(JNS) The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says it is operating in Judea and Samaria (which it calls the West Bank) assisting 33,000 displaced Palestinian refugees.
UNRWA attributes the mass displacement of Palestinians primarily to what it terms ongoing Israel Defense Forces military operations, heavy bombardment, forced evacuation orders and “settler violence.”
Israel has often disputed the methodology and attribution behind U.N.-reported statistics.
In an email exchange with JNS, UNRWA’s media department says it has set up 12 temporary clinics to ensure continued access to healthcare and is distributing supplies and shelters to displaced families.
Furthermore, UNRWA says it has been working to ensure that the education of Palestinian children is not further disrupted, including by running remote learning programs.
However, some leading Israeli officials and experts on UNRWA question the legitimacy of the group’s activities.
Dr. Einat Wilf, who has written extensively on UNRWA’s perpetuation of the permanent “refugee problem,” told JNS there is zero reason for UNRWA to be operating in Judea and Samaria under the Palestinian Authority.
Wilf, who is the founder of the Oz Party, which is running in the upcoming Knesset elections, explained that the result is two parallel systems. On the one hand, she said, there is the P.A., which on paper is supposed to represent a constructive vision of Palestinian self-determination. On the other hand, you have UNRWA, which sustains a vision in which there should be no Jewish state.
She noted that hundreds of thousands of people living in Judea and Samaria, born in places such as Ramallah, are still defined as Palestinian refugees.
“That status is tied to the idea of a ‘right of return,’ which ultimately means erasing Israel. So UNRWA is not just providing services, it is maintaining that framework,” she argued.
She said UNRWA should not be in charge of schooling if that education is indoctrination. “It doesn’t matter that they provide services—the real question is what they are educating people for,” she said.
Wilf added that UNRWA paints a picture of ongoing hardship and need, emphasizing how poor and desperate Palestinians are. But according to this view, that narrative is being used to sustain a broader political struggle rather than resolve it.
“The continued demand for funding is tied to maintaining this framework, one that keeps the conflict ongoing and centered on opposition to the Jewish state, rather than moving toward a different outcome,” she said.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel, who was a co-sponsor of the Oct. 28, 2024, legislation banning UNRWA from operating within pre-1967 Israel (including Jerusalem) and severing all official ties with it, told JNS that UNRWA is not a humanitarian agency, but rather a terrorist organization wearing a humanitarian mask. The law took effect on Jan. 30, 2025.
Haskel called UNRWA’s ongoing operations in Judea and Samaria “destructive and malicious,” proving that it has zero interest in solving the problems of the Palestinians, but rather in perpetuating them.
“For years, it has actively covered up terrorist activities, while shielding and abetting terror. This organization has long outlived its relevance, and its mandate should have expired decades ago,” she said.
Haskel added that every civilized nation should immediately follow suit in banning cooperation with the organization.
Under humanitarian guise
Likud MK Dan Illouz, who co-sponsored the 2024 legislation, told JNS that instead of providing aid, UNRWA’s true mission has always been to perpetuate the conflict, eternalize refugee status and incite hatred of Israel.
“We have exposed the truth about UNRWA and its deep ties to terror. … The era of Israel tolerating a terror-linked entity inside our borders under a humanitarian guise is officially over,” Illouz said.
David Bedein, director of the Nahum Bedein Center for Near East Policy Research, who has produced video features and films on UNRWA and its school system since 1987, told JNS that, despite assurances from the ambassadors of the European Union that the current P.A./UNRWA curriculum would be vetted by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), this did not happen.
According to Bedein, P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas publicly claimed that a delegation had been sent to UNESCO to review the curriculum. Bedein said that UNESCO later confirmed that no such delegation ever arrived.
He notes that UNRWA has not been able to provide donor countries with an accounting for more than $1 billion in donations, other than stating that 58% is allocated to “education.”
After 38 years of monitoring UNRWA, Bedein said: “The pattern is that funds from donor nations effectively disappear from clear accountability.”
On May 28, The Washington Free Beacon reported that a U.S. federal investigation into UNRWA staff will soon encompass at least 1,500 UNRWA-linked individuals suspected of terror ties. The media outlet says the U.S. could soon designate the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
At the same time, JNS reported last week that more than 90 House members of the U.S. Congress, led by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), urged President Donald Trump to dismantle UNRWA entirely, citing longstanding allegations tying the agency to Hamas and other terrorist groups.
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