Why Israel banning UNRWA will have ramifications for decades

Many UN and humanitarian organisations have condemned the vote. At time of writing already Ireland, Norway, Slovenia and Spain have condemned Israel’s UNRWA ban and doubled down on their commitment to keep supporting the humanitarian role UNRWA plays in the Middle East.

The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, managed to go so far as to articulate “profound regret”, as if this was some antique heirloom that had been dropped and broken beyond repair. We await effective, action-focused condemnation.

READ MORE: John Swinney issues statement as Israel bans UNRWA

This outlawing of UNRWA is the equivalent, in the UK, of outlawing all charities working in education, health, and poverty relief and declaring them to be terror organisations. Around 80% of the Palestinian population rely for relief on their assistance. It’s almost impossible to take in the enormity of this act of war and the genocidal consequences for the Palestinian people, but also for the United Nations and the international order, against which Israel now appears to also be waging a war of attrition, alongside the killing of hundreds of United Nations humanitarian workers in Gaza, and now beginning in Lebanon.

The UN secretary general, himself recently declared by Israel as "persona non grata", has said that this vote is a "catastrophe".

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s director, made a statement as follows:

"The vote by the Israeli Parliament (Knesset) against UNRWA this evening is unprecedented and sets a dangerous precedent. It opposes the UN charter and violates the state of Israel’s obligations under international law. 

"This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to #Palestine Refugees.

"These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in #Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell.

"It ⁠will deprive over 650,000 girls and boys there from education, putting at risk an entire generation of children.

"These bills increase the suffering of the Palestinians and are nothing less than collective punishment.

"Putting an end to UNRWA and its services will not strip the Palestinians from their refugee status. That status is protected by another UN General Assembly resolution until a fair and lasting solution is found to the plight of the Palestinians.

"Failing to push back these bills will weaken our common multilateral mechanism established after World War 2.

"This should be a concern to all."

This is indeed a catastrophic situation and the ramifications for UNRWA and for UNHCR are mind-boggling. This is not only about removing all assistance from Palestinians, at a time –astonishingly – when Israel is being accused, at the International Court of Justice, by South Africa, of committing genocide.

It is also about creating a massive refugee crisis. Palestinian refugees, without UNRWA, become the responsibility of UNCHR and the scenario of the mass transportation of Palestinian refugees, with status, inherited, since 1948, to other countries, looms large.

Israel knows what Russia knew with Ukraine – that the one issue which terrifies the governments of the West is the form of warfare which uses the threat of creating more refugees as a weapon.

The governments of the West have proved themselves incapable of doing what the majority-refugee-hosting countries of the global south have managed – hosting refugee populations without enormous fuss. The tiniest numbers of refugees, such as the very small numbers in the UK comparatively, to say Jordan, or Uganda or Turkey, or Ethiopia, have destroyed government after government and led to a wrecking of many of the provisions in the Refugee Convention. For instance, the Conservative government’s loss in court over the Safety of Rwanda Act against manifold evidence presented by UNHCR, of its desire to externalise provision for its obligations under the Refugee Convention, to countries in the global south.

READ MORE: Dozens killed by Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza

The triggering of Article 1d of the Refugee Convention, which occurs when – as is now the will of the Knesset – UNRWA is no longer able to assist Palestinian refugees is the mechanism by which responsibility shifts from UNRWA to UNHCR.

In terms of refugee law it is a matter of interest and debate, but at a humanitarian level it is a catastrophe with decades of ramifications. It must be opposed with all the political and diplomatic force available.

Alison Phipps is Unesco chair for refugee integration through education, languages and the arts at the University of Glasgow