The United States and Britain expressed “deep concern” about the Israeli draft resolution banning the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), amid European and Palestinian condemnations.
Yesterday, Monday, the Israeli Knesset approved a draft law prohibiting UNRWA from working in Israel, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that UNRWA employees must be held accountable for what he described as “terrorist activities” against Israel.
The United States expressed “deep concern” about the project, and State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, “We have made clear to the government of Israel that we are deeply concerned about this proposed legislation,” stressing the “critical” role played by the agency in distributing humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. Gaza.
The matter did not go beyond that in Britain, whose Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, said that the United Kingdom was “extremely concerned” about the Israeli Parliament’s approval of legislation banning the activities of UNRWA, and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy described the Israeli move as “completely wrong.”
But the German government “strongly” criticized the draft resolution, and a statement by the Commissioner for Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid Policy, Lusie Amtzberg, said that this step “will make UNRWA’s work in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem impossible… thus endangering vital humanitarian assistance to millions of people.”
In a joint statement, the governments of Ireland, Norway, Slovenia and Spain condemned the Knesset legislation targeting UNRWA.
The joint statement said that UNRWA’s work is indispensable to millions of refugees, and the statement considered the Knesset legislation a dangerous precedent for the work of the United Nations.
The Irish Prime Minister described the vote that took place in Israel to ban UNRWA as disastrous and shameful.
United Nations
As for the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, he warned that the Israeli move sets a “dangerous precedent.”
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In the same context, United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that the Israeli draft law contradicts the United Nations Charter and Israel’s obligations under international law.
On the Arab level, Jordan condemned the Israeli draft resolution, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered this in a statement a blatant violation of international law and Israel’s obligations as the occupying power in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Palestinian
The Hamas movement expressed its strong rejection and condemnation of the Knesset’s vote on a draft law to ban UNRWA’s work in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The movement said that it considers voting part of the Zionists’ war and aggression against the Palestinian people to liquidate their national cause, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes from which they were forcibly displaced by Zionist gangs.
As for the Islamic Jihad movement, it considered the Knesset’s ban on UNRWA’s work an extension of the war of extermination and Israel’s criminal policies.
For its part, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said that it rejects the Knesset laws, the latest of which is targeting UNRWA, and considers it an additional crime against the international system.
It warned of the disastrous consequences of banning UNRWA’s work on Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina announced in a statement, “We reject and condemn Israeli legislation regarding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA.”
Abu Rudeina said that the law “is contrary to international law, and constitutes a challenge to the United Nations resolutions that represent international legitimacy… and aims to liquidate the refugee issue and their right to return and compensation, and this we will not allow,” stressing that the decision “is not only against refugees, but against the United Nations and the world that He took a decision to form UNRWA.”
As part of its measures against UNRWA, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee approved, on October 13, a draft law to ban the work of this UN agency, which paved the way for it to be referred to a second and third reading vote in the General Assembly of the Knesset to become an effective law.
According to the draft law, the 1967 agreement that allowed UNRWA to operate in Israel will be cancelled, and thus the agency’s activities in the country and the occupied Palestinian territories will cease, and any contact between Israeli officials and its employees will be prohibited.
