The Journal. - The UN Agency Accused of Links to Hamas

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

Amid a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, no aid group has the reach of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the organization that for decades has provided schooling, healthcare and other assistance to Palestinian refugees in Gaza. But an Israeli intelligence report alleges that 12 UNRWA staff members were directly linked to the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. As WSJ’s David Luhnow explains, the fallout could put millions of lives on the line in Gaza. Further Listening: The Hospital at the Center of Israel’s War on Hamas  For Palestinians Trapped in Gaza, There’s No Way Out  Further Reading A U.N. Agency Is Accused of Links to Hamas. The Clues Were There All Along.  Intelligence Reveals Details of U.N. Agency Staff’s Links to Oct. 7 Attack  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gaza is in crisis. Well, I think all of Gaza has basically been turned into a giant refugee camp. That's our colleague David Luno. You'll see really rivers of people walking, carrying bags of clothes or food, maybe a blanket or two. They're living in makeshift camps and tents. There aren't many toilets. And adding on to the misery, it's been raining nonstop for about 10 days. You know, food's starting to run short.

Some people are using animal feed to make a type of bread. Resources are under huge strain, and most of the aid is being delivered by one relief group. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, better known as UNRWA. Along with emergency aid, UNRWA runs social programs and health and education services for Gaza's 2.2 million people. Multiple aid organizations have warned that no other agency has UNRWA's on-the-ground reach, infrastructure, or capacity. In a place like Gaza, since UNRWA is looking after 80% of the population, I'd say UNRWA is sort of the city bank of the humanitarian world. They're too big to fail. But this week, an Israeli intelligence report

made some grave accusations against the agency. Some UNRWA staff are being accused of having actually taken part or been linked to the horrific attacks on October 7 against Israel that actually kicked off this current war. In the wake of this report, how much trouble is UNRWA in? I think a lot.

It's certainly the biggest blow to the agency since it started. It's a big black eye. UNRWA says it's taking the allegations seriously. But now, the agency's entire operation is at risk, along with the lives of millions. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza.

It's Friday, February 2nd. Coming up on the show, a UN agency under fire and the Palestinians caught in the middle. Embrace the summer vibes We'll see you next time. That's refreshing. That's Summersbee. Must be legal drinking age. Please drink responsibly. Carlsberg Canada, Inc., Waterloo, Ontario. How did this agency, UNRWA, get its start? Well, UNRWA came into being originally in about 1949. The world was awash in refugees right after the Second World War. So one of those groups of refugees was about 750,000 Palestinians that either chose to leave or were forced to leave

during the Arab-Israeli war over the founding of Israel in 1948. UNRWA is unique at the United Nations, and there are a few reasons why. First, it's the only UN agency dedicated to a specific group, the Palestinian people. Also, UNRWA is staffed mostly by locals. The agency was also originally set up to be temporary. So UNRWA was created to provide short-term tents, food, just keep these poor people that were displaced alive long enough to figure out what to do with them. Well, here we are 75 years later, and no one's figured out what to do with them.

Today, UNRWA's staff of 30,000 operate in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. In Gaza, UNRWA is also one of the biggest employers, with about 13,000 workers. Could you give us a sense of the scope of the work that UNRWA does on the ground? Right now in Gaza, they play a really important role. Some people describe them as sort of a shadow government of sorts.

They'll run the sewage systems in these neighborhoods, the water systems. They'll have health clinics. They sweep the streets. UNRWA also provides vocational and teacher training, scholarships, and education. I think it's also worth mentioning they did manage to educate Palestinians to the point where they were probably the best educated cohort in the Middle East. A member of NASA is an UNRIC graduate and one of the people who discovered the COVID vaccine is an UNRIC graduate. They were also a pioneer in education for girls at a time when a lot of countries in the Arab world weren't doing that. So they've racked up some good successes.

world weren't doing that. So they've racked up some good successes. Where does UNRWA get the money to do this, to fund all of these programs? Well, you and I, partly. U.S. taxpayers are the single largest contributors to UNRWA. The U.S. funds about a third of UNRWA's $1.3 billion annual budget. Germany is the next biggest donor, followed by the European Union. A small percentage of its funding also comes directly from the U.N. UNRWA's reliance on foreign donations has meant that how it uses that money is closely scrutinized. One of the agency's chief critics is Israel, and it has long claimed that those resources are being used by militants, including Hamas. Hamas has controlled Gaza since 2007.

The U.S. classifies the group as a terrorist organization. I am sure I've been told by many people that UNRWA has lots of dedicated, good employees, people who really try to do good work. But from Israel's point of view, this is an agency that is infiltrated by Hamas that supports it. One Israeli critic of UNRWA says it's a Palestinian organization with the UN flag. And what evidence has Israel pointed to over the years? Israel has found weapons being stored in UNRWA facilities, either warehouses or schools. We had sources telling us Hamas had tunnels that run under facilities. They've fired rockets from either inside or nearby facilities. Hamas has been very adept at embedding its military capacity very close to civilian institutions.

In 2021, UNRWA criticized Hamas for commandeering one of its schools and for tunneling under its facilities. For years, Israel continued to call for UNRWA to be disbanded. Then came the deadly attacks of October 7th. Then came the deadly attacks of October 7th. After October 7th, at what point did Israel start to look at UNRWA and ask, like, is there a link between the agency and those attacks? I think pretty soon after. We were hearing rumors. We were hearing some rumblings from individuals that some of the attackers on October 7 had direct

ties to UNRWA, were UNRWA employees. But we needed direct evidence of this. Starting in January, we began asking around, trying to get the actual documents. David met with a source with high-level knowledge of Israeli intelligence. met with a source with high-level knowledge of Israeli intelligence. And last month, over slices of pizza at a cafe in Tel Aviv, David was handed a manila envelope. It's one of the first times in my career where, you know, I've had a meeting in a cafe and I've had top-secret documents handed over to me. You're getting a peek into something that you thought existed, but you weren't quite sure. And then you get the full revelation that, yes, this exists, and here's what the material is. The Israeli intelligence dossier that David reviewed draws from information gathered via cell phone location tracking, eavesdropping, physical evidence, and interrogations.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called the intelligence, quote, highly credible. The reports that we got last week, and UNRWA brought them to us, were deeply, deeply troubling. The U.S. has not independently investigated UNRWA. Israel's report directly links a dozen UNRWA employees to the October 7th attacks. So we have seen and reported intelligence documents from Israel that lay out their evidence against these 12 people. They have pictures and names. They've linked them to this agency. They say six of them ran across into Israel. So they've been placed at or near scenes of crimes. Others sort of stayed back on the Gaza side and maybe helped with logistics. One set up sort of

an operating center. One brought an anti-tank weapon. So obviously the idea that a UN agency has people that are committing acts like this have shocked a lot of people. UNRWA denies knowingly aiding Hamas or any militant group. Were there any findings in that report that really stood out to you? I think the most shocking thing was that seven of these were primary or secondary school teachers. So these are the teachers, some of them at UNRWA, that got radicalized. It includes two math teachers and two Arabic teachers and one primary school teacher. One of the Arabic teachers, for example, was traced to the site of a kibbutz where some of the worst killing happened.

97 people were killed there. The report identified him as a Hamas military commander, so he was quite senior. So just sort of connecting those things, these are people teaching kids, and they're committing these horrific acts. I think, to me, that was the most shocking thing, really. UNRWA has questioned the criteria that the report used to connect its personnel to Hamas.

The report's allegations ricocheted around the world, forcing donor nations to confront a dark side to a vital relief group. That's next. Jager breakfast sandwich for only $5 at A&W's in Ontario. Put your hands together for Lady Raven. Dad, thank you. This is literally the best day of my life. On August 2nd. What's with all the police trucks outside? You know, the butcher goes around just chopping people up.

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Israel's intelligence dossier was a geopolitical bombshell. The fallout was swift. At least a dozen countries have suspended their funding for UNRWA, including the agency's main benefactor, the U.S., though American officials have said that the actions of individuals shouldn't taint the entire agency, a sentiment echoed in other donor countries. How are different donor nations navigating this? Are they all in alignment in terms of pulling funding? So for a lot of these countries, they're weighing the pros and cons of suspending aid. On

the one side, you want to send a message to the UN that it's unacceptable for any members of any of its agencies to be involved in an attack like this. But on the other hand, you don't want to make matters worse. You don't want to aggravate the humanitarian situation. So there's some disagreement. The Norwegians, I believe, decided to keep going. In an interview with the BBC, Norway's foreign minister said his country was appalled by the report. Even so, he defended their decision to keep funding UNRWA. To react to that by cutting all funding to UNRWA, which is providing life-saving support to millions of people in the most dire conditions of their life, I think is a very wrong response. Unruh's commissioner general said that pulling the agency's funding

collectively punishes people for the criminal acts of individuals. He's urged nations, including the U.S., to keep money flowing for essential aid. But donor countries are demanding answers. And action. At a press conference this week, America's ambassador to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told reporters the U.S. needs to see, quote, fundamental changes at UNRWA. A reporter pressed her on what that means. When you talked about fundamental changes, what fundamental changes do you want to see?

You know, we need to look at the organization, how it operates in Gaza, how they manage their staff, and to ensure that people who commit criminal acts, such as these 12 individuals, are held accountable immediately so that UNRWA can continue the essential work that it is doing. so that UNRWA can continue the essential work that it is doing. What concrete actions has UNRWA taken in response to all of this? They've fired these employees. The UN has launched an investigation.

I think for now, UNRWA is overwhelmed with the problem on the ground. They've also suffered from this. The agency, I believe, has said they've lost 152 of their own employees during the war. Many of their own employees have lost their own homes. They're refugees themselves again. They're displaced. So they're also suffering. And a lot of them are doing very good work and sort of heroic work, continuing to work in very difficult conditions. In the meantime, the situation in Gaza is worsening.

Unra says if funding isn't restored, the agency will have to shut down operations by the end of this month. That could deepen the humanitarian crisis. At the Rafah refugee camp this week, one local in line for food called the funding freeze a death sentence. For the U.S., the question of whether to re-up UNRWA's funding will come up again this summer. And David will be watching. So, you know, if these allegations aren't cleared up, Congress may well say, hey, you know, we're not sure about providing that kind of thing.

The war may still be going on. UNRWA may face troubles getting emergency donations. I mean, right now it's having to scramble to feed all these people. So if it's trying to raise emergency money, it may have trouble doing that. And that does risk making the situation worse. All of which means that the future of UNRWA might boil down to one central question. Is this a UN agency that has gotten radicalized? Right now it's an allegation.

It's up to other countries to investigate those allegations. It's up to UNRWA to try to get to the bottom of this. And in the meantime, where does this leave Palestinian civilians? So the real tragedy out of all of this, and I think the upshot, is that the real victims here are the Palestinians themselves, the civilians in this. They're stuck in limbo. Their numbers keep growing. The bill keeps growing for the international community.

And no one quite knows what to do. That's all for today, Friday, February 2nd. Thank you. Our engineers are Our theme music Nathan Singapak, and Peter Leonard. Our theme music is by So Wiley. Additional music this week from Peter Leonard, Nathan Singapak, So Wiley, Griffin Tanner, and Blue Dot Sessions. Fact-checking by Mary Mathis and Melvis Acosta. Additional reporting for this episode

from Carrie Keller-Lynn. Thanks for listening. See you on Monday.