"Letter of Complaint- Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner General
On July 3, 2021, UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini, a Swiss citizen, gave an interview to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a respected Swiss newspaper.
In that interview, Lazzarini claimed, 'Gaza has been blocked for fourteen years.' Since UNRWA refugee camps constitute 82% of the Gaza population. Lazzarini would have to know that at no time has the Gaza Strip been sealed off by the naval restrictions that Israel implemented after the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007. Although sea access has indeed been restricted since the takeover, Lazzarini knows that Gaza has fully been open for humanitarian aid and commerce from three crossings: Rafiah towards Egypt, along with Kerem-Shalom and the Erez junction towards Israel.
Why then, would Lazzarini claim that a total blockade of Gaza is in force?
Such an inquiry raises the quesion: Does Mr. Lazzarini represent a UN agency or an organization whose purpose is to denounce Israel?...
The unkindest cut of all, however, is the Lazzarini praise for UNRWA schools as 'an important antidote to persistent violence and widespread hatred.'
Remarkably, it is as though Lazzarini has never seen the actual curriculum of UNRWA schools. This curriculum explicitly promotes the dehumanization and delegitimization of any Jewish presence in the the state of Israel. Instead, UNRWA texts promote armed rebellion against Jewish sovereignty anywhere where it exists.
Lazzarini failed to relate to the fact that even though Israel is part of the United Nations, UNRWA only provides maps which do not depict Israel and which obliterate all Jewish cities with Arab names that replace them.
Since Lazzarini claims that UNRWA education is an antidote against violence, how can UNRWA, for the fourth year in a row, feature an UNRWA textbook that glorifies Dalal Al-Mughrabi, who murdered 35 people in a bus attack in 1978?..."