FOCUS ON CORRUPTION AND SUPPORT OF TERRORISM BY UNITED NATIONS OFFICIALS AND STAFF IN GAZA COULD LEAD TO EXPOSURE ELSEWHERE

                       

The EU and the United States have a long history of ignoring it, but the recent focus on corruption at the United Nations, regarding Gaza, will most likely spill over into a close scrutiny of UN officials' misconduct, and even the facilitation of terrorist organizations elsewhere in the world. Israel recently advised that it will be considering visa requests from UN officials on an individual basis, after declining to admit a senior UN officer tasked with Gaza relief.

The UNRWA, which administers both refugee relief matters, as well as educational programs operated by the UN in Gaza, has been led by Hamas members, according to allegations in the Israeli press, which claims that those leaders have diverted UN assets and resources to Hamas for decades. One senior Palestinian hospital official has admitted being a longtime Hamas member, and stated that Hamas literally runs Gaza hospitals, which it uses to base its command and control facilities, and to protect its terrorist agents. Hamas used the hospital's electrical generators to power their underground facilities. The extent to which the UNRWA aided the growth of Hamas will most certainly be a subject on the table of the Western democracies who for the most part financially support it, especially the US and EU. UN audits have themselves exposed corruption, but no effective action was ever taken.

Inasmuch as Israel have advised that it will no longer facilitate the delivery of aid and supplies through its territory into Gaza after the current war ends, which to date has been in coordination with the UN, as international aid and charitable agencies, the future role of UN will come under the microscope. At the same time, corruption elsewhere among United Nations agencies are expected to be a major topic, which has been heretofore swept under the carpet, in the interest of international diplomatic peace, which now cannot be ignored. 

Rampant corruption, involving bribes and kickbacks among UN staff and its leadership involving aid projects, budgets for programmes in the developing world, and the promotion and retention of UN staff known to have been implicated in corruption during their careers, should all be on the table, especially given the American and British focus on FCPA and the UK Bribery Act 2010. The United Nations has gotten a free pass for far too long; it's time to take the gloves off regarding its systemic corruption, given the black eye it is getting in Gaza.