A group of more than 100 Israelis, victims of the 7/10 attacks – wounded, kidnapped and released, and relatives of those killed – filed a huge multi-million-dollar lawsuit against UNRWA in the federal court in New York. This is an acceptable legal platform to come to justice with entities that are not in a common state, and such measures have previously served victims of terrorism to obtain compensation from Iran through frozen assets in the west.
According to the lawsuit, UNRWA, the UN’s work and welfare organization dedicated to assisting Palestinian refugees since 1948, directly assisted Hamas’ terrorist attack on October 7, when many of its workers in the Gaza Strip were Hamas operatives. Ditza Heyman, a hostage who was released, even told how her captor was a teacher at an UNRWA school. In addition, the organization is accused of helping Hamas establish itself in the Gaza Strip economically, providing it with physical shelter (when during the war, IDF forces found underground tunnels of Hamas under many UNRWA compounds), which has also been expressed in frequent rocket launches near UN sites over the past decade, and continues to do so today.
In addition, the organization is accused of educating for hatred and incitement against Israel, with Hamas having had a great influence on the materials taught in schools, which are inconsistent with UN principles. Overall, in the war (and before it) it became clear that UNRWA is part of the problem and not part of the solution, with its actions over the past 75 years helping to perpetuate the conflict, and not really bring about the work and welfare and absorption and settlement of the Palestinian refugees. The issue of UNRWA’s funding by various countries around the world has become a central issue in the recent war, and we hope that the loss of hundreds of millions in the framework of this lawsuit will help change something in the way it acts.
