JERUSALEM, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Israeli officials entered the offices of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem on Monday and raised the Israeli flag, in a move they said was ordered because of unpaid taxes but condemned by the agency as a defiance of international law.
Accused of bias by Israel, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has not used the building since the beginning of this year, after Israel ordered it to vacate all its facilities and cease operations.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres strongly condemned the attack.
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“This complex remains a United Nations facility and is inviolable and immune to any other form of interference,” Guterres said in a statement.
‘I urge Israel to immediately take all necessary measures to restore, preserve and maintain the inviolability of UNRWA facilities and to refrain from taking any further measures with respect to UNRWA facilities.’
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote in X that Israel’s action could create ‘a dangerous precedent anywhere else the UN is present in the world’.
Substantial debt
The Jerusalem municipality said tax inspectors entered the UNRWA compound because of unpaid property taxes worth 11 million shekels ($3.4 million), after issuing several warnings, and following all necessary procedures.
‘This is a substantial debt that had to be collected after repeated requests, warnings and numerous opportunities given to pay it off, which were not met,’ he told Reuters.
UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler said the East Jerusalem complex continued to be considered part of UN facilities despite the Israeli ban on its operations and that the agency had no debts to the municipality.
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The UN has contacted Israeli authorities several times to remind them of their obligations under a UN convention to which Israel is a signatory, he said.
The Israeli prime minister’s office and Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lazzarini said police motorcycles, trucks and forklifts were taken away and communications were cut. IT equipment, furniture and other assets were seized, he said.
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The UN General Assembly renewed UNRWA’s mandate, first established in 1949, for another three years on Friday. Fowler declined to speculate on the timing of the attack.
For him, Israel conducts a ‘continuous disinformation campaign’ against UNRWA, whose responsibilities it wants to be assumed by other UN bodies.
Palestinians consider the existence of UNRWA to be linked to the preservation of their rights as refugees, especially their hope of returning to the homes from which they or their ancestors fled or were expelled in the war over the creation of Israel in 1948.
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Israeli criticism
Israel alleges that some UNRWA employees were members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and participated in the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 Israelis and led to Israel’s war against Hamas, in which more than 70,000 Palestinians were killed, according to Gaza officials.
UNRWA fired several employees but said Israel had not provided evidence of all allegations against its staff.
Israel’s Parliament passed a law in October 2024 that prohibits the agency from operating in the country and prohibits employees from having contact with the agency.
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UNRWA operates in East Jerusalem, considered Israeli-occupied territory by the UN. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be part of the country.
(Reporting by Pesha Magid and Steven Scheer in Jerusalem, Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols)
