Exclusive | UN watchdog group urges dismantling of UNRWA for ‘enabling crimes against humanity’

A United Nations watchdog group says the infamous UN relief agency that provides $1.5 billion a year to Palestinians should be disbanded for colluding with terrorists and “enabling crimes against humanity.”

“The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is neither independent nor neutral,” says a scathing new report by the Swiss-based group UN WATCH.

“UNRWA’s senior management not only employs individuals tied to Hamas terrorism but also allows terrorist groups like Hamas to influence and obstruct critical agency decisions and policies.

“UNRWA’s failure to maintain neutrality, combined with its susceptibility to influence from terrorist groups, undermines its credibility as a humanitarian agency and perpetuates conflict in the region,” the group said. “It is time for donors to reconsider their support, dismantle the Agency, and seek alternative frameworks to provide effective aid to Palestinians in need.”

More than 10% of main and senior education staff employed by UNRWA in the Gaza Strip are members of Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to another scathing report published last year.

The UN Watch report included these shocking alleged examples of the relief agency’s ties to terrorists:

• UNRWA Chief Philippe Lazzarini “capitulated” and met with terrorist groups in May 2024 after the suspension of Fathi Al-Sharif, a teachers’ union chief and Hamas leader. The ouster of the Hamas leader led to massive rallies and shut down UNRWA’s Beirut headquarters.
• UNRWA Lebanon Director Schmale thanked terrorist groups at a Hamas rally in August 2018, alongside senior Hamas militant Ali Baraka, who told the crowd that donors must support UNRWA “until we return to Palestine.”
• UNRWA participates in an annual Hamas conference which discusses internal UNRWA affairs such as employee vacancies and teachers union elections. At the 2021 conference, Hamas rep Ahmad Abd Al-Hadi announced the launching of a joint committee to “supervise the relationship with UNRWA and ensure it implements its obligations.”
• UNRWA Lebanon Director Hakam Shahwan told terrorist leaders in February 2017 that UNRWA is “fully prepared” to have “a strong partnership mechanism” with them — as long as it doesn’t appear that they are “partners in decision-making.”
• In 2022, UNRWA’s Lazzarini stressed the importance of a “partnership” with Gaza terrorist groups and regularly met with them under the umbrella of the “Joint Refugee Committee.”

“UNRWA is no longer a humanitarian agency — it has become a full-fledged partner to terrorist organizations like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, to The Post.

“Western taxpayers are funding a $1.5 billion organization that actively collaborates with those who glorify violence and seek the destruction of Israel. This is an outrage,” he said.

Neuer particularly cited UNRWA allowing Hamas leader Fathi Al-Sharif to run one if its schools, which he said amounts to complicity with terrorism.

It’s long past time to dismantle the UNRWA — created in 1949 — and replace it with a credible, terror-free alternative, he said.

“The US and Western nations funding UNRWA need to wake up. Your money is being used to employ terrorists, indoctrinate children and build the infrastructure of hatred and violence. This is a betrayal of your taxpayers and your values,” Neuer said.

The US gave more than $1 billion to UNRWA in recent years — but suspended funding to the relief agency last year after reports of its ties to terror groups.

“We are calling on the new Trump administration to announce not only that the freeze is permanent but that the US will impose crippling sanctions on the terrorist-infested UNRWA and its leaders and will pursue legal action to hold them accountable in a court of law for enabling crimes against humanity,” Neuer said.

The UNRWA had no immediate comment.