BACKGROUND – TALKING POINTS – ACTIONS – DISPELLING MYTHS – STORIES
These examples of complicity by Palestinian terrorists employed by UNRWA, the UN agency dedicated solely to the Palestinians, led the Israeli parliament to overwhelmingly pass laws that restrict its work in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. The laws were sponsored and widely supported by the coalition government and opposition parties.
UN Employees Killed and Kidnapped Israelis on 10/7
A UN staffer commanded a Hamas terror squad that heinously killed and kidnapped Israelis – including American Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin – from the Nova music festival hiding in a roadside bomb shelter. Muhammad Abu Attawi, recently killed by the Israeli Defense Forces, was a Hamas special forces terrorist – and UN driver. UNRWA admitted after the driver died that he “had been employed by the agency since July 2022 while serving as a Hamas special forces commander.” The UN’s chief mourned his death. The American Israeli hostage became a worldwide symbol of the worst tragedy perpetrated against Jews since the Holocaust. Dozens of UNRWA staffers “actively participated” or assisted in the 10/7 attacks, and about 1,500 workers have active ties to terror groups.
A UN-educated blacksmith also participated in the 10/7 massacre. A UNRWA diploma belonging to Amer Yaser Nazmi Sada was found in a vehicle. The paper certificate showed that he graduated from an UNRWA-Vocational Section at Gaza Community College in 2018 with a diploma in metal works. Hamas has admitted that UNRWA graduates have become terrorists. Others have perpetrated shootings, bombings and rocket attacks.
Teachers and Textbooks Celebrate Terrorists
UNRWA textbooks and their teachers promote antisemitism, encourage violence and erase Israel from the map. The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education published in Nov. 2023, UNRWA Education: Textbooks and Terror:
Some Gaza UNRWA employees openly celebrated the Hamas massacre. Teacher Afaf Talab: “God destroy the Jews and their supporters. Please God, Amen.” Other employees, including teacher Sarah Alderawy, posted video clips of Hamas terrorists shooting Israeli civilians and rocket strikes on Israeli homes. Construction engineer Mahmoud Abu Adhm: “I have never before seen such joy in people’s hearts. This land is not big enough for two nationalities.”
Palestinians Receive Different Benefits
UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, is essentially a Palestinian organization with foreign leaders at the top and funding secured from a variety of countries around the world. Its top three donors in 2022 – U.S. $344 million, Germany $202 million and European Union $114 million – contributed 56% of its funding. Major donors, including the U.S., oppose Israel’s recently passed legislation. The agency operates in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
UNRWA is the only UN refugee organization dedicated to a specific group. Israel supported its formation because it was intended to be temporary, but its mandate continues to be renewed. Unlike all other refugee populations, UNRWA confers refugee status to the descendants of refugees. The Palestinian population in 1949, when the agency was created, numbered about 1.4 million, with half originally classified as refugees. The total has swelled to 5.9 million. Over the years, it has become responsible for providing education, healthcare and financial services. In stark contrast, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees serves all other refugees around the world.
Antisemitic UN Leader Hosted Across America
A celebrated voice among anti-Israel activists is the UN’s special investigator for the Palestinians, Francesca Albanese. Despite a new UN Watch report, Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, documenting her promotion of antisemitism and support for terrorism, NYC’s New School for Social Research, Georgetown and Princeton and other elite universities host Albanese.
Albanese justified the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre on the day of the assault and claimed that Israel’s rescue mission of four hostages in June was an act of “genocidal intent.” The ADL documented her libelous attacks: Francesca Albanese in Her Own Words.
Albanese recently questioned, “How could I ever be an antisemite??” According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, Albanese meets multiple criteria: she promotes common antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish control of Congress, endorses blood libels and compares Israelis to Nazis.
Ask your Congress members to scrutinize funding of UN Palestinian agency
Contact your U.S. Representative and Senators to urge them to support the UNRWA Accountability and Transparency Act introduced in the Senate in February 2023. The bill would withhold U.S. contributions to UNRWA until the schools and other infrastructure it operates are no longer staffed by anti-American and anti-Jewish extremists who promote terrorist attacks against America and Israel.
You might hear: Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. | REALITY: French Catholic priest Father Patrick Desbois is acclaimed for his research on the “Holocaust by Bullets” to describe the 1.5 million Jews shot to death, of the 6 million murdered during the Holocaust. He recently stated: “I think the accusation of genocide is anti-Israel propaganda. The militants come back now to Europe and say they did nothing, like the Nazis did after the Holocaust.”
You might hear: Israel is to blame for civilian deaths in Gaza. | REALITY: U.S. Sen. John Fetterman was recently interviewed by The New York Times: “The death and destruction and the misery was designed by Hamas. They understood that that’s going to happen. They don’t care. So we can both agree that the misery and the deaths in Gaza is terrible. Some people blame Israel. Well, I blame Hamas.”
You might hear: Israel intentionally kills journalists. | REALITY: The Israeli Defense Forces recently provided “unequivocal proof” that six Al Jazeera journalists are actually Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists, including commanders, the head of a rocket launching squad and a sniper. Additional documents showed cooperation between the Qatari-backed network and Hamas. Terrorists masquerading as reporters are not innocent civilians. Unfortunately, some journalists die in war zones because they are inherently dangerous places.
Israel Responds to Iran’s Direct Attack: ‘Industrial factories of death’
The Israeli Air Force recently hit Iranian military sites across the country in an hours-long attack, weeks after Iran launched a missile barrage targeting Israeli cities. Israeli forces strategically struck Iranian air defense systems, drone sites and weapons depots – as well as missile production and launch sites. Satellite images show damage at two secretive Iranian bases. Israel coordinated its attack with the U.S.
Female pilots took on crucial roles in Israel’s mission that included more than 100 Israeli aircraft involved in the 1,000-mile journey to Iran. Israel’s prime minister: “We severely damaged Iran’s defense systems and its ability to export missiles. These are industrial factories of death and we struck them hard.” The Israeli Air Force leader stated that “no enemy is beyond our reach.”
The chief of the U.S. terrorism-designated Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps warned Israel of “bitter, unimaginable consequences.” The Iranian octopus arms, trains and funds terrorists across the region to attack Israel in this multi-front war. Iran supports Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and militias in Iraq. While speculation over a normalization agreement between the Saudis and Israel continues, Iran and Saudi Arabia recently held a joint naval exercise. China brokered a deal last year between the two regional foes.
Other Iranian war fronts include propaganda, cyber-attacks and the economy:
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This content is developed by The Focus Project in partnership with MERCAZ USA. The Focus Project distributes weekly news and talking points on timely issues concerning Israel and the Jewish people, including antisemitism, anti-Zionism and the delegitimization of Israel. It represents a consensus view across a spectrum of major American Jewish organizations. MERCAZ USA recognizes and respects the diversity of views on these issues among its readers and the community at large.