UNRWA (continued)
Yesterday I wrote some about how UNRW A was established. Today I want to write about what they are currently involved in doing.
The first thing that needs to be mentioned is that everything UNRWA spends in Gaza frees a similar sum for Hamas to use for other things. Hamas exercises control over everything UNRWA does. UNRWA handles housing in areas designated as ‘refugee camps’. UNRWA provides medical care via clinics that it builds and staffs. And, perhaps the biggest item, UNRWA builds and staffs schools. The curriculum and text books are selected by Hamas, but paid for by UNRWA. Since almost all UNRWA employees are recruited locally (senior administrators being an exception) it is not surprising that many are also Hamas members. A number of them actually participated in the Oct 7 massacre.
What was said about UNRWA in Gaza also applies to Lebanon, Syria, territory under the Palestinian Authority, and Egypt. The Anti-Semitic and anti-Israel content of UNRWA textbooks in schools has been brought to the attention of the UN on several occasions. The UN once ordered a review of the texts used by the Palestinian Authority. They were found to be full of bias against Israel and new. Revised, texts were to be provided (at UNRWA expense). The PA appointed a committee to deal with the problem. New textbooks were prepared. But the only difference between the new and old versions was the cover.
I have a poster in my house that says “Children learn what they live”. In the case of Palestinian Arab children, they have been taught to hate Jews for 4 generations. Post WW II programs to counter German Nazi education took decades to bear fruit, and the Nazis only controlled German education for about a dozen years. In Gaza, UNRWA built facilities, especially schools and clinics were used by Hamas to house military facilities. Weapons and munitions were stored in hospitals; rocket launchers were located in schoolyards, and command centers and barracks were established in both. Hamas worked on the idea that schools and hospitals were protected areas under international rules for war. If Israel was not deterred from attacking then Hamas had some
Wetherhorn 