The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East, or UNRWA, created in 1948 to assist refugees from the recently-concluded war between Israel and the Arab countries, may not survive the present hostilities in Gaza, which presents unusual problems for compliance officers charged with countering the financing of terrorism by HAMAS and its allied and affiliated organizations in Gaza. Evidence emerging of the actions of UNRWA staff in facilitating and assisting Hamas, both before and during the present war, may disqualify it from any future role in assisting Palestinians. It is expected that Israel, post-war, may choose to abandon its recognition of UNRWA as a provider of humanitarian assistance in the not too distant future.
Victims who were hostages taken to in Gaza assert that they were actually held captive by UNRWA staff; fuel and other United Nations assets were turned over to Hamas; UNRWA school leaders openly cheered on Hamas' terrorist activities within southern Israel; The UN allowed the construction of Hamas facilities literally underneath UNRWA schools in Gaza; Hamas was allowed to store weapons, and fire rockets and missiles from school courtyards; and a number of additional ways in which UNRWA showed it was not only sympathetic to Hamas terrorist activities, it openly provides logistical support that translated to facilitating its military activities.
Created to assist in the plight of displaced Palestinians, who were instructed by the Arab states to leave areas of the terminated British Mandate of Palestine during their invasion of the new State of Israel, UNRWA had a mandate support and create jobs. Unfortunately, it has perpetuated the indefinite refugee status of the Palestinians, by arbitrarily deciding to consider the descendents of Palestinian refugees as legitimate refugees, entitled to relief, and status that the UN has never conferred anywhere else. Subsequent generations of refugees are not treated as refugees under international law; the influence of the Arab countries, then staunchly anti-Israel, is believe to have been the cause of the unique treatment of Palestinians, whom neighboring nations in the region did not want emigrating into their jurisdictions.
Obviously, the State of Israel will not be accepting UNRWA in a future Palestinian state in Gaza; compliance officers at international banks, who are now aware that UNRWA senior staff knew or should have known that UN assets were being diverted to Hamas, now will have the difficult task of insuring that those United Nations Relief and Works Agency now working with Hamas, do not use their privileged international aid status to fund Hamas, directly or indirectly, as UN employees. Given that a number of UNRWA school leaders and staff are known to be Hamas members, and United Nations official engaged with UNRWA matters must be conclusively ruled out as a financial facilitator to a designated terrorist organization. Compliance officers tasked with CTF responsibilities should be made aware of this threat, and adjust their inquiries accordingly.
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