Three bills intended to cut ties between Israel and UNWRA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, passed their first reading in the Knesset plenum on Monday.
The bills are a response to claims that some members of UNWRA were also members of Hamas’s armed wing, with some even participating in the October 7 Hamas massacre, and that some of the agency’s infrastructure in Gaza is being used by the terrorist group.
The first bill, proposed by five MKs from the Likud and one from Shas, says simply that UNWRA may not “operate any institution, provide any service, or conduct any activity, whether directly or indirectly,” in Israel.
The second bill, proposed by six MKs from Yesh Atid, two from the Likud and one from National Unity, says that agency workers will not enjoy immunity or special rights that other UN workers enjoy in Israel, such as immunity from indictment and some tax cuts.
The third bill, proposed by Yisrael Beytenu’s six MKs, is to designate UNWRA as a terror organization and cut off all ties between Israel and the agency.
All three bills will now move to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to prepare them for their second and third reading.
Full coalition support
The bills received support from all of the coalition parties, as well as some MKs from the opposition parties United Right, Yisrael Beytenu, National Unity, and Yesh Atid. However, Democrats chairman MK Yair Golan argued in a press conference on Monday that while he himself did not like UNWRA, the focus on the agency was unimportant and was being used for political purposes.
Ra’am chairman MK Mansour Abbas argued in the Knesset plenum that designating UNWRA as a terrorist organization was “absurd.” While some of its members may have participated in terror, the vast majority worked to provide aid to people who needed it. Furthermore, it was in Israel’s interest to work with the agency, since without it, Israel itself would need to take over its operations, Abbas argued.
The UNWRA bills are part of a long list of bills that are expected to advance in the Knesset this week, as part of a legislative blitz ahead of the end of the Knesset summer session on Sunday. This will include prolonged sessions in the plenum throughout the week.