UNRWA Compound Raided After Israel Declared It 'Banned'
The AP carefully notes the UNRWA facility was 'banned from operating on Israeli territory.' But hang on—East Jerusalem, including the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood where UNRWA operates, is considered occupied territory under international law, not 'Israeli territory.' This specific UNRWA compound has been a fixture there since 1950, a direct consequence of the 1948 Nakba that created the Palestinian
refugee crisis. To Israel, international recognition of UNRWA's role is an inconvenient obstacle to annexation and ethnic cleansing. This isn't about 'security concerns'; it's about systematically destroying any institution that provides services or recognition to Palestinians, particularly refugees. After starving Gaza, the Biden administration—which approved $14 billion in new military aid to
Israel (HR 815), according to GovTrack—then turns around and cuts funding to UNRWA based on unsubstantiated Israeli claims, effectively sanctioning a humanitarian crisis. The sheer audacity of raiding a UN facility, then hoisting the Israeli flag, screams unchecked power. One might wonder, how many international norms must be shattered before the 'rules-based order' applies to everyone?