In their search for culprits to cover up the catastrophic mistakes their policies have led to, the Israeli authorities have for months been lashing out at the United Nations, and in particular at the agency in charge of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. On October 28, Israeli MPs massively added their voices to this demolition campaign by banning UNRWA's activities in Israel for 90 days.
Under normal circumstances, such a decision would be astounding. At a time when Gaza, pounded for over a year by the Israeli army at the cost of tens of thousands of civilian deaths and destruction on an unprecedented scale, is permanently on the brink of humanitarian collapse, the result of the Knesset vote targeting a key player in the distribution of vital aid adds shame to scandal. The international outcry bears witness to this. Yet this is not Israel's first flagrant violation of humanitarian law. But who has gone so far as to add action to words?
Admittedly, UNRWA's credit has been badly damaged by the participation of a dozen of its employees, out of thousands, in the massacres of Israeli civilians perpetrated by Hamas on October 7, 2023. An international audit conducted by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, however, refuted Israeli accusations of large-scale infiltration of the agency by the Islamist militia, never substantiated to date.
The audit concluded that individual failings could not drag down an agency that remains "irreplaceable and indispensable." This work was judged sufficiently sound for the main donors, including those traditionally close to Israel, such as Germany, to continue to give it the means to save what can be salvaged in such tragic conditions.
Clear calculation by Israel
The calculation is clear to all. The reason Israel is so relentless in its attack on UNRWA is to try to get rid of one of the main points of contention in a conflict that has lasted for centuries: the fate of Palestinian refugees, in addition to that of the territories conquered by force in 1967, including the eastern part of Jerusalem.
Unfortunately, the assault on the United Nations (UN) is not limited to this agency. Its secretary general, Antonio Guterres, was declared persona non grata after making a statement that did not correspond to what the Israeli government would have wanted him to say. In southern Lebanon, intimidation attempts have multiplied in recent weeks against soldiers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, whose departure Israel is demanding, as a counterpoint to its military operations on Lebanese soil against Shiite Hezbollah militiamen.
But targeting the UN with domestic vindictiveness will not get Israel out of the impasse of its strategy of massive retaliation in a narrow strip of land laid waste to carnage. Just look at the latest military operations in northern Gaza, where the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians are once again hanging by a thread, amid widespread indifference. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's inability to imagine the slightest lasting return to peace in Gaza, which would allow the release of the Israeli hostages still being held there, only serves to perpetuate the war and its horrors.