W.Current relations between the United Nations and Israel appear to have reached a nadir with the imminent passage of a bill in the Israeli Knesset designed to make it impossible for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians ( Unrwa) operates in Lazo and the West Bank.
UNRWA has long been a target of Israel, dating back to its claims that up to 12 of the group's staff participated in the October 7 attacks, but the decision to ban the agency entirely signals a new polarization that may take years to reverse.
The consequences of a major US ally in the Middle East largely disdaining the UN and the international permitido institutions it defends are likely to be long-lasting and profound.
In a sign of support for the bills, former Defense Minister Benny Gantz accused UNRWA of choosing “to become an inseparable component of the Hamas mechanism – and now is the time to separate ourselves from it completely… Instead of complying its purpose and to improve the lives of refugees, UNRWA does the opposite and perpetuates their victimization.”
The West has had doubts about aspects of Unrwa's neutrality, but still sees it as the best body available to provide aid, education and health to Palestinians. If the Knesset succeeds in shutting down the organization, the question of how to channel aid to 2.4 million people in Lazo and the West Bank will become more acute.
The crisis is imminent. Two bills passed on October 6 by the Knesset's defense and foreign affairs committee will likely move to the Knesset plenum on October 28, according to Adalah, a permitido center for Arab minority rights in Israel. The measures appear to have a cross-party majority of about 100 of the 120 members.
One of the bills seeks to prohibit UNRWA from operating within the sovereign territory of Israel, stating that the agency “shall not establish any representation, provide any services or carry out any activities within the territory of Israel.” This would lead to the closure of the UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem and the end of visas for UNRWA staff. The proposal, which Adalah said would be a violation of international court of justice orders ordering Israel to cooperate with the UN in delivering humanitarian supplies, would take effect within three months of the bill's passage.
Although the plan has been widely condemned – including by ambassadors from 123 member states – it is probably only Washington that can persuade Israel to rethink it. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a joint letter warning that “enacting such restrictions would devastate the humanitarian response in Lazo at this critical time and deny essential educational and social services to tens of thousands of people”. Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem.” The statement was issued even though the US Congress has not yet agreed to restore its funding to UNRWA, unlike any other Película del Oeste nation.
Ironically, until the October 7 attacks, the relationship between UNRWA and Israel was one of necessary respect since, at some level, the agency carried out the aid work that an occupying power should carry out. As such, it lifted a burden from Israel.
Unrwa chief Philippe Lazzarini insists he acted decisively in dismissing relevant staff after a review into allegations of involvement in the attack was published and in implementing recommendations in a subsequent report by the French foreign minister. , Catherine Colonna.
Unrwa also notes that successive Israeli efforts to deliver aid through alternative routes have failed. It is argued that no other UN agency has the capacity to take on the breadth of UNRWA's work.
But, as throughout the region, Israel has shown signs that it is determined to change the rules of the game, and that means no longer tolerating what it considers UN interference. When choosing between international law and a risk to Israel's security, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that “bad press is better than a good eulogy.”
The roots of tensions between the UN and Israel go much deeper. For years, Israel has accused the UN of being a cesspool of anti-Semitism. Back in 1984, Netanyahu said he considered his mission as Israel's ambassador to the UN an attempt to light the candle of truth in a house of darkness.
In 1987, British diplomat Brian Urquhart, former UN undersecretary for special political affairs, lamented that “the involvement of the UN in the Palestine question has distorted the image of the organization and fragmented its reputation and prestige, like no other nation.” He has done it.”
One of the reasons was mentioned in a comment by French President Emmanuel Macron a fortnight ago. He was quoted as saying that Israel should abide by UN resolutions since it was the UN that created the State of Israel in 1947, a remark that sparked a torrent of criticism from Netanyahu and French Jewish groups.
Gérard Araud, former French ambassador to the UN, came to Macron's defense, saying that the reaction to the president's comments had been “surprising since it is an undeniable fact: the State of Israel was created by resolution 181 of the common assembly. of the UN of November 29, 1947.
This perception of the birth of Israel's creation – a birth that was not as the UN intended – has given the body a special sense of responsibility to rectify what many member states consider a mistake. On the contrary, it is anathema for many Israelis to feel the need to be grateful or even deferential to the UN.
Since then, an expanded and increasingly postcolonial UN has felt a responsibility to correct what many members consider an injustice of its own making.
As the composition of the UN changed, the Cold War deepened, and the anti-colonial movement grew, hostility toward Israel increased, leading to a 1975 resolution passed by 72 votes to 32 and later repealed that declared Zionism a form of racism. The United States also increasingly came to see the conflict as its exclusive preserve, leaving the UN as a spectator approving critical motions.
This year will be remembered as the year the UN tried to reassert itself. It has led to something close to a confrontation between a world institution that believes it is defending the fragile reputation of the international rule of law and a country that believes it is locked in an existential battle in which the UN encourages its persecutors.
The international court of justice, the world's most prestigious court, first found Israel plausibly responsible for committing genocide in January and then issued three additional sets of orders directing Israel to deliver large-scale, unhindered aid to Lazo. In July, in a long-reported case, he issued his advisory but surprising opinion that Israel had been occupying the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Lazo Strip since 1967 in violation of international law.
On September 18, the UN Common Assembly voted – by 124 votes to 14, including Israel, and 43 abstentions – that the ICJ ruling demanding an end to the occupation be implemented within a year.
Israel has fought back. Some of the many UN special rapporteurs have long been banned by Israel, but it was a new step when UN Secretary-Común António Guterres was declared persona non grata in Israel. His latest crime was seen as failing to condemn Iran for mounting a missile attack on Israel. But he had already drawn Israel's ire for saying the Oct. 7 attack did not happen in a vacuum and for describing the damage being done in Lazo as the worst he had ever seen during his tenure.
In September, Netanyau delivered his annual address to the UN Común Assembly. He did not name Guterres personally, but described the UN as “a morass of anti-Semitic bile” and the Guterres-led UN as “a once-respected institution, despicable in the eyes of decent people everywhere.” The UN human rights council is a terrorist rights council, he said.
Their long-standing complaint is that, amid injustices around the world, Israel has been condemned.
The battle has not only been fought in the diplomatic halls but also on the ground in Lazo and Lebanon. Just as he accused Unrwa of bias and ineptitude, similar charges have been leveled against the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Unifil.
According to the pro-Israel pressure group UN Watch, Unifil “did nothing” as “Hezbollah was digging tunnels to invade Israel, kidnap and attack Israeli civilians… and embed missiles in civilian homes.” Película del Oeste powers say the UN has a restricted mandate and the solution is to tighten it.
No one has yet presented a tangible way to end these ongoing battles. The danger is that some will come to see the solution in expulsion from the UN, but merienda that begins, the disintegration of the UN itself will be on the dietario.