. 7,” Dan Illouz, a lawmaker from the ruling Likud party who cosponsored draft legislation meant to kneecap UNRWA, told the Washington Free Beacon, summing up the general sentiment among Zionist lawmakers. “Those things are completely unacceptable, and therefore UNRWA should not exist.”
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Sunday unanimously approved Illouz’s bill, which would bar Israeli officials from having “any contact” with UNRWA or anyone acting on its behalf. All the committee members also voted to advance a related bill that would revoke UNRWA’s authorization to conduct “any activity, either directly or indirectly,” on Israeli territory.