Nina-Bytes: Israel’s Quest to Dismantle Palestinian Relief Agency Continues
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Lies, Intimidation, and an Engineered Famine in Gaza
Israel’s monstrous longstanding quest to destroy the United Nations Works and Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees continues, and to the surprise of precisely no one who has been paying attention, the United States is also complicit. Last week IDF Chief of the General Staff lieutenant general Herzi Halevi, who is effectively leading Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, presented the UN with a proposal to dismantle the UNWRA and theoretically fold its duties into other UN programs that probably can’t handle the job; a crassly deceptive maneuver that is reportedly being supported behind the scenes by American diplomats. For more information, let’s check out this March 31st, 2024 report by Julian Borger and Ruth Michaelson in The Guardian:
Israel lodges proposal with UN for dismantling of Palestinian relief agency
“Some UN officials see the Israeli plan as an attempt to portray the UN as unwilling to cooperate if there is famine in Gaza, which humanitarian organisations have warned is impending. On Thursday the international court of justice, which is examining genocide charges against Israel, ordered the Israeli government to take “all necessary and effective measures” to ensure the large-scale delivery of aid to Gaza “in full cooperation with the United Nations”.
Some inside the UN, other aid agencies and human rights groups also see the Israeli proposal as the culmination of a long Israeli campaign to destroy UNRWA.
“If we allow this, it is the slippery slope to us being completely managed directly by the Israelis, and the UN directly being complicit in undermining UNRWA, which is not only the biggest aid provider but also the biggest bastion of anti-extremism in Gaza,” one UN official said. “We would be playing into so many political agendas if we allowed this to happen.”
This of course occurs in the middle of an open genocide against Palestinian people in Gaza being perpetrated by the government of Israel and the IDF; a genocide which includes bombing hospitals, gunning down civilians, and a deliberately engineered famine seemingly designed to starve over a million Gazans to death. Furthermore, Israel’s justification for its attacks on the only relief organization capable of providing sufficient food aid, medical care, and other vital services to a territory already in the grip of famine remains completely unproven accusations against the UNWRA by the very same Netanyahu government engaging in that genocidal campaign of collective punishment. Indeed, an independent report conducted by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna has cast serious doubts on Israel’s claims, which in turn has caused the occupying Netanyahu regime to accuse the UN of engaging in a “cover up” – accusations which are once again backed up by precisely zero evidence whatsoever.
In exchange for complying with these demands, Israel has promised to allow more food aid into the starving territory, something which the ICJ has already ordered Netanyahu’s government to do regardless; all of which is basically like putting a gun to the heads of hungry Palestinian children in Gaza and saying “agree that our lies are true or the kids get two in the brainpan now, instead of later.” It remains a mystery why anyone would believe Israel’s promise to allow food aid into the territory while it is actively conducting a genocide, has engineered the famine in Gaza itself, and while experts both inside and outside of the UN say no agency besides the UNWRA is even capable of handling the enormous job of providing adequate food aid to Gazans. Apparently however, a complicit Biden administration that continues to supply Israel with thousands of bombs and other armaments with which to continue its collective punishment of Palestinians, in violation of its own laws, is happily prepared to do so.
Meanwhile, the U.S. backed Israeli slaughter in Gaza grinds forward unabated.
– Nina Illingworth
Anarcho-syndicalist writer, critic and analyst.
You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, and on Mastodon.
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