Berlin, Germany (Weltexpress). The shamelessness with which “DLF” on Sunday supported the demand of right-wing extremist Zionists to abolish the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine is unbelievable. Under the current conditions on the ground, this would mean nothing less than supporting the Zionist genocide in Gaza by exterminating and expelling the Palestinians living there as a result of hunger and disease.
With a mixture of misinformation, half-truths or omissions and unsubstantiated insinuations, the government broadcaster Deutschlandfunk (DLF), financed by all of us with compulsory fees, called for the abolition of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine last Saturday in a commentary penned by a certain Ronen Steinke from the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Either the author has no idea about the current situation in Gaza or his pro-Zionist blinkers do not allow him to recognise the enormous humanitarian catastrophe he is calling for with his demand to abolish UNRWA.
A few weeks ago, the supply situation in Gaza was already so bad that the UN warned in a report of an imminent mass starvation to which one in four people in Gaza, especially the weak, children and the elderly, would fall victim in the coming months. Other international aid organisations and international journalists working on the ground in Gaza confirm the UN’s report. But the UN’s estimate of 25 per cent of the total Gaza population dying of starvation is far too low if, in the current situation, aid funds for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine are frozen.
And this is exactly what the beacons of the Western community of values and democracy did just over a week ago. As justification for this blockade of further aid to the UNHCR, the paragons of “Western humanism” cited an accusation from the Israeli propaganda machine that twelve Palestinian employees of the UNHCR were actively involved in Hamas’ armed mass breakout from the Gaza open-air prison on 7 October 2023.
This claim has not been independently confirmed by Israeli intelligence circles. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that this is true. But then what does this much-vaunted Western humanism look like when its protagonists in the USA and the EU, including the particularly zealous German “do-gooders”, are prepared to impose an inevitable collective death sentence of starvation and disease on hundreds of thousands more Palestinian people in Gaza because of it. For that will be the end result of the halt to UNRWA aid that the United States and seven of its Western allies (Australia, Canada, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Finland) announced the weekend before last.
However, the Zionist propagandists have obviously realised for themselves that the alleged twelve bad apples among the 13,000 UNHCR staff in Gaza were a bit too thin a justification for the announced mass murder of innocent people. That’s why they added further reports about alleged close co-operation between UNRWA staff and Hamas in Gaza, which were broadcast unreflectively on DLF.
Here is a sample from the DLF guest commentary by Ronen Steinke: “Even if it really was ‘only’ twelve people who took part in the attacks on 7 October, (…) then the question arises as to how many more probably closed their eyes. Quite deliberately. Of these 13,000 UN employees in Gaza, around a tenth are said to belong to militant Islamist groups at the same time. This was recently reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing intelligence agencies. That actually sounds like a bad joke. But it’s not.”
In fact, it is a bad joke. In view of the many, often grotesque lies that are sent out into the world from the well-oiled Zionist propaganda apparatus – such as the 40 Israeli babies allegedly beheaded by Hamas fighters on 7 October – this Wall Street report taken from DLF, whose source is almost certainly a Zionist secret service, is also not very credible. The DLF commentary continues: “It would be naive to expect the United Nations and its staff to stay completely out of politics in Gaza, not to allow themselves to be infected or compromised by Hamas, without whom nothing would work there, no schools, no hospitals. But as far as the UN relief organisation for the Palestinians has gone in recent years?”
Of course, nothing works in Gaza without Hamas, because it won the democratic elections there in 2006 against the corrupt PLO and has been supported by the people of Gaza ever since because of its social commitment and functioning administration. Consequently, the employees of a foreign organisation in Gaza must work together with the representatives of the local administration, including the local security forces, otherwise nothing will work.
In the next breath, the DLF commentary takes its listeners by the hand to lead them in the wrong direction, because it pretends that the payments made by Western countries to UNRWA are pittance that can simply be cancelled in order to make the Palestinians compliant. However, as we will see below, these payments are based on a commitment by Western, especially Western European countries to the United Nations to use this money to at least partially compensate for their total failure during the first major expulsion of the Palestinians, the Nakba in 1948, and to alleviate the suffering of those still displaced today. The DLF commentary does not even hint at this. The transcript of the DLF commentary continues: “Well, it would also be negligent to continue to accept this [the cooperation between UNRWA and Hamas representatives in Gaza] in the future or even to continue to finance it from Europe. So should we leave it alone? More specifically, should the German government in this case, led by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of the Greens, not just freeze payments to the Palestinian relief organisation, as it has recently done, but cancel them altogether? After all, Germany transferred 83 million euros last year, or to put it more simply, one euro per German citizen (…) The answer? Yes, of course Germany should no longer foot the bill for an organisation [UNRWA] that has gone so grotesquely off the rails and that betrays the interests of the Palestinians in a similar way to Hamas.”
“The Palestinian relief organisation UNRWA is committed to the principle that refugees should strive to return, together with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren – even after 75 years. This means seeing all of life as provisional, not arriving, not looking ahead. This is ideology and so it is only logical that even young children in Gaza schools are taught that there is no peace with Israel, that the only way is through fighting (…) But this is not in the interests of the Palestinians themselves. It is the opposite of helpful. Now would be the opportunity to abolish this speciality. And let the normal UN relief organisation, the UNHCR, take over this job in Gaza.”
What is striking about this and similar comments in propaganda media of the “rule-based secular order” is that the Western model humanists, with their feigned indignation about the alleged twelve rotten apples among the 13,000 UNHCR employees, are furthering the declared goal of the Zionist violent extremists. And that is avowedly to cleanse Gaza of Palestinians or “human animals” – according to the Israeli (defence) genocide minister (Joaw Galant). And this crime also falls within the definition of genocide.
Comments like this one in DLF and the Süddeutsche Zeitung are completely in line with the right-wing extremists and racists in the Israeli government. For example, they are largely in line with the statement made by Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan to the UN Security Council on 29 July 2023, when he said that there is no “right of return” for Palestinian refugees, who in his opinion are “artificially kept in a refugee status” by the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, “which feeds in them the lie that the world supports their right to return”. But that is exactly what the world does, as the recent vote in the UN General Assembly showed by an overwhelming majority.
The DLF commentary is completely in line with the Israeli UN ambassador, which implicitly means that there is no “two-state solution” for the Israeli government and that the Palestinian refugees are not even allowed to return from the neighbouring countries to the West Bank, which is brutally occupied by Israel. Ending the UNRWA relief organisation would bring Israel closer to this goal. The frightening thing is that German government-funded media are joining this extremist Zionist campaign.
Finally, a brief overview of the history of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA):
UNRWA was established on 8 December 1949 by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 302. Its establishment followed the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians as a result of the Israeli conquests of 1948.
Foundation: UNRWA was established to assist Palestinian refugees displaced as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, also known as the Palestinian Nakba (“catastrophe”). The agency was mandated to provide assistance in areas such as education, health care, social services and emergency relief.
First operations: UNRWA began its work in May 1950, providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Its original mandate was intended to be temporary, as the refugees were to return to their homeland of Palestine. But the Israelis have resisted this to this day and this is the core of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian/Arab conflict. This is why UNRWA operations have continued for decades.
Mandate extensions: The UN General Assembly has extended UNRWA’s mandate at regular intervals, usually every few years. Over time, the agency’s mandate has evolved to meet the changing needs of Palestinian refugees, including expanding services and responding to emergencies and conflicts in the region.
Services: UNRWA provides a range of basic services to Palestinian refugees, including education for children, health care, vocational training, social services and emergency relief in times of crisis. It runs schools, clinics and other facilities in the areas where Palestinian refugees live. All these facilities in Gaza have now been razed to the ground by the Israeli soldiery.
Challenges: UNRWA faces several challenges in fulfilling its mandate, including funding shortages, political tensions in the region, access restrictions and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The agency has been criticised by some parties for alleged bias and inefficiency, while others see it as a vital vein for Palestinian refugees.
