The UN Agency Accused of Links to Hamas

00:08
Speaker 1
Gaza is in crisis.

00:11
Speaker 2
Well, I think all of Gaza has basically been turned into a giant refugee camp.

00:17
Speaker 1
That's our colleague, David Luno.

00:19
Speaker 2
You'll see, really rivers of people walking, carrying bags of clothes for food, maybe a blanket or two. They're living in makeshift camps in tents. There aren't many toilets. And adding on to the misery, it's been raining nonstop for about ten days. Food starting to run short. Some people are using animal feed to make a type of bread.

00:44
Speaker 1
Resources are under huge strain, and most of the aid is being delivered by one relief group, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the near east, better known as UNRa. Along with emergency aid, UNRA runs social programs and health and education services for Gaza's 2.2 million people. Multiple aid organizations have warned that no other agency has UNRA's on the ground reach, infrastructure or capacity in a place like Gaza.

01:19
Speaker 2
Since UNRA is looking after 80% of the population, I'd say UNRA is sort of the Citibank of the humanitarian world. They're too big to fail.

01:29
Speaker 1
But this week, an israeli intelligence report made some grave accusations against the agency.

01:35
Speaker 2
Some Unrum staff are being accused of having actually taken part or been linked to the horrific attacks on October 7 against Israel that actually kicked off this current war.

01:53
Speaker 1
In the wake of this report, how much trouble is UnRA in?

01:57
Speaker 2
I think a lot. It's certainly the biggest blow to the agency since it started. It's a big black eye.

02:06
Speaker 1
UNRA says it's taking the allegations seriously. But now the agency's entire operation is at risk, along with the lives of millions. Welcome to the journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Friday, February 2. Coming up on the show, a UN agency under fire and the Palestinians caught in the middle. How did this agency, UNRA, get its start?

02:58
Speaker 2
Well, UNRA came into being originally in about 1949. The world was awash in refugees right after the second world War. So one of those groups of refugees was about 750,000 Palestinians that either chose to leave or were forced to leave during the arab israeli war over the founding of Israel in 1948.

03:20
Speaker 1
UNRA is unique at the United nations, and there are a few reasons why. First, it's the only UN agency dedicated to a specific group, the palestinian people. Also, UNRA is staffed mostly by locals. The agency was also originally set up to be temporary.

03:41
Speaker 2
So UNRA was created to provide short term tents, food, just keep these poor people that were displaced alive long enough to figure out what to do with them. Well, here we are 75 years later, and no one's figured out what to do with them.

03:58
Speaker 1
Today, UNRA staff of 30,000 operate in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. In Gaza, UNRa is also one of the biggest employers with about 13,000 workers. Could you give us a sense of the scope of the work that UNRA does on the ground right now in.

04:20
Speaker 2
Gaza, they play a really important role. Some people describe them as sort of a shadow government of sorts. They'll run the sewage systems in these neighborhoods, the water systems. They'll have health clinics. They sweep the streets.

04:34
Speaker 1
UNRa also provides vocational and teacher training, scholarships and education.

04:40
Speaker 2
I think it's also worth mentioning they did manage to educate Palestinians to the point where they were probably the best educated cohort in the Middle East. A member of NASA is an undergraduate, and one of the people who discovered the COVID vaccine is an undergraduate. They were also a pioneer in education for girls at a time when a lot of countries in the arab world weren't doing that. So they've racked up some good successes.

05:09
Speaker 1
Where does Unreg get the money to do this to fund all of these programs?

05:14
Speaker 2
Well, you and I, partly us taxpayers, are the single largest contributors to UNRA.

05:21
Speaker 1
The US funds about a third of UNRA's $1.3 billion annual budget. Germany is the next biggest donor, followed by the European Union. A small percentage of its funding also comes directly from the UN. UNRA's reliance on foreign donations has meant that how it uses that money is closely scrutinized. One of the agency's chief critics israel. And it has long claimed that those resources are being used by militants, including Hamas. Hamas has controlled Gaza since 2007. The US classifies the group as a terrorist organization.

05:56
Speaker 2
I am sure I've been told by many people that UNRA has lots of dedicated, good employees, people who really try to do good work. But from Israel's point of view, this is an agency that is infiltrated by Hamas but supports it. One israeli critic of UNRA says it's a palestinian organization with the UN flag.

06:17
Speaker 1
And what evidence has Israel pointed to?

06:20
Speaker 2
Over the years, Israel has found weapons being stored in UnRA facilities, either warehouses or schools. We had sources telling us Hamas had tunnels that run under facilities. They've fired rockets from either inside or nearby facilities. Hamas has been very adept at embedding its military capacity very close to civilian institutions.

06:48
Speaker 1
In 2021, UNRA criticized Hamas for commandeering one of its schools and for tunneling under its facilities. For years, Israel continued to call for UNRA to be disbanded. Then came the deadly attacks of October 7. After October 7, at what point did Israel start to look at UnRa and ask, like, is there a link between the agency and those attacks?

07:14
Speaker 2
I think pretty soon after, were hearing rumors, were hearing some rumblings from individuals that some of the attackers on October 7 had direct ties to UNRA, were UNRA employees. But we needed direct evidence of this. Starting in January, we began asking around, trying to get the actual documents.

07:39
Speaker 1
David met with a source with high level knowledge of israeli intelligence. And last month, over slices of pizza at a cafe in Tel Aviv, David was handed a manila envelope.

07:51
Speaker 2
It's one of the first times in my career know, I've had a meeting in a cafe, and I've had top secret documents handed over to me. You're getting a peek into something that you thought existed, but you weren't quite sure, and then you get the full revelation that, yes, this exists, and here's what the material is.

08:11
Speaker 1
The israeli intelligence dossier that David reviewed draws from information gathered via cell phone location tracking, eavesdropping, physical evidence, and interrogations. U. S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has called the intelligence, quote, highly credible.

08:28
Speaker 2
The reports that we got last week and UNRA brought them to us were deeply troubling.

08:38
Speaker 1
The US has not independently investigated UNRA. Israel's report directly links a dozen UNRA employees to the October 7 attacks.

08:52
Speaker 2
So we have seen and reported intelligence documents from Israel that lay out their evidence against these twelve people. They have pictures and names. They've linked them to this agency. They say six of them ran across into Israel, so they've been placed at or near scenes of crimes. Others sort of stayed back on the Gaza side and maybe helped with logistics. One set up sort of an operating center. One brought anti tank weapon. So obviously, the idea that a UN agency has people that are committing acts like this have shocked a lot of people.

09:33
Speaker 1
UNRA denies knowingly aiding Hamas or any militant group. Were there any findings in that report that really stood out to you?

09:42
Speaker 2
I think the most shocking thing was that seven of these were primary or secondary school teachers. So these are the teachers, some of them at UNRA, that got radicalized. It includes two math teachers and two arabic teachers and one primary school teacher. One of the arabic teachers, for example, was traced to the site of a kibutz where some of the worst killing happened. 97 people were killed there. The report identified him as a Hamas military commander. So he was quite senior. So just sort of connecting those things. These are people teaching kids and they're committing these horrific acts. I think to me, that was the most shocking thing, really.

10:26
Speaker 1
UNRA has questioned the criteria that the report used to connect its personnel to Hamas. The report's allegations ricocheted around the world, forcing donor nations to confront a dark side. To a vital relief group. That's next. Courage. I learned it from my adoptive mom. Hold my hand.

10:54
Speaker 3
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11:05
Speaker 1
Services and the ad council, Israel's intelligence dossier, was a geopolitical bombshell. The fallout was swift. At least a dozen countries have suspended their funding for UNRA, including the agency's main benefactor, the US. Though american officials have said that the actions of individuals shouldn't taint the entire agency, a sentiment echoed in other donor countries. How are different donor nations navigating this? Are they all in alignment in terms of pulling funding?

11:41
Speaker 2
So for a lot of these countries, they're weighing the pros and cons of suspending aid. On the one side, you want to send a message to the UN that it's unacceptable for any members of any of its agencies to be involved in an attack like this. But on the other hand, you don't want to make matters worse. You don't want to aggravate the humanitarian situation. So there's some disagreement. The Norwegians, I believe, decided to keep going.

12:09
Speaker 1
In an interview with the BBC, Norway's foreign minister said his country was appalled by the report. Even so, he defended their decision to keep funding UNRA to react to that.

12:21
Speaker 4
By cutting all funding to UNRA, which is providing life saving support to millions of people in the most dire conditions of their life. I think is a very wrong response.

12:34
Speaker 1
UNRA's commissioner general said that pulling the agency's funding collectively punishes people for the criminal acts of individuals. He's urged nations, including the US, to keep money flowing for essential aid. But donor countries are demanding answers and action. At a press conference this week, America's ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas Greenfield, told reporters the US needs to see, quote, fundamental changes at UNRA. A reporter pressed her on what that means.

13:04
Speaker 5
When you talked about fundamental changes, what fundamental changes do you want to know? We need to look at the organization, how it operates in Gaza, how they manage their staff, and to ensure that people who commit criminal acts, such as these twelve individuals, are held accountable immediately so that UNRA can continue the essential work that it is doing.

13:37
Speaker 1
What concrete actions has UNRA taken in response to all of this?

13:43
Speaker 2
They've fired these employees. The UN has launched an investigation. I think for now, UNRA is overwhelmed with the problem on the ground. They've also suffered from this. The agency, I believe, has said they've lost 152 of their own employees during the war. Many of their own employees have lost their own homes. They're refugees themselves again. They're displaced, so they're also suffering. And a lot of them are doing very good work and sort of heroic work, continuing to work in very difficult conditions.

14:15
Speaker 1
In the meantime, the situation in Gaza is worsening. UNRA says if funding isn't restored, the agency will have to shut down operations by the end of this month. That could deepen the humanitarian cris at the Rafa refugee camp. This week, one local in line for food called the funding freeze a death sentence for the US. The question of whether to re up UNRA's funding will come up again this summer. And David will be.

14:51
Speaker 2
You know, if these allegations aren't cleared up, Congress may well, you know, we're not sure about providing that kind of thing. The war may still be going on. UNRAm may face troubles getting emergency donations. I mean, right now it's having to scramble to feed all these people. So if it's trying to raise emergency money, it may have trouble doing that. And that does risk making this situation worse.

15:17
Speaker 1
All of which means that the future of UNRA might boil down to one central question.

15:22
Speaker 2
Is this a UN agency that has gotten radicalized? Right now, it's an allegation. It's up to other countries to investigate those allegations. It's up to UNRA to try to get to the bottom of this.

15:37
Speaker 1
And in the meantime, where does this leave palestinian civilians?

15:42
Speaker 2
So the real tragedy out of all of this, and I think the upshot is that the real victims here are the Palestinians themselves. The civilians in this, they're stuck in limbo. Their numbers keep growing, the bill keeps growing for the international community, and no one quite knows what to do.

16:14
Speaker 1
That's all for today. Friday, February 2. The journal is a coproduction of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. The show is made by Annie Baxter, Kylan Burtz, Catherine Brewer, Maria Byrne, Victoria Dominguez, Pia Gagari, Rachel Humphreys, Ryan Knutson, Matt Kwong, Kate Linebaugh, Annie Minoff, Laura Morris, Enrique Perez del Rosa, Sarah Platt, Alan Rodriguez Espinosa, Heather Rogers, Jonathan Sanders, Pierce Singhy, Jiva Caverna, Lisa Wang, Catherine Whalen, Tatiana Zamis and me, Jessica Mendoza. Our engineers are Griffin Tanner, Nathan Singapock and Peter Leonard. Our theme music is by so Wiley. Additional music this week from Peter Leonard, Nathan Singapock, so Wiley, Griffin Tanner and Blue Dot sessions. Fact checking by Mary Mathis and Melvis Acosta. Additional reporting for this episode from Carrie Keller. Lynn, thanks for listening. See you on Monday.