Over a dozen Members of Knesset from the coalition demanded in a letter to Attorney-General Gali Baharv-Miara on Sunday that she instruct the government to abide in full to two laws that came into effect in late January, banning UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) operations in east Jerusalem and prohibiting Israeli institutions from cooperating with the agency in the West Bank and Gaza.
The MKs, led by Dan Illouz (Likud), argued in the letter that the law was not being sufficiently enforced and blamed Baharav-Miara for delaying the law’s implementation.
The MKs were referring to reports that Baharav-Miara had cautioned ministers to interpret the law in a way that did not violate international law, which grants operational independence to UN agencies, including UNRWA.
The MKs that supported the legislation have argued that the organization in Gaza has been infiltrated by Hamas, that its facilities in Gaza were used by Hamas’ military wing, that some of its employees had participated in the October 7 Hamas massacre, and that UNRWA’s school curriculums included positive attitudes towards violent resistance against Israel.
The laws were passed in January by a large majority, including MKs from the opposition.
“We, the undersigned members of the Knesset, demand the immediate and full enforcement of the laws for closing UNRWA—both the law for severing ties with UNRWA and the law to cease its activities in Israel—according to your responsibility to ensure that state systems operate within the law,” the MKs wrote.
“These two laws were passed in the Knesset by an overwhelming majority. Their wording is clear, and their purpose is unequivocal: to remove UNRWA from operating within the sovereign territory of the State of Israel and to cut off all institutional contact with it.
This is not an ambiguous intention but a clear, binding, and precise piece of legislation that has received the sovereign’s approval,” the MKs wrote.
The MKs listed a series of alleged violations of the law, including that the IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has continued to coordinate with UNRWA; that UNRWA’s bank accounts have not yet been closed; that UNRWA offices in Jerusalem are operating partially; and that services that were previously provided by UNRWA have not yet been transferred to the relevant Israeli authorities.
The MKs listed as sources an independent “Oversight Committee” comprised of a number of right-wing NGOs, as well as closed-door meetings in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
According to the MKs, “Classified and troubling information has been revealed to us as members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, illustrating the extent to which lack of enforcement harms sovereignty, security, and the rule of law.”
They continued, “The failure to implement the law is not just an internal failure—it is also an international humiliation. The State of Israel has taken a firm stance against UNRWA, paid a diplomatic price for it, and presented its position on every possible stage—yet now it turns out that while we speak loudly, we are unable to implement our sovereign decisions in practice.”
The “diplomatic price” in question includes an ongoing case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague, regarding an advisory opinion on Israel’s obligations to facilitate aid to Palestinians that is delivered by states and international groups, including UNRWA. The ICJ heard arguments in late April and has yet to issue its opinion.
Israel did not participate in the arguments at the court and chose instead to file a written opinion. The US supported Israel at the hearing. It relayed Israel’s concerns regarding UNRWA,
They argued that “an occupational power retains a margin of appreciation concerning which relief schemes to permit,” and that “even if an organization offering relief is an impartial humanitarian organization, and even if it is a major actor, occupation law does not compel an occupational power to allow and facilitate that specific actor’s relief operations.”
In an opinion issued a few days prior to the ICJ hearing in an unrelated civil suit, the US Department of Justice reversed an opinion it issued during the previous administration and wrote that while the UN enjoys immunity from legal action in the US, its subsidiary bodies, such as UNRWA, do not.
The letter explained that UNRWA is not classified as a “subsidiary organ” of the UN under the International Organizations Immunities Act.
UNRWA’s six schools in east Jerusalem were shut down on May 8, after the Jerusalem Municipality on April 8 issued orders to all six school principals telling them to cease operations within 30 days.
Three of the schools were within the Shuafat Refugee Camp, and three others were in other east Jerusalem neighborhoods. According to a statement by UNRWA, on the morning of May 8, “Heavily armed Israeli forces, together with officials from the Israeli Ministry of Education and the Jerusalem municipality, forcefully entered the three Shuafat schools with the intention to shut them down.
The forces “detained a staff member, took the ID numbers of staff present and ordered them to dismiss the students immediately. This was at a time when more than 550 students between 6 and 15 years of age and their teachers were present in class.” The other three schools shut down as well prior to the entry of forces.
The agency described the closures as “traumatising 800 young children who are at immediate risk of losing their access to education — they have no alternatives.
Their current school year, which runs until 20 June 2025, has been ended by force.” It added that “UNRWA schools are operationally independent and inviolable under international law. Israel is obliged to protect them, just as it is obliged to protect all other UN staff and facilities at all times.”
UNRWA-run clinics have remained open in east Jerusalem. The Kalandia Training Center, which straddles the border between east Jerusalem and the West Bank, has remained open as well, despite an attempt to shut it down in February.
The training center serves approximately 350 students per year who mostly come from across the West Bank to learn a trade in dormitory conditions. Its demographic is males between the ages of 15-19, mostly from non-academic backgrounds and relatively low on the socio-economic ladder.
COGAT issued the following response: “The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories is fully implementing the 2024 law for the cessation of UNRWA’s activities, which prohibits contact between Israeli authorities and Israeli public officials with the organization. Accordingly, there is no communication or interaction with the organization’s employees—whether in Gaza or in Judea and Samaria.”
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