UNRWA Funding : Hamas Supporting

"For years, UNRWA has been manipulated by Gaza's corrupt Hamas government in flagrant contradiction of the United Nations stated policy of neutrality."

"[I felt] horrified [at the decision on election of the Trudeau government to reinstate their funding by Canada]."

Peter Kent, former Conservative cabinet minister

"In an exercise for students in a 9th grade class in Gaza, a Palestinian arson attack on a bus carrying Jews is referred to as a 'barbecue'."

"Germany continues to pay for hatred of Jews [headline after investigation by German BILD media]."

BILD tabloid newspaper, Germany

A Palestinian boy wearing a Hamas headband.

(photo credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/REUTERS)

In the Canadian House of Commons, shouts of "shame" in 2016 greeted the news from opposition Conservatives when the newly elected government of Justin Trudeau reversed the decision made by former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government to cut off the UNRWA entirely in 2010, from funding by Canada. The reason for this decision was cited as the arm of the United Nations struck for the particular purpose of giving aid and comfort to displaced Palestinians had become an avenue for terror indoctrination.

UNRWA's focus on their network of 715 schools installed to serve Palestinian 'refugees' saw multiple reports emerging over the years that curricula for the schools had been discovered to be replete with materials referencing Israel as the "Zionist Occupation"; schoolbooks which praised suicide bombers as "martyrs", instilling in Palestinian children admiration for the 'resistance' and patterning them for a future as Palestinian martyrs themselves.

The $25 million annual funding by Canada was reinstated, despite these reports. The minister of international development at the time, stated that "robust control measures" were in play to ensure the funding was not used for any purpose other than supporting the legitimate education requirements of Palestinian children.

Her statement of reassurance notwithstanding, a leaked United Nations report of 2019 found the organization to be wracked with corruption and abuse; UNRWA head Pierre Krahenbuhl, along with a coterie of senior management being accused of "sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other authority abuses in an issue of personal gain, suppressing legitimate dissent and achieve personal objectives". The report was obtained by Agence Fance-Press and became public.

Many of Canada's peer countries took steps to audit their Palestinian aid streams and to identify any funding that might be streamed toward Hamas. The European Commission this week announced an "urgent review of the EU's assistance for Palestine" in the wake of the October 7 weekend invasion of Israel and the vast array of atrocities carried out by terrorists from both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, along with ordinary Palestinian citizens who took the opportunity to join the militias in committing their own stream of inhumane acts of terror.

Canadian funding, stated the Ministry of International Development Canada, is destined to continue moving to Gaza, "while ensuring that no money goes into the hands of Hamas". Gaza actually stands to receive greater funding than previously since months earlier Canada's Liberal government announced an increase in its UNRWA payments, necessary to ensure "peace and prosperity in the Middle East". 

Another $3 million was added to the $100 million pledged over four years, the added amount to be "emergency aid" partially earmarked for Gaza. Former Canadian ambassador to Israel Vivian Bercovici who herself is a stout critic of UNRWA, stated there is no way to ensure that Hamas gets no part of the funds Canada sends to UNRWA. "This is an outright lie. You give the money and there is no transparency or accountability. None."

Since 2007 when Hamas violently took over the Gaza Strip there has been serial redirection of aid funding toward terrorism. A story by The Telegraph recently noted that Hamas has openly published videos of their members digging up water pipes to turn them into rockets after the European Union spent over $144 million to upgrade bulk water pipelines in Gaza.

 

Multiple accusations of providing military support for Hamas have been charged against UNRWA -- or of providing open support for Hamas. A UN investigation in 2014 revealed that UNRWA schools were storing rockets for Hamas. UNRWA claimed innocence in the revelations, said they returned the weapons to "local authorities" so they could be used against Israel at a future date, firing across the border to towns, villages and kibbutzim, the very targets that were hit in Hamas's deadly weekend incursion. 

 

 Several UNRWA employees were suspended in 2015 when a probe by UN Watch found them uploading Facebook posts explicitly calling for violence against Israel. UNRWA schools have long been notorious for materials promoting violence and urging students to pursue the ultimate eradication of Israel. An extensive report funded by the European Union in 2021 analyzed 222 textbooks used in Palestinian schools, those operated by UNRWA included.

 

Images from the January, 2021 IMPACT-se report on UNRWA Palestinian school textbooks. (Screenshot)

Throughout the textbooks, even in math and reading comprehensive textbooks, overtly anti-Israel sentiments were rife. A fourth grade math exercise asked "students to calculate the number of martyrs ... in Palestinian uprisings." 

"[A poem teaches students that to die as a martyr by killing Israelis is a] hobby. The poem glorifies the rejection of a peaceful ceasefire during battle, presenting peace-making as a sign of weakness."

"[Islamic education material depicts Jews as] inherently treacherous, and hostile to Islam and Muslims [including another grammar exercise implying that Jews are impure and defiling the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem]."

"Israel is described as having been implanted by an imperialist, European, colonial, anti-Arab conspiracy with the goal of dividing the Arab world."

"They were drafted, supervised, approved, printed, and distributed to thousands of students by UNRWA teachers and staff, whose names also appear on the materials as contributing to or supervising the content." 

IMPACT-se

In this photo, a teacher supervises while Palestinian schoolchildren take a final exam during the last day of the school year, at the UNRWA Hebron Boys School, in the West Bank city of Hebron. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)