“Decency would have wanted the director of UNRWA to resign” – L’Express

It is a UN organization which crystallizes tensions around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has been under fire since Israel claimed in January that some of its employees participated in the October 7 atrocities. Its commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini, defended himself by citing “allegations” without proof and denouncing an “insidious campaign” on the part of Israel to put an end to the agency. The report of an independent review group into the neutrality of UNRWA is due to be delivered in the coming days to the UN secretary-general by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna.

Lawyer and former ambassador for human rights, François Zimeray represents families of victims of October 7, including the mother of Jonathan Samerano, a young man who left to attend the SuperNova festival and whose probably lifeless body was taken aboard a ‘an UNRWA vehicle. “How can I explain to Jonathan’s mother that the terrorists who kidnapped and martyred her son had a badge and pay slip from a UN agency?” is outraged today by François Zimeray, who believes that “more than ever, Palestinians have the right to social, educational and health assistance”, but calls for “a thorough overhaul of the missions of UNRWA, its functioning and its governance”. Interview.

L’Express: You are the lawyer of a woman whose son was kidnapped on October 7. What happened that day?

François Zimeray: Like so many other young people who went to dance at the SuperNova music festival, Jonathan was kidnapped and is now given up for dead. His kidnapping was filmed. In this video, men are seen loading her body with others into the back of a white SUV. This vehicle belongs to UNRWA. At first, investigators believed the vehicle was stolen. Then the investigation established that the author of the murderous kidnapping, Faisal Ali Mussalem al-Naami, was an employee of UNRWA. Apparently, this is not an isolated case. Other employees of the UN agency are said to have taken part in the atrocities of October 7. That’s not all, this war has brought to light a reality that has been denounced for years: the existence of Hamas tunnels which serve as dens and weapons caches for terrorists and lead into UNRWA buildings, plugging into their electrical panel.

What response do you expect from UNRWA?

Either the UNRWA leadership was unaware of what was going on with them, and that is a problem of governance, or they knew, and that is a question of complicity. We are talking about very serious facts, an attack of a genocidal nature, “the greatest anti-Semitic massacre of our century”, as the President of the Republic rightly pointed out. This aggression has plunged thousands of innocent people, both Palestinians and Israelis, into misery. How can I explain to Jonathan’s mother that the terrorists who kidnapped and martyred her son had a badge and pay slip from a UN agency? It seems to me that decency would have dictated that this director resign.

The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, defended himself by referring to “allegations” and emphasizing that Israel had not provided proof of these accusations…

It is true that every claim must be verified. But the argument is disingenuous, because this information was deemed credible enough that several employees suspected of committing atrocities were immediately suspended. This means that Mr. Lazzarini considers these facts as so many individual excesses which did not involve the organization he leads. For him, governance would have nothing to do with it, even though the warnings had been given for a long time. His response does not live up to the tragedy. It is an attitude which is neither worthy of an official supposed to embody the values ​​of the United Nations charter nor respectful of donors, of taxpayers, who should be able to be assured that their funds are correctly used.

I add that the rigor with which we question the facts must be the same for all parties. We can only be shocked to see criticism of the sources coming from people who take at face value all the other information that comes to us from Gaza, for example the shooting of the hospital attributed to Israel even though it came from Hamas , or the figures repeated over and over again which come from the Hamas “Ministry of Health”, which no one has ever been able to verify…

Do individual abuses involve the responsibility of an entire organization?

This is a question that every manager must ask themselves. It seems to me that October 7 is not a simple news item but a historical tragedy, carrying a cascade of suffering. I add that UNRWA is not an organization like any other either: it involves the UN, the donor countries, it must act for peace and not sow hatred. It seems to me that this is also the meaning of History, that of end-to-end responsibility, which requires increased vigilance, this is true for companies, it is a fortiori true for international institutions.

What can institutions do against hatred?

The best example is Europe, which was not only built by coal, steel and the euro, but was first built by a new approach to education, Franco-German Youth Office [Ofaj]. At that moment, we learned to look at the hereditary enemy with other eyes, to call it with other names. The complete opposite of what UNRWA does, whose teachers use teaching materials that have been poisoning the souls of children for generations.

You were an ambassador for human rights. What do you basically criticize UNRWA for?

I went to Gaza, to the Palestinian camps in Lebanon, to Sabra and Chatila, I had unforgettable encounters there. I know that there are men and women there who are our equals in dignity and to whom I connect a universal fraternity. I have seen the work of UNRWA, there are positive, essential aspects. But I also know that, over several generations, UNRWA has contributed to the perpetuation of antagonisms. It is a totally derogatory organization which establishes a hereditary refugee status and constantly rekindles the embers of a utopian return to ancestral land. I have always been strongly opposed to Jewish settlements, but Israel is not a colony, it is a legitimate state, except in the rhetoric for which UNRWA should have no tolerance.

All over the world, refugees are destined to integrate. What happened to the million Jews expelled from Arab countries, which UN agency came to their aid? At home, in Europe, many of those who campaign for a better reception of migrants and for their integration are not surprised that in Syria, in Lebanon, Palestinians have never been accepted, that the right of blood prevails over that of the ground. As if, for these Arab countries, integrating the Palestinian refugees of 1948 meant legitimizing the existence of Israel which they have always refused.

And then there is this functional porosity with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which UNRWA does not classify as terrorists and with which it deals on a daily basis to accomplish its missions. In short, UNRWA participates in this implicit consensus for the non-resolution of the conflict, at the expense of the peoples of the region, first and foremost the Palestinians. Since 1949, the UN agency has contributed to pouring salt into a wound that the years have not healed.

Should France, which relies on the conclusions of an independent committee responsible for evaluating the neutrality of UNRWA, continue to finance this organization?

More than ever, Palestinians have the right to social, educational and health assistance. But can this aid – which absorbs a considerable part of the world’s humanitarian contribution – be done without control or evaluation? Should it go through UNRWA or through neutral and specialized operators who have proven themselves elsewhere in the world, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), UNICEF and certain NGOs, for example? ? Concerning public funds, France must conduct its own evaluation, for example by the Court of Auditors.

Is there not today an exploitation by the Israeli right of this subject in order to call into question the very existence of UNRWA?

There is, on the one hand, the Israeli government, which wants “the skin of UNRWA” and, on the other, the Secretary General of the United Nations, who wants at all costs to “save UNRWA”. What strikes me is that no one asks the question in these terms: has this institution fulfilled its mission? Has it, in seventy years, effectively served the cause of peace? Is she sufficiently independent? Do we have sufficient visibility on our actions? These questions are legitimate and the Israeli left has been asking them for decades.

Given the alarming humanitarian situation in Gaza, is it really the time to question the role of UNRWA?

On the one hand, this is the worst time, because the Palestinian civilian populations are being hit very hard and they have more than ever the right to be rescued and assisted. On the other hand, after what happened, we cannot ignore these questions: how did UNRWA not realize that a massacre of the magnitude of that of October 7 was being prepared with some of its employees, in its infrastructure and using its equipment? What is its share of responsibility in this tragedy from which so many innocent civilians on both sides suffer? It is therefore imperative to maintain emergency aid – and even provide massive aid for reconstruction after the conflict – and completely overhaul UNRWA’s missions, its functioning and its governance.