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philippe lazzarini
'Grotesque': Israeli Knesset Bans UN Agency in Charge of Humanitarian Aid in Gaza
"This legislation not only contravenes the basic principles of human rights that led to the U.N. General Assembly's founding of UNRWA, but also violates a range of Israel's international legal obligations."
Oct 28, 2024
Over a year into Israel's obliteration of the Gaza Strip, Israeli lawmakers faced sharp criticism on Monday after voting for a pair of bills targeting the United Nations agency responsible for humanitarian aid in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.
The first bill, which says that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) "will not operate any missions, won't provide any service, and won't hold any activity—directly or indirectly—in the sovereign territory of the state of Israel," passed the Israeli parliament 92-10.
The second legislative proposal—under which the Israeli agency that handles humanitarian issues, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), will have to cut off contact with UNRWA—passed the 120-member Knesset 87-9. Critics called the votes "grotesque" and "outrageous."
The Israel-based organization Adalah said in a statement that "despite widespread international pressure and condemnation, the Knesset has nearly unanimously passed two bills aimed at dismantling UNRWA, all while Israel continues its genocidal assault on Gaza and intensifies violence across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem."
"This legislation threatens a vital lifeline for over 2.5 million Palestinian refugees throughout the occupied Palestinian territory," the group warned. "It represents a deliberate attempt to fundamentally undermine UNRWA and its essential mission of supporting the relief, education, and human development of Palestinian refugees. Specifically, the laws aim to strip Palestinians—who were forcibly displaced from their homes during the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 war—of their status as refugees and their right of return."
The United Nations General Assembly created UNRWA in 1949, in the wake of the Nakba, or "catastrophe," when more than 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homeland to establish the modern state of Israel—whose officials have claimed without providing evidence that a dozen of the agency's 13,000 staffers in Gaza were involved with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
"This legislation not only contravenes the basic principles of human rights that led to the U.N. General Assembly's founding of UNRWA, but also violates a range of Israel's international legal obligations, including those under the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court," said Adalah. "The international community must hold Israel accountable."
Although Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its war on Hamas-controlled Gaza—which has killed at least 43,020 people and injured another 101,110 since last October—governments around the world have not acted to stop the bloodshed. The U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden's administration have even provided Israel with billions of dollars in military aid and blocked cease-fire resolutions at the United Nations.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration finally threatened to cut off weapons if the Israeli government does not take "urgent and sustained actions" to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within 30 days. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's letter specifically raised concerns about the legislation that passed the Knesset Monday.
Asked about the Israeli bills on Monday, Matthew Miller, a U.S. State Department spokesperson frequently slammed for his statements about Israel, pointed to the secretaries' criticism of the legislation in the recent letter and acknowledged that UNRWA serves the West Bank and plays "an irreplaceable role" in Gaza, where Palestinians are starving to death.
Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam's regional director in the Middle East and North Africa, said Monday that "Israel has bombed Palestinians to death, maimed them, starved them, and is now ridding them of their biggest lifeline of aid. Piece by piece, Israel is systemically dismantling Gaza as a land that is autonomous and liveable for Palestinians."
"Its banning of UNRWA today is condemnable and another step in this crime," she argued. "The decision will further undermine the ability of the international community to provide sufficient humanitarian aid and to save lives in any safe, independent, and impartial way. UNRWA was not only the biggest and most established agency that has been delivering aid and sustenance to the people of Gaza for years, it was also a thread that connected them in some hope of solidarity and security to the United Nations."
"We are in no doubt that Israel and its allies are fully aware of the terrible consequences that this decision will have on Palestinians living in Gaza, many of whom are already starving," she added. "We join others in warning again that this will result in more death, more suffering, and more forced displacement of people from their besieged homeland. It is impossible not to believe that this is their aim."
Leading up to the votes, human rights advocates have been sounding the alarm. On Saturday, over 50 groups including Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, and ActionAid released a joint statement demanding action and warning that "dismantling UNRWA would be catastrophic for Palestinians especially in Gaza and the West Bank as they are deprived of essentials such as food, water, medical aid, education, and protection. It will also have catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, where essential humanitarian aid is crucial for both the refugees and the host communities."
Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general, delivered a similar warning on social media Monday, declaring that the Knesset action not only "is unprecedented and sets a dangerous precedent" but "it opposes the U.N. Charter and violates the state of Israel's obligations under international law."
"This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to Palestine Refugees," he continued. "These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell."
"It will deprive over 650,000 girls and boys there from education, putting at risk an entire generation of children," Lazzarini added. "These bills increase the suffering of the Palestinians and are nothing less than collective punishment."
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'The Smell of Death Is Everywhere': UN Staffers Issue SOS for Northern Gaza
"On behalf of our staff in northern Gaza, I am calling for an immediate truce," said UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.
Oct 22, 2024
Staffers with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees issued a message of desperation to the international community on Tuesday as U.S.-armed Israeli forces continued their devastating and increasingly deadly assault on famine-stricken northern Gaza, besieging the area's hospitals, attacking shelters full of displaced people, and obstructing the delivery of critical aid.
Relaying reports from agency workers on the ground, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said in a statement that the people remaining in northern Gaza "are just waiting to die" amid squalid conditions, deprived of food, water, and medical treatment with nowhere safe to move.
"Nearly three weeks of non-stop bombardments from the Israeli forces as the death toll increases," wrote Philippe Lazzarini. "The smell of death is everywhere as bodies are left lying on the roads or under the rubble. Missions to clear the bodies or provide humanitarian assistance are denied."
"On behalf of our staff in northern Gaza, I am calling for an immediate truce, even if for few hours, to enable safe humanitarian passage for families who wish to leave the area and reach safer places," Lazzarini continued. "This is the bare minimum to save the lives of civilians who have nothing to do with this conflict. Cease-fire now."
Israeli forces have killed more than 600 people in northern Gaza over the past 17 days—likely an underestimate of the true death toll, given the difficulty of tallying casualties amid relentless bombing that has trapped many under the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings.
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has called on the U.N. to declare northern Gaza "a disaster zone that requires immediate action."
"Israel must be pressed to cease its attacks on civilians, allow the provision of life-saving emergency aid, and end its violent genocidal campaign," the group said.
Over the weekend, the U.N.'s humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories said that the Israeli military had denied "an urgent request from the United Nations to access North Gaza to assist in rescuing dozens of injured people trapped in rubble."
"In the past two weeks, Israeli forces increased their pressure on these hospitals to be evacuated, but patients had nowhere to go. Patients, medical staff, and displaced persons were injured," the official said. "At the Indonesian Hospital, two patients died due to a resulting power outage and lack of supplies; some medical staff had to flee for their lives. The facility is no longer operational."
One nurse at the Indonesian Hospital toldReuters that the Israeli army was "burning the schools next to the hospital, and no one can enter or leave the hospital
Meanwhile, Middle East Eyereported Monday that Israeli soldiers have been "systematically raiding schools" in northern Gaza and "marching out the displaced people sheltering there at gunpoint."
"According to witnesses, Israeli forces are separating men from their families and instructing women and children to flee southward," the outlet reported. "A video from Israel's state news broadcaster showed crowds of people expelled from the besieged Jabalia refugee camp attempting to cross a checkpoint."
Hossam Shabat, a Palestinian journalist reporting from northern Gaza, wrote Tuesday that what's happening in the region amounts to "genocide in the full sense of the word, with homes destroyed, shelters bombed, and displaced people forced to leave their homes and shelters."
"A short while ago, the occupation forces asked citizens to leave the Beit Lahia project area, which now includes the largest number of displaced people from all of the northern Gaza Strip," Shabat wrote.
The latest warnings about rapidly deteriorating conditions on the ground in northern Gaza came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for what his office characterized as "intensive discussions about the importance of ending the war in Gaza, returning the hostages to their families, and alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people."
"You'd have a much better chance of doing all that from your desk in Washington by using your authority to enforce U.S. arms and aid law, as you should have months ago," Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, wrote in response to the stated goals of Blinken's Middle East visit.
Blinken departed for the trip amid sustained outrage over the revelation that he contradicted experts within his own department when he told Congress earlier this year that Israel was not impeding deliveries of U.S. humanitarian assistance to Gaza. U.S. law prohibits the federal government from sending military aid to countries obstructing American humanitarian assistance.
Earlier this month, after Israeli forces assailed the Gaza Strip with the help of U.S. weapons for more than a year, the Biden administration threatened to cut off military aid if Israel's government does not take "urgent and sustained actions" to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within 30 days.
In response to a photo of a crowd of Palestinians in northern Gaza surrounded by rubble and bombed-out buildings, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) wrote Monday, "I can't believe our country won't stop funding and enabling these war crimes."
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'No More Money for Netanyahu's War Machine,' Says Sanders After Latest Gaza Atrocities
"Another school bombed, killing 14 people, including six U.N. aid workers," U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote. "Enough is enough."
Sep 12, 2024
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders reiterated his call for an end to American arms transfers to the Israeli military on Wednesday following the latest deadly attack on a school-turned-shelter for displaced people in central Gaza.
In a social media post, Sanders (I-Vt.) highlighted atrocities committed by Israeli forces over just the past week, including the bombing of a so-called "safe zone" and the killing of an American citizen in the West Bank.
"Now, another school bombed, killing 14 people, including six U.N. aid workers," Sanders wrote. "Enough is enough. No more money for Netanyahu's war machine."
Israel's bombing of the United Nations-run al-Jaouni school in the Nuseirat refugee camp on Wednesday was the most recent in a string of attacks on displaced people who have been forced by the Israeli military's evacuation orders and relentless airstrikes to crowd into ever-shrinking slivers of Gaza.
The school was sheltering around 12,000 people at the time of the Israeli airstrikes, according to the head of the United Nations.
Israel's military
claimed it was targeting militants. Hospital officials said at least two children were among those killed in Wednesday's strike.
The Israeli attack on the tent city of al-Mawasi earlier this week appeared to have been carried out with 2,000-pound bombs supplied by the United States, killing or wounding dozens of people including entire families.
"The United States is complicit in this individual crime, as well as in Israel's genocide of Palestinians, because it continues to supply Israel with weapons, despite knowing that the Israeli army uses these massively destructive weapons to regularly kill hundreds of civilians," the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a statement Tuesday.
"All nations that cooperate with Israel in committing crimes by providing it with any kind of direct support or assistance must be held accountable, most notably the United States," the group added. "Giving aid and engaging in contractual agreements with Israel relating to the military, intelligence, politics, law, finance, and the media, among other domains that might help its crimes continue, is enabling Israel to commit its atrocities against Palestinians."
The United States has provided Israel with over 50,000 tons of weaponry and other military equipment since the October 7 Hamas-led attack, and the Biden administration recently signed off on a $20 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets, mortar shells, and other wares.
With U.S. support, Israeli atrocities in Gaza continue to mount.
Shortly before the school attack on Wednesday, Israeli forces bombed "a home near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, killing 11 people, including six brothers and sisters from the same family ranging in age from 21 months to 21 years old," news agencies
reported.
"A strike late Tuesday on a home in the urban Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed nine people, including six women and children," the news outlets added. "
The civil defense agency said the home belonged to Akram al-Najjar, a professor at the al-Quds Open University, who survived the strike."
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