According to their website, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is “a relief and human development agency that provides assistance and protection for some 5 million registered Palestine refugees to help them achieve their full potential in human development.”
What their website does not say is that even though the original number of displaced Arab residents of British Mandate Palestine was 700,000, the ever-growing number of refugees not only enables UNRWA to meet their contrived humanitarian needs; they use this UN agency to perpetuate their agenda which is not only dishonest and self-destructive; it is also anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.
Keeping with the theme of dishonesty, UNRWA are no strangers to controversy and have vacillated between admitting and denying their role in assisting Hamas during the 2014 conflict as well as their involvement in teaching human rights or promoting human rights violations against Israel and Jews. Some UNRWA staff, including the chief spokesman have been rapped over the knuckles for using Facebook to incite violence against Israelis. In addition, they have a history of erasing Israel on maps and of course, denying it.
In the end of June, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon visited an UNRWA school in the Gaza Strip in which he gave a press conference. Behind where the Secretary-General stood, the Hamas-run domain normally displays a map of the modern State of Israel which it has artfully labelled “historic Palestine”. Suspiciously, during the speech, the bogus map was concealed by a white sheet.
Gazan citizens took to social media to protest the cover-up. The UN, however, was quick to deny any deception by their subsidiary UNRWA, despite pictures being posted on Twitter. UNRWA media advisor Adnan Abu Hasna stated, “During the visit of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in one of the UNRWA schools, the map of historical Mandatory Palestine was not covered.”
While the controversy has been about whether this “Israel-free” flag was or was not covered during the UN Secretary-General’s visit, the bigger issue is the very existence of the flag in the school. It is no secret or surprise that Hamas does not accept the existence of Israel (and in fact has declared to destroy Israel), but it is nothing less than scandalous that a UN-funded school would take part in this propaganda. Where else would you find a UN-funded school which presents a map that excludes a UN member country?
صورة تظهر قيام “الأونروا” بتغطية خارطة فلسطين التاريخية بمدرسة عقد الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة مؤتمراً له فيها اليوم. pic.twitter.com/tpm1hTHNrT
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) June 28, 2016