On 65th Anniversary, Looking at UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) and its Hamas Ties

"Back in 2004, confirmation of UNRWA's [United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East] relationship with Hamas came from the very highest level when the U.N. organization's long-time Commissioner-General, Peter Hansen, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 'I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime.'...

According to its critics, UNRWA allows the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to dictate what will be taught in UNRWA schools, including incitement against the State of Israel, the aspiration to martyrdom, and the demonization of Jews. Hamas is alleged to control the UNRWA teaching staff union and through those teachers, feed young and impressionable minds a diet of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic indoctrination. UNRWA vehemently denies this charge...

But in a damning two-part critique of UNRWA published last August and September, Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan Halevi, an expert on radical Islam, reported that in every school, including those run by UNRWA, there is a Hamas appointed representative who, 'serves as a liaison for the group and is responsible for enlisting the students to the 'Islamic Bloc' and for organizing activities in the school and after school hours.'

The Islamic Bloc, according to Halevi, is 'the official wing of Hamas...' Islamic Bloc activities 'are an important means for Hamas to carry out indoctrination of the younger generation, both in state-run schools and in UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip, paving the way for the recruitment of the students to the ranks of Hamas and eventually to the Al-Qassam Brigades,' Halevi reports...

[A]fter 65 years, UNRWA should undergo a thorough review of its finances and its relationships – whether they be by choice or necessity – with designated terrorist organizations such as Hamas. Finally, its perceived lack of impartiality vis-a-vis the ongoing tensions between Israel and Gaza that have led to three bloody and violent military encounters in the last six years must be addressed."