Posted on 06/29/2002 9:29:09 AM PDT by Clive
WASHINGTON - Israel has begun a campaign in the United States and the United Nations to urge a reconsideration of the way the UN Relief and Works Agency, which runs the Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza, operates.
Israel charges that UNRWA workers simply ignored the fact that Palestinian organizations were turning the camps into terrorist bases, and it is demanding the agency start reporting all military or terrorist actions within the camps to the UN. However, it insists it is not interested in evicting UNRWA from the camps.
Meanwhile, Jewish and pro-Israeli lobbyists in the U.S. are waging a parallel campaign to persuade Congress to pressure the UN to halt anti- Israel statements by UNRWA officials.
The Foreign Ministry's legal adviser, Alan Baker, visited Washington on Wednesday to discuss the UNRWA issue with State Department officials and members of Congress. Baker, who also met with UN officials in New York, said yesterday that according to the UN's own resolutions, arms cannot be stored in the refugee camps and the camps cannot be used for any military activity. Yet despite this, they have become bases for terrorist organizations, he said.
"We want the UN to investigate how it is possible that no one told the organization that the camps had become bases for terrorists," Baker said. "If UNRWA people are there, why didn't they alert the UN?"
Israel does not expect UNRWA personnel to police the camps, Baker said, but it could pass on such information.
He also urged the UN to stop "unhelpful statements" by UNRWA officials, such as Commissioner-General Peter Hansen's statement - later proved false - that Operation Defensive Shield had left "hundreds of dead in Jenin."
American Jewish lobbyists are basing their efforts on the fact that the U.S. currently contributes some 30 percent of UNRWA's $400 million a year budget, and is therefore in a position to influence the agency: A congressional refusal to approve UNRWA's funding could seriously disrupt its operations. In 1982, then-president Ronald Reagan did cut off UNRWA's funding after arms were found in a refugee camp it ran in Lebanon.
The House International Relations Committee is currently trying to organize hearings on UNRWA's activities in the territories and the question of American funding for them. This committee is responsible for approving America's foreign aid bill, which includes the UNRWA funding.
The UN will hold its annual discussion of UNRWA's budget and activities this September. Israel hopes that by then, its campaign will have borne fruit, and the organization will therefore decide to alter UNRWA's modus operandi.
the infowarrior
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