UN Watch’s Legal Advisor Dina Rovner appeared on ILTV with Emily Schrader to discuss UNRWA’s ties to terrorism and Israel’s legal authority to outlaw the organization.
Emily Schrader: Following the Israeli Knesset’s vote to ban the UN agency UNRWA, Israel is facing increasing criticism from the international community, even after UNRWA’s links to Hamas have been exposed in recent months.
Despite the controversies, UNRWA has failed to reform their more radical ties, which included employees who took part in the October 7th massacre, school textbooks which praise and insight violent antisemitism, and UNRWA facilities being used to store Hamas weapons.
Now here to discuss the situation is Dina Rovner, the Legal Adviser for UN Watch. Dina, I want to thank you so much for joining us today. I would love to start by getting your take on the legal argument here. The UN is already condemning Israel’s new bill outlawing UNRWA, with some calling it justification for expelling Israel from the UN. Is Israel within their legal right to do what they’re doing? And why?
Dina Rovner: First of all, thank you for having me, Emily. It’s great to be on your program. And in response to your question, certainly Israel is within its legal rights. I mean, no country should be forced to accept an organization operating within its territory that threatens its very existence and the safety of its citizens, whether it’s a UN entity or otherwise. And that’s exactly what UNRWA is.
You know, I’ve heard UN humanitarian officials like the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UN Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, saying things like this is a violation of the UN Charter, and my response to that is no, the opposite is true. UNRWA’s continued existence is a violation of the UN Charter, because instead of promoting peace and security, UNRWA perpetuates conflict and war.
It keeps the Palestinians in perpetual refugee status, giving them this false dream that they have a right to return into sovereign Israeli territory. And we know exactly what that looks like. We saw it on October 7th, with the horrific atrocities, massacres, rapes, torture, and mutilation. When Palestinians talk about the right of return, this is what they have in mind, and this is exactly what UNRWA represents.
Emily Schrader: Now we are running out of time. I know we don’t have enough time to hear all of the good information that you have, but I know that UN Watch has actually exposed a lot of UNRWA’s corruption in Gaza. What can you tell us about why this organization really needs to be shut down?
Dina Rovner: As you know, our research has exposed that UNRWA has been totally infiltrated by Hamas, and unfortunately, the Western leaders of the organization and UNRWA’s donors are in complete denial, and they’re unwilling to do anything about it.
I mean, we saw just last week when Israel killed Mohammad Abu Itiwi. This was an UNRWA employee who was also at the same time a Hamas commander who led the raid on that Re’im shelter where Hersh Goldberg-Polin was taken. His arm was blown off, and then he was taken hostage into Gaza. In July, Israel gave his Mohammad Abu Itiwi’s name to UNRWA with a list of 100 other names and UNRWA completely ignored it. They did nothing. And we’ve been exposing a lot about this.
Fathi al-Sharif, was the Hamas leader in Lebanon until he was killed last month. Hamas eulogized him as their leader in Lebanon, and at the same time, he was also an UNRWA school principal and the head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon. And you know, this wasn’t secret information or anything like that. It was open. It was public. He posted about it all the time on Facebook.
So UNRWA had access to this information, and we’ve been sending them for months details about Fathi al-Sharif’s Hamas involvement, and yet they refused to fire him. They say that they’re investigating. They’re always investigating, and they never take it to the next level. So when an organization is infiltrated by terrorists, it’s not just about a few bad apples, it’s rotten to the core.
Emily Schrader: Absolutely. Well, I want to thank you for all the work you’re doing at UN Watch Dina and, of course, for joining us today on the program to discuss this issue.
Dina Rovner: Thank you so much.
