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The conflict over the UN Refugee Agency for Palestine (UNWRA) is becoming increasingly intense. Voices around the world are calling for the organization to be abolished and its financial support stopped. This comes after UNWRA Director-General Philippe Lazzarini last Friday revealed the alleged involvement of several of his employees in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack.

In an interview, Republican US presidential candidate and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley called for a complete halt to payments to UNRWA. She criticizes the Biden administration for fully resuming the payments, which Donald Trump reversed in 2018 in a dispute with the authority.

The number of countries that have suspended their contributions has now grown to 19, including the EU. According to estimates, this means: About three-quarters of all international payments are currently frozen. On Monday, the responsible European Commission in Brussels called for the aid organization to be assessed by independent experts appointed by the EU.

UN Secretary General António Guterres today, Tuesday, announced a special meeting in New York with representatives of donor countries to convince them to resume cash transfers.

Half of all employees have ties to terrorists

The dispute was sparked by new revelations in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday evening. The extent of the alleged connection between UN officials and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza is said to be much greater than previously believed. The American newspaper wrote that about 10 percent of all 12,000 UNWRA employees in the Gaza Strip had regular relations with Hamas or Islamic Jihad.

About half even have family ties to members of terrorist organizations. In fact, the frequency of associations between male UNRWA workers and radical terrorist organizations exceeds the average for the rest of the male population in the Gaza Strip.

Like the New York Times before it, the Wall Street Journal also quoted this an Israeli intelligence dossier. This was accomplished using “highly sensitive intelligence data,” such as intercepted cell phone conversations, interviews with captured Hamas fighters, or the evaluation of documents recovered from slain terrorists.

The newspaper quoted an anonymous Israeli government official in making the assessment:

The Reuters agency also anonymously quoted an Israeli government official. According to this report, the names of 190 employees who are “hard fighters and murderers” are mentioned in the Secret Service file.

Former head of UNRWA Gaza questions timing of publication

Over the past 24 hours, voices defending UNRWA have also joined the loud chorus of critics. Above all, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken emphasized:

The human rights organization Amnesty International called the suspension of financial support a “cruel decision” and called on the countries involved to reverse it.

The former regional head of UNRWA in Gaza, German Matthias Schmale, particularly questioned the timing of the publication of the allegations, as he said in an interview with “Deutschlandfunk” on Tuesday morning:

Thanks to the current negative headlines about UNRWA, the International Court of Justice’s ruling on the Gaza war has been completely pushed into the background.

Moreover, the current UN representative in Ethiopia considers the report in the Wall Street Journal to be “completely exaggerated”. During his time, workers were “watched very closely” and sanctions were imposed if workers did not adhere to UN standards. This has led to just eight dismissals for improper conduct between 2017 and 2021. However, Schmale himself had to leave the Gaza Strip in 2021 under pressure from Hamas because he was considered too Israel-friendly.

But then it would be entirely possible for the UN to work independently, Schmale continued on the radio. There is currently no alternative to the work of the refugee aid organization. Providing care to two million people in a war situation would not be possible without the proven capabilities of the UN.