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International-UN-NGOs
UNRWA Doesn't Give A S... if its employees are terrorists
2009-02-01
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees does little to check whether its staff or clients are terrorists, its former chief attorney, James Lindsay, says in a newly published report. Allegations linking terrorists to UNRWA are not new. Israel has said many times its troops were fired on by gunmen using UNRWA facilities, that UNRWA vehicles transported weapons and that some of its staff members were terrorists.

UNRWA has denied those charges and Israel has often retracted them or found them hard to prove.

This latest claim against UNRWA, contained in a 67-page critique of the organization published at the end of January by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, has more authority behind it, because Lindsay was a senior lawyer for UNRWA from 2000 to 2007.

The issue, Lindsay wrote, is not intention but oversight. "UNRWA has taken very few steps to detect and eliminate terrorists from the ranks of its staff or its beneficiaries, and no steps at all to prevent members of terrorist organizations such as Hamas from joining its staff," he wrote. "These failings have occurred not because UNRWA consciously supports terrorism but rather because it is not particularly concerned about the issue.
why anyone should be concerned about supporting terrorism is completely lost on UNRWA

Its main focus [is] the provision of services and protection of Palestinian refugees," he wrote.
another focus is criticizing Israel; still another is getting its senior alumni placed in high level positions when they return to home country
UNRWA's Jerusalem spokesman Chris Gunness said in response that his organization had "a rigorous approach to ensuring that its staff are not involved in militant or political activity"
we rigorously define all terrorism as non terrorism
and that it took the matter very seriously.
Posted by:mhw

#3  #2 I thought that's what they were being paid for. Posted by: Nimble Spemble

No, NS, they're being paid to ensure there continues to be a "refugee problem" among the "palestinian people", so they can continue their existence. I don't remember who said it, but "There's nothing quite as permanent as a 'temporary' government agency." is the quote that explains everything about the UN, including the UNRWA. Israel needs to drive all the ARABS in Gaza and the West Bank into the neighboring territories, and threaten to nuke the capitals of the countries surrounding it if those governments don't accept them. That is especially true of Lebanon, where the "refugee" problem is created and continued by ARABS as a weapon against Israel.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2009-02-01 13:57  

#2  I thought that's what they were being paid for.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2009-02-01 13:15  

#1  "UNRWA Doesn't Give A S... if its employees are terrorists"

In other shocking news, water is wet.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2009-02-01 13:03  

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