The Knesset voted through the law on Monday evening. The law states that Unrwa is not allowed to operate in Israel, according to Reuters.
The legislation will enter into force within three months.
The new laws prohibit any contact between Israel or its representatives and UNRWA. Indirect work is also stopped, writes Al Jazeera.
The decision means that Israel will no longer issue entry permits to UNRWA employees or allow coordination with the military. It is a prerequisite for the organization to be able to operate in the area, writes TT.
Israel currently also controls the road into Gaza from Egypt, the so-called Philadelphia corridor, according to Times of Israel.
Unrwa comments on the information in Al-Jazeera, which is quoted by Reuters. The organization describes the decision as a strong escalation.
Israel: Has terrorist connections
Unrwa provides education, healthcare and financial assistance to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank. At the same time, Israel accuses Unrwa of having terrorists among its employees, TT writes.
Israel believes that more than a tenth of Unrwa’s around 13,000 employees in Gaza have “terrorist connections”, writes The Times of Israel.
– UNRWA as an organization is infected by terrorism. Not as a few Unrwa employees want to claim, but it applies to the entire organization, says David Mencer, spokesperson for the Israeli government after the vote.
He says that the organization must be replaced and that it is an image shared by the majority of Israel’s population.
Criticized in advance
The law has previously met sharp criticism from the UN, the EU and the White House.
UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, have said that the stop would “be a disaster”.
Also Sweden and other Nordic countries have expressed their concern before the decision.
The ban may constitute a violation of the UN Charter, reports Israeli Ynet. According to Ynet, in the long run it could lead to Israel’s UN membership being withdrawn.
Unrwa, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, was founded after the war that broke out in connection with the creation of Israel in 1948, with the aim of helping the more than 750,000 Palestinians who were forced to flee.
Today, UNRWA helps around 5.9 million Palestinian refugees. Close to 90 percent of donations come from UN member countries. The USA, Germany, the EU, Sweden and Norway have given the greatest support.
Over half of Unrwa’s budget goes to school education. Around 15 percent goes to health promotion measures, according to figures from 2020.
The UN agency has around 30,000 employees, of which 13,000 are in Gaza. A majority are locally employed Palestinians.
In January, Israel accused UNRWA employees of having links to terrorist-labeled Hamas. The claims caused a number of major aid donors, including Sweden, to almost immediately pause their payments to the aid agency. However, several countries have since resumed their support, including Sweden.
Source: Unrwa, The New York Times and others