The Justice Department has determined that UNRWA has no immunity from suits brought against it in the U.S. for its role in Hamas’s savage 10/7 attack.
In one of the earlier executive orders of Donald Trump’s second term, the president did what his predecessor should have done with respect to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA): he defunded it.
The February 4 edict, which withdrew the United States from participation in some of the United Nations’ most corrupt institutions, prevented taxpayer funds from supporting the organization’s activities in the Middle East. It was a long time coming.
In 2023, Congress paused the transfer of funds to the organization in response to the discovery that UNRWA employees supported and, in some cases, even participated in the October 7 massacre in Israel. “Any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution,” UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said in acknowledgment of his agency’s failures. Yet, save the whopping nine employees UNRWA dismissed in August 2023, the institution has not committed to any substantial reforms.
UNRWA’s lethargy deserves to incur consequences, and it has. This week, the Trump administration dropped another anvil on the U.N.-affiliated outfit’s head.
“The Constitution does not grant immunity to foreign sovereigns or organizations,” a Department of Justice letter addressed to the Southern District Court of New York read. As such, the Biden administration’s view that “certain immunities shielded UNRWA from having to answer” to “American courts” is no longer operative. Neither UNRWA nor “the bulk of other defendants” implicated in the “atrocious crimes” committed by Hamas on 10/7 are immune from prosecution.
Israel Hayom reporters outlined the implications of the administration’s latest maneuver:
UNRWA and its employees involved in the massacre could be ordered to pay substantial compensation to victims and their families if the court rules against them. Furthermore, the U.S. administration’s determination that UNRWA lacks diplomatic immunity could substantially facilitate Israel’s efforts to end the agency’s operations within Israeli territory.
Good. There is no moral or strategic excuse for shielding UNRWA from the consequences of its actions and those of its employees and affiliates. Those actions include the allegations that its schools work with Hamas to steep children in anti-Jewish hatred and serve as weapons depots and staging areas for attacks on Israelis. The Trump administration’s actions don’t go as far as declaring this arm of the U.N. a foreign terrorist organization, as Andy McCarthy has suggested. But that threat can still be held in reserve.
For now, and at long last, UNRWA is a problem for the courts to resolve. Hopefully, justice will be swift.