UNRWA: The good and the bad

There’s been a lot of criticism of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which administers aid to millions of Palestinian refugess. Some have charged it is biased against Israel, employs individuals with ties to terrorists and needs much greater oversight.

But while there may be problems with the organization, the group’s director of Gaza operations, John Ging, didn’t seem to have much of an agenda besides feeding people and keeping them safe. He appeared on Capitol Hill this week at an event for members of Congress and Hill staff sponsored by Reps. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.).

Ging wanted Israel, as well as Egypt, to open up more crossings into Gaza for supplies, saying that having just one crossing open is not adequate to bring in the food, medicine, building materials and other supplies need. He said most Gazans are hungry , although not starving, and only received an "emergency ration" of food than covers just 60 percent of their nutritional needs.

But Ging also stressed that the Israelis who are constantly under rocket fire in southern cities such as Ashkelon and Sderot are also suffering, saying that "there is no justification for firing rockets at civilian targets."

And he said that activists on the issue would be best served by seeing the plight of the civilian population on the other side. He asked "friends of Palestine" to visit Israel and "friends of Israel" to visit Gaza.

Ging also said that UNRWA has stopped using the Commercial Bank of Syria for financial transactions, which the United States says has been used by terrorists to transfer funds. He said the agency used the institution because it had a "massive network of offices," but has conferred with U.S. State and Treasury department officials in recent weeks and is now looking for a different bank to handle UNRWA accounts

Ging didn’t even seem to object to congressional legislation to increase oversight of UNRWA, such as that proposed by Reps. Steve Rothman (D-N.J.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.).

"There has to be accountability," he said in answer to a question.

While not endorsing the bill, Ging suggested that he supported efforts to ensure that UNRWA was focused solely on its job of assisting refugees.

"We should not employ anyone involved in anything other than refugee" assistance, he said, admitting that he had been "betrayed" by staff in the past but has an "active zero-tolerance policy."

Despite what appear to be Ging’s best efforts, though, politics does still seem to be infecting UNWRA. Both Hamas and Fatah claimed victory this week in labor union elections for the organization. That led Ging to write a letter to his 10,000 person staff, according to media reports, threatening to fire employees that are involved with political factions and stressing that "employees must not be under the influence of any political party in the conduct of their work."

That election led Rothman, Kirk and eight other House members to request that the State Department inspector general investigate the influence of Hamas in UNRWA, in particular reports that Hamas won all 11 seats in the UNRWA teachers’ union.

"In our view, UNRWA employees running on the HAMAS slate for the agency’s union elections – and HAMAS’ apparent control of UNRWA schools in Gaza – represents a dangerous influence on the neutrality of UNRWA," write the members. "Therefore, we ask you to investigate and report back to the Congress on whether HAMAS control over the UNRWA teacher’s union violates Section 301(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act." The full letter is after the jump.

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U.S. Department of State

2201 C Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20520

Dear Mr. Inspector General:

On February 11, 2009, we wrote to Secretary Clinton to express our concern over continued U.S. contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

On March 5, 2009, the Department responded to us that it “continued to value UNRWA as an instrumental counterweight to extremism in the region.”  “Significantly,” the Department’s letter continued, “UNRWA continues to prioritize education in Gaza, which we view as a critical investment in the human capital of a future Palestinian state – educated young people are less susceptible to Hamas recruitment and more invested in a peaceful future for their people.”

On March 25, 2009, UNRWA employees held their union elections in Gaza.  According to the Jerusalem Post, the voting was conducted at UNRWA’s main headquarters in the Gaza Strip with some 10,100 UNRWA workers participating in the election – a 97 percent turnout.

According to the Palestinian Information Center and the Jerusalem Post, HAMAS participated in the election and won 17 out of 27 total seats.  Of particular concern, HAMAS reportedly won all 11 seats of the UNRWA teacher’s union, which means HAMAS will control all UNRWA-run schools in Gaza.

As you know, HAMAS is a designated foreign terrorist organization responsible for the murders of 26 American citizens (Annex 1).  We hope you would agree that UNRWA schools run by a HAMAS-controlled teachers’ union cannot fulfill the Department’s stated goals for education in Gaza.

In our view, UNRWA employees running on the HAMAS slate for the agency’s union elections – and HAMAS’ apparent control of UNRWA schools in Gaza – represents a dangerous influence on the neutrality of UNRWA.  Therefore, we ask you to investigate and report back to the Congress on whether HAMAS control over the UNRWA teacher’s union violates Section 301(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act.

Sincerely,

Steven R. Rothman                               Mark Steven Kirk

Member of Congress                      Member of Congress

Shelley Berkley

Member of Congress

Scott Garrett

Member Congress

Bill Foster

Member of CongressSue Myrick

Member of Congress

Jim Gerlach

Member of Congress

Paul Brown

Member of Congress

David Roe

Member of Congress

Dan Burton

Member of Congress