There’s little doubt that, amongst the UN Relief and Works Administration’s 3,000 employees in the West Bank, more than a few are part of Hamas—but Hamas has been the government of Gaza for over 16 years, and most of its members are not part of its military wing. There’s also little doubt that the six-page secret Israeli dossier, alleging that UNRWA is so infected with terrorists that it needs to be shut down, is a lot more smoke than fire.
Israel’s Hayom daily reported that diplomatic sources told them that the government had had the information on the UNRWA workers for weeks before it was shown to the New York Times to be publicized on Jan. 24, the day that the International Court of Justice laid down the law to Israel on the genocide investigation. Hayom goes on to offer the silly explanation that the dossier wasn’t made available to the NYT earlier, because “there was an understanding in the Israeli political system that UNWRA must be preserved in Gaza, because it is the only functioning body in Gaza and without it, the chaos would be even greater.” First, that hasn’t stopped anyone in Netanyahu’s administration; and second, it only begs the question of why they ended up releasing it.
