Jillian Shewky
Opinion Editor
The United Nation has four purposes; “Maintain International Peace and Security. Protect Human Rights. Deliver Humanitarian Aid. Support Sustainable Development and Climate Action.” Unfortunately, the Israel-Hamas conflict has placed a glaring light on the UN’s blatant disregard of its duties.
According to Jonathon Schanzer of the Federation for Defense of Democracies, directly after October 7th, it became clear that the United Nations was going to stand with Hamas, even before Israel had retaliated. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, stated that “nothing can justify” the attacks by Hamas, yet he made excuses for them. He even said that “today's violence must be put into context,” and continued to blame the events of that day on the IDF’s prior power over Gaza. A situation where innocent civilians are being targeted does not need “context.” The only thing necessary is support for the victims. The events of October 7th should have been a call to action for the UN to combat the terrorism, but instead they took this as another opportunity to condemn Israel.
Interestingly, the UN does not recognize Hamas as a terrorist organization, which allows members of this organization to receive UN resources. Many UN members have called for a ceasefire which on the surface may seem as if it is an act to support Humanitarian aid, but in truth it just allows for Hamas to organize and prepare to attack Israel again. This is exemplified in a UN resolution, which intended to find a way to protect Palestinian civilians. Not only did they not mention Hamas by name in this resolution, but there was no mention of the Israeli citizens who had been so viciously attacked in the weeks prior.
Every single refugee group in the world is under the authority of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, except the Palestinians who have an entire UN aid agency dedicated just to them called UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency). This does not only show the favoritism the UN has toward Palestinians, but has also perpetuated the Palestinian refugee situation as stated by The Foundation for Defense of Democracies. When the older generations of Palestinians started to pass away, UNRWA expanded the definition of a Palestinian refugee to be the offspring of the original refugees and living anywhere Palestinian refugees have migrated including Palestinians living in Jerusalem, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. This definition of refugee is a status that is not applicable to any other refugee group in the world. In addition, with the education and healthcare systems that UNRWA has established over the last 75 years, they are operating like a government or corporation employing over 30,000 people, 99% of which are Palestinians according to the Migration Policy Institute. An entire infrastructure and industry has been built around the Palestinian refugee status with the world providing their funding, the majority of which comes from the US at $343 million a year. This perpetuates the refugee problem by giving monetary value to being a refugee and by thereby framing Israel as the continued perpetrator and maintaining tension between Israelis and Palestinians and Israel and the world. The UN is not fulfilling its duty to foster sustainable development and to “Maintain International Peace and Security.”
In addition, as the UN does not identify Hamas as a terrorist organization, it has been suggested that many of the thousands of those people that work for UNRWA have connections to Hamas (See article about UNRWA in Israel News section).Before UNRWA employees were identified as participating in the October 7th attacks, the UN knew of UNRWA workers with connections to Hamas when a principal of an UNRWA school was elected to an official position in the terrorist organization, showing how extremely corrupt and dysfunctional UNRWA is.
This hyperfixation the UN has on Palestinians is not maintaining international peace nor is it helping them to break from the label of oppression of being a refugee. It is perpetuating hate, divide and violence. The UN was created after World War II to prevent horrific events like that from ever occurring again. It's disheartening to see the UN, such an influential organization, act in a way that does not align with their supposed edict and morals, and to actually enable a terrorist organization to achieve their goals.