Knesset Passes 3 Bills Aimed To Shut UNRWA Down In Israel, Declare It A Terrorist Organization

UNRWA said Israel is carrying out a campaign to equate it with the Hamas terrorist organization, and added that the war in Gaza has produced a blatant disregard for Its mission.

JERUSALEM - The Knesset is says that Israel will be declaring the UNRWA organization a terrorist organization and will be severing all relations with it as it approves the first reading of three bills which take aim at the organization.

UNRWA sign. Credit: RomanDeckert, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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UNRWA said in June that Israel is carrying out a campaign to equate it with the Hamas terrorist organization, and added that the war in Gaza has “produced a blatant disregard for the mission of the United Nations”.

The three bills are as follows:

• The first bill passed 58-9 (banning operation of UNRWA in Israel)

• The second bill passed 63-9 (stripping UNRWA personnel of immunity/privileges)

• The third bill passed 50-10 (branding UNRWA a terrorist organization)

In a document entitled “Approved in first reading: UNRWA to be declared by the State of Israel as a terrorist organization; all relations between UNRWA and the state to be severed,” the Knesset, which is the unicameral legislature of Israel which passes Israeli law, said in a sitting on Monday the bill was voted into approval cutting Israeli relations with UNRWA, and declaring it a terrorist organization.

“​In its sitting on Monday, the Knesset Plenum voted to approve in first reading the Bill for Cutting Off the State of Israel's Relations with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and Declaring it a Terrorist Organization, 2024, sponsored by MK Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beitenu) and a group of MKs. In the vote, 50 Members of Knesset supported the bill, versus 10 who opposed it, and the bill will be returned to the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for deliberation.” - Israel’s Knesset

It went on to say, “It is proposed to declare the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) as a terrorist organization. It is further proposed that the State of Israel sever its relations with UNRWA, both directly and indirectly.”

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