From chronic underfunding to accusations by Israeli officials that it perpetuates Palestinian displacement, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has faced threats to its existence for decades.

Knesset lawmakers passed two bills on Monday to prevent UNRWA from operating within Israeli territory, following allegations that agency staff were involved in the October 7, 2023, terror attacks. That would also severely curtail UNRWA's ability to operate in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 

The bills, previously approved by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on October 6, prohibit state authorities from having any contact with UNRWA and effectively ban the agency from operating within Israeli territory, including annexed East Jerusalem, by revoking the 1967 agreement between Israel and UNRWA that has facilitated the agency's operations and interactions with government authorities. 

Knesset members from the right-wing Yisrael Beitenu and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party sponsored the bills. 

The legislation is expected to lead to the closure of UNRWA's headquarters in annexed East Jerusalem, which serves as the management and administrative hub for all its activities in the Palestinian territories. According to Israeli media reports, the premises would be converted into housing.

The no-contact policy means that Israel would no longer issue work and entry permits to international and local UNRWA staff or allow any coordination with the Israeli military, which is essential for the passage of aid into Gaza via the crossings. Israel also currently controls the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

''UNRWA's activities in the occupied Palestinian territories rely "heavily on ongoing coordination with Israeli authorities in all aspects of its operation," the Israeli-Palestinian human rights organization Adalah wrote in a letter to Israel's attorney general and the Knesset's legal adviser. "This coordination includes the establishment of operational headquarters, obtaining visas, residence and work permits for staff, coordinating with military authorities on operational matters." 

What's UNRWA's mandate?

UNRWA was established in 1949 with a temporary mandate to care for Palestinian refugees displaced during and after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, when Arab states attacked Israel after it declared independence. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians either fled or were forced from their homes. Many remain stateless to this day. 

The UN agency began operating in 1950 and became permanent as there has been no political agreement to return displaced Palestinians. It provides basic services to millions of registered Palestinian refugees and their descendants in Gaza, the occupied West Bank including annexed East Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The agency runs refugee camps, schools and health clinics and is a major employer for thousands of Palestinians.

Israeli officials and lobby groups have campaigned against UNRWA since long before the latest allegations. 

Several countries suspended donations to UNRWA in early 2024 after Israel claimed that some of the agency's staff were involved in the October 7 attacks. The United Nations launched an investigation into the Israeli allegations and fired nine staff members. Most international donor countries have since resumed funding, but Israeli lawmakers insist on ending UNRWA's mandate altogether.

Throughout the war, the IDF has consistently targeted UNRWA schools where displaced Palestinians have sought refuge — claiming that they serve as Hamas command centers and accusing militants of hiding among civilians. In February, an alleged underground Hamas computer center was uncovered beneath UNRWA's headquarters in Gaza City. UNRWA denied the allegations.

On Friday (October 25), the Israeli military said a senior Hamas commander responsible for kidnapping and killing Israelis from a roadside bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re'im on October 7, 2023, had been employed by UNRWA since 2022. The agency confirmed that he was one of their employees.

Israel has also repeatedly accused UNRWA of inciting hatred against Israel in its educational institutions and in textbooks taught in agency-run schools. Officials also say that UNRWA's granting of refugee status not only to the first generation of refugees but to their descendants, as well, has perpetuated the conflict and nourished the idea of Palestinians' right of return to their homeland.

Observers say it is not UNRWA that perpetuates the conflict, but the absence of a peace process and political settlement that would provide a just solution for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

Legislation's 'disastrous consequences'

The Knesset's plans have been sharply criticized by most UNRWA donor countries, the EU, the US, and many aid and human rights organizations. On Sunday, the foreign ministers of Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom released a joint statement expressing "grave concern" about the draft legislation in the Knesset. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said passing the bill would be a "catastrophe." 

EU foreign affairs representative Josep Borrell said the European Union "shares the concern that this draft bill, if adopted, would have disastrous consequences." 

The independent, Haifa-based human rights organization Adalah argued that the bills would also violate international law, which requires UN member states such as Israel to support the United Nations in its work. It also said that restricting UNRWA's activities in Gaza would violate the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice in January 2024 and again in March 2024 to enable the supply of basic services and humanitarian aid.

Edited by: M Gagnon and Rob Mudge