The legislation, which the U.S. and E.U. oppose, follows revelations about the U.N. agency's complicity in Palestinian terrorism

Israel’s Knesset on Monday made it illegal for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to operate in Israeli territory, and for state officials to cooperate with the agency.

The two laws were passed by a large majority following the exposure of UNRWA staff complicity in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, and despite pressure from the United States and other countries against the move.

The Biden Administration was “deeply concerned” about the legislation, according to an unnamed U.S. State Department official cited by Axios. This echoes language used by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken prior to the vote.

Josep Borrell, the E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, tweeted that the new laws “would de facto render UNRWA’s vital operations in Gaza impossible, and seriously hamper its provision of services in the West Bank.” The laws stand “in stark contradiction to international law and the fundamental principle of humanity,” he added.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini tweeted that the legislation “opposes the U.N. Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law.” 

However, experts on UNRWA, including former Israeli lawmaker Einat Wilf, who has written an acclaimed book about the agency, dispute that the legislation contradicts international law. Israel is not party to any treaty compelling it to engage with the group or allow its activities, Wilf told JNS.

The two laws are by far the most robust parliamentary push by Israel against UNRWA, the largest donors of which are the United States and the European Union. The agency has for decades has been accused of providing cover and income to Palestinian terrorists while undermining peace efforts.

The law that bans UNRWA activity on Israeli territory, authored by Knesset member Boaz Bismuth (Likud) and six other coalition lawmakers, was passed by a majority of 87 of the Knesset’s 120 lawmakers. Nine MKs present voted against the law, one did not vote. The remaining 23 lawmakers were not present for the vote. “UNRWA—United Nations Relief and Works Agency will operate no representation, provide no service or hold any activity, directly or indirectly, in the sovereign territory of the State of Israel,” the law co authored by Bismuth states.

The second law, passed by 92-10, states: “No state authority, including entities and individuals who legally hold public office, will engage in any contact with UNRWA or its representatives.” This legislation was coauthored by MKs Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beiteinu), Dan Illouz (Likud) and Ron Katz (Yesh Atid). “UNRWA will not operate in Israel, their benefits will be canceled, their entry to Israel will be banned. Total Disconnect,” Malinovsky tweeted following the votes.

According to its website, UNRWA employs some 30,000 staff, most of them Palestinians, including 13,000 in the Gaza Strip. It also has staff in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. UNRWA also operates in Jordan and Lebanon.

Being banned in Israel could end UNRWA’s work in Jerusalem and greatly complicate its operations in Gaza and Judea and Samaria, where the organization is at least partially dependent on Israeli cooperation.

In the wake of the Oct. 7th massacres in Israel, in which Hamas terrorists murdered some 1,200 people and abducted another 251, evidence surfaced about the complicity of UNRWA staff in those atrocities and other acts of terrorism.

 For example, UNRWA worker Faisal Ali Mussalem al-Naami and a colleague were captured on video loading the body of Israeli Yonatan Samerano into a vehicle in Sderot.

According to Israel, over 450 terrorists belonging to terrorist organizations in Gaza, mainly Hamas, are also employed by UNRWA. UNRWA’s Lazzarini has flatly denied these allegations.

On Sept. 29, Hamas admitted that Fatah Sharif Abu al-Amin, chairman of UNRWA’s Teachers’ Association, was its commander in Lebanon. The agency had suspended Abu al-Amin in March, yet after his death denied knowing he was involved in terrorism.

UNRWA-employed Arabic teacher Yusef Zidan Suleiman al-Hawajara was recorded bragging to a friend on Oct. 7 about capturing a female hostage. (“We have female hostages, I captured one!” he says in a recording released by the IDF.)

In July, Israel’s foreign ministry published a list of names and ID numbers of 108 UNRWA employees Israel accuses of being Hamas terrorists. It was a “small fraction,” a Foreign Ministry official wrote, of a much larger list including hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members who also worked for UNRWA. The wider list could not be released due to security considerations.

On Oct. 13, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a letter about the agency to Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Defense Minister Yoav Galant. In the letter, which demanded Israel increase the amount of aid being let into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, they noted that they were “deeply concerned” about the Knesset bills.

UNRWA had a budget of about $1.1 billion in 2023. Eighteen countries suspended funding to UNRWA following the Oct. 7 attack, including the United States, which provides roughly a third of the organization’s budget. The United States froze its donations to UNRWA until March 2025. Only it and New Zealand have not yet reinstated their funding.

Through UNRWA, the United Nations employs a unique refugee definition to Palestinians. The agency defines as refugees not only those who fled the 1948 war, but their descendants in perpetuity until a “just solution” emerges for their status. The United Nations employs a different definition for all other refugees, who cannot pass the title to their descendants and often lose it when they are naturalized elsewhere.

This has perpetuated the Israeli-Palestinian conflict according to many critics, including Hillel Neuer, the founder of U.N. Watch.

The reason the United Nations insists on providing services through UNRWA instead of the U.N.’s many other aid outfits is that “the whole point of UNRWA,” which was established in 1949, “is to continue the war of 1948 and to dismantle Israel,” Neuer told JNS earlier this month.

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 Sources: Media - DiplNet - Officials