– It’s a really shocking thought.
This is what someone who worked at the UN organization UNRWA in Gaza commented Merit Hietanen charges that 12 of the organization’s employees were involved in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
Hietanen worked for the organization in Gaza from 2011 to 2015 and in Jordan from 2015 to 2017. In addition to Gaza, UNRWA’s activities focus on helping Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Hietanen, who works as an expert in humanitarian work, says that several of his former colleagues have died in the Israeli attack on Gaza.
According to Hietanen, it will be “really sad” if the charges turn out to be true.
– But on the other hand, it wouldn’t be terribly surprising when you consider that UNRWA has 13,000 employees in Gaza, and it reflects the community and society of Gaza in many ways.
Hietanen emphasizes that UNRWA is a humanitarian organization that is committed to, for example, the principles of independence and impartiality.
He notes that it is common for humanitarian organizations to balance the fact that local workers are part of the conflicts in which they work.
According to him, a lot of work is done at UNRWA to guarantee impartiality and independence, and employees sign the principles of impartiality when they come to work for the organization. In practice, this means that they do not express their opinions publicly.
– I myself have been at UNRWA in a team that trains employees on these issues, says Hietanen.
Hietanen says that he has had discussions with the employees about neutrality issues, but the Hamas connections have not come up.
The rules of the organization are very strict for him, which is also evidenced by the fact that the employees who were the subject of charges were fired before the matter was investigated.
However, the realities of Gaza include that Hamas must accept the work of the organization working in Gaza – otherwise the work cannot be done safely. According to Hietanen, you have to work with Hamas “within the framework of coordination”, but this is considered minimal.
Rotten apples or not?
UNRWA said it themselves last Friday that Israel suspects 12 UNRWA workers were involved in the attack on Israel. Since then, for example, US newspapers have published intelligence information on UNRWA’s activities provided by Israel.
Based on the information, several countries, including Finland and Sweden, have suspended the payment of grants to UNRWA.
There are conflicting opinions about the Hamas connections of the organization’s employees.
According to Israel, every tenth of UNRWA’s 12,000 employees in Gaza are connected to terrorist organizations and half have relatives working in these organizations, the newspaper says The Wall Street Journal.
According to an Israeli official interviewed by the newspaper, who remains anonymous, UNRWA as a whole is a haven for the radical ideology of Hamas.
Served as UNRWA’s communications director for 13 years Chris Gunness said again for the British newspaper Guardian, that “there are 12 bad apples among 13,000 employees”. Gunness worked as communications director until 2020.
According to Israel, relations between UNRWA and Hamas intensified after Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.
Israel has repeatedly accused UNRWA buildings of being used as hiding places for the mouths of Hamas tunnels.
In 2014, UNRWA said that weapons stored by Hamas had been found in its school. According to Hietanen, the school in question was empty at the time of the discovery of the rockets due to summer vacation.
UNRWA schools according to the Israeli research organization IMPACT-se many teachers who worked in UNRWA schools celebrated the Hamas attacks on their social media accounts. According to the organization, UNRWA schoolbooks have contained material inciting violence. IMPACT has visited Finland to lobby for its cause.
One of the people leading UNRWA’s operations in Gaza was fired in 2017 after it emerged that he had been selected for a senior leadership position in Hamas, The Wall Street Journal reports.
After Hamas launched its attack on Israel in October, UNRWA’s ties with Hamas are said to have only strengthened. According to the intelligence report, Hamas today even coordinates the distribution of UNRWA relief supplies.
Juusola: UNRWA cannot be replaced
Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Helsinki Hannu Juusola is not surprised that UNRWA workers are said to have taken part in the Hamas terrorist attack.
– From the history of UNRWA, it is known that it has employees who at least have sympathies towards Hamas, he says.
Juusola reminds that the vast majority of UNRWA’s employees are Palestinians. UNRWA cooperates with Palestinian organizations wherever it operates. Hamas has also reportedly put pressure on UNRWA.
In any case, UNRWA has been a very important actor in the Palestinian camps. A large part of the camp’s residents rely on its food aid. It has also taken care of healthcare and social services. In addition, most of the schools in the Palestinian camps have been maintained by UNRWA.
The boycott measures of the funding countries are a disaster for UNRWA’s activities and thereby for the Palestinian refugees, Juusola estimates. There is no entity in the Palestinian territories that can replace the activities of UNRWA.
According to Hietanen, who previously worked at UNRWA, the idea that UNRWA’s funding would be transferred to other organizations that would continue working in Gaza is unrealistic.
In his opinion, in the current situation, other organizations do not have realistic opportunities to create the same operational capacity and logistics in Gaza that UNRWA has there. According to him, the organization could be compared to a municipality that provides basic services to people.
Juusola points out that even though Israel has been criticizing UNRWA for these problems for years, it still does not want to abolish the organization.
– Israel has done [UNRWA:n kanssa] close cooperation, because they know that in reality they cannot and do not want to take responsibility for this activity.
According to Juusola, the participation of UNRWA employees in terrorist attacks is very sad and condemnable. However, he does not want the entire refugee population to be subjected to a collective punishment with the cessation of aid activities.
– If an alternative to UNRWA is wanted, then a solution should be found to the whole problem of Palestinian refugees, and there has been no political will for that, Juusola sums up.