Albanese, Wong warned of UNRWA Hamas terror link

Controversies over alleged anti-Israel bias and brazen collusion with Hamas and other terrorist groups have surrounded the UN Relief and Works Agency for decades. None have been as bad, however, as weekend reports that members of UNRWA’s 13,000-strong staff in Gaza actively participated in Hamas’s barbaric October 7 pogrom that slaughtered more than 1200 Jews in the worst such mass killing since the Holocaust. Foreign Minister Penny Wong, rightly, has wasted no time aligning Australia with other nations, led by the US, that have “temporarily paused” their funding of the agency following the UNRWA’s announcement it has dismissed 12 staff because of the monstrous allegations of direct participation in the massacre.

But it is unfortunate Senator Wong and Anthony Albanese did not act on the clear warning they were given by Jewish community and business leaders on December 19 when told of “mounting evidence” the UNRWA “has been aiding and abetting Hamas, including during the horrific October 7 attacks”. As Cameron Stewart reveals on Monday, a letter sent to Senator Wong and Mr Albanese warned that the UNRWA “has allowed Hamas to use its buildings to launch rocket attacks into Israel, store weapons and build tunnels”. The agency’s officials, they were told, “openly celebrated the October 7 attacks”. A report to the US congress by UN Watch last week confirmed “a Telegram group of 3000 UNRWA teachers in Gaza celebrated” the massacre. Identified by their names and work contract details, the UNRWA employees were seen praising Hamas’s “holy warriors” and praying for them to murder Israelis. “O God, tear them apart”, “kill them one by one”, “leave none of them behind” and, “execute the first settler on live broadcast”, The Wall Street Journal reported the employees as saying.

For years the UNRWA has been accused by Israel of fostering opposition to its existence and of falling under Hamas’s influence. Yet Australia has been among its major funders. It has been since 1951, two years after the agency was set up, ostensibly to “care for” Palestinian Arabs who had fled or been forced to flee their homes during the wars surrounding the creation of Israel. During her recent Middle East visit, Senator Wong announced an additional $21.5m in funding for “occupied Palestine”, including $6m specifically for the UNRWA. The Albanese government must ensure there is no rush to restore its flow of Australian funding. Nothing can excuse the alleged behaviour of UNRWA staff, which includes shocking evidence given by a recently released Israeli child hostage who was held in the attic of a UNRWA teacher’s house. Senator Wong’s assertion on her recent trip, when she defended it as the only agency capable of providing health and education services to Gaza, looks dubious. The government cannot be unaware of years of allegations surrounding the UNRWA.

It is deeply disturbing, too, that the UN’s principal legal entity, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, relied on UNRWA reports in reaching its decision, announced on Friday, in the case of alleged “genocide” in Gaza brought against Israel by South Africa. The judgment may not have turned out quite as the post-apartheid government in Pretoria, Hamas terrorists’ closest ally outside the Middle East, hoped. There was no conclusive decision that Israel is committing “genocide”, nor demands for a ceasefire or Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza.

But the ICJ brought contempt on itself by falling for South Africa’s denial about the savagery of Hamas as the real perpetrators of the bloodshed taking place. By an overwhelming majority, it concluded that while the charge of genocide had not been proved, it was a “plausible” charge that warrants further investigation. That has given hope to the terrorist-supporting regime in Pretoria where President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ministers have taken to wearing keffiyeh Palestinian scarfs to show solidarity with Hamas’s terrorism. As commentator David Horovitz wrote in The Times of Israel: “It is from Hamas, not Israel, that Gaza’s innocent non-combatants need to be protected by international measures. Were it not for Hamas, they would not be in danger. There would be no war.’’ Not a single Arab state supported South Africa’s case.

Amid united concern over the alleged conduct of UNRWA staffers, Western nations should support the latest efforts to secure the release of more hostages. The Wall Street Journal reports CIA director William Burns is in Paris for meetings with Qatari leaders and Egyptian and Israeli officials aimed at achieving an initial pause in fighting for six weeks and a gradual release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners. It would be a constructive step towards ending the war.