The US was left isolated Tuesday in support of Israel’s decision to ban UNRWA at the UN Security Council, while many member states voiced strong backing for the agency’s continued operations.
Dorothy Shea, US charge d’affairs ad interim for UN, told the Council that the US “supports the implementation” of Israeli Knesset’s decision to ban the UN agency for Palestinian refugees’ operations in areas under Israeli occupation.
While UNRWA was mandated by the UN General Assembly, Shea claimed that “it is Israel’s sovereign decision to close UNRWA offices in Jerusalem on January 30.”
“UNRWA exaggerating the effects of the laws and suggesting that they will force the entire humanitarian response to halt is irresponsible and dangerous. What is needed is a nuanced discussion about how we can ensure that there is no interruption in the delivery of humanitarian aid and essential services,” she said.
Shea also claimed that UNRWA is not “the only option for providing humanitarian assistance in Gaza,” and accused the UN agency of “terrorist ties.”
Russia’s UN envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, accused the US of supporting the killing of innocent civilians by providing weapons to Israel and preventing the adoption of Council resolutions.
“The US is also blocking any attempts to craft collective Security Council measures to defend UNRWA,” he said.
Describing Israel’s attempt to shut down UNRWA as a violation of international law, Nebenzia said: “We call now colleagues in Washington to come to their senses and to exert the necessary pressure on West Jerusalem to avoid further suffering on the part of Palestinian civilians.”
Algerian envoy to the UN, Amar Bendjama, said: “The very existence of the Palestinian people in their homeland, their homeland, relies on the services provided by UNRWA.”
“To halt its activities will serve the destructive plan aimed at erasing the presence of Palestinians between the river and the sea,” he said, adding that supporting UNRWA is a shared responsibility.
The UK’s deputy envoy to the UN, James Kariuki, called on Israel to allow UNRWA to continue its “life-saving operations” and “essential services.”
Pakistan’s envoy Munir Akram argued that “Israel has no right as the occupying power to close down any UN facility.”
Stressing that there is no alternative to UNRWA, the French envoy to the UN Nicolas de Riviere noted that the agency not only provides humanitarian aid but also delivers public services.
“It does so at a cost three times lower than the cost of other UN agencies,” he added.
China’s envoy, Fu Cong, urged the Israeli parliament not to implement the UNRWA ban.
Other member states like Denmark, Slovenia, Somalia and Guyana also expressed strong solidarity with the UN agency.
In his address at the end of the session, the Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, reminded the Council that UNRWA was established to mitigate the harm caused by Israeli attacks on the lives and rights of Palestinians.
Noting that UNRWA initially provided emergency relief, Mansour said the agency later took on roles such as promoting human development and rebuilding hope amid deprivation and despair.
He said UNRWA is mandated until “the question of Palestine is resolved in all its aspects, in accordance with international law and the relevant UN resolutions.”
“This latest man-made humanitarian catastrophe (Gaza crisis), an unprecedented crisis, demonstrates the urgency to implement such a solution,” Mansour said.
Stressing the need for a lasting solution to the Palestinian question, Mansour said: “UNRWA staff and humanitarians paid a very high price for their attempts to help a people being deliberately targeted and starved and forced, forcibly displaced.”
He also argued that only UNRWA has the personnel capacity and infrastructure needed to fulfill the duties imposed by the emergency conditions on the ground.
Emphasizing that Israel has no right to “pick and choose who represents the Palestinian people or who represents the UN,” Mansour said Israel “does not get to distort the law and the narrative. It does not get to claim some sort of exceptional status that allows it to commit crimes and enjoy impunity. The problem is not the rules but their breach.”
