UNRWA Facility Used To Bomb Israel--And Requests More Funds

UNRWA seems to be a microcosm of the United Nations itself--doing a lousy job and then the commissioner of the UNRWA, Karen Koning Abuzayd, turns around and asks for more money.

As a 58-year-old agency charged with the welfare of Palestinian Arabs is pleading this week for a renewal of its U.N. mandate and asking additional funds for its activities, Israelis are highlighting the use of the agency's Gaza facilities as launching pads for armed attacks against towns across the Israeli border.

...Jerusalem officials specifically highlighted an incident last week that was dramatically captured in a camera mounted on an Israel Defense Force drone, where a Palestinian Arab in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun launched three mortar rounds into an Israeli town. As can be seen in the footage, (available at http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ClipMediaID=1401718&ak=null), the shooters are located at an Unrwa-owned schoolyard.

The response of the UNRWA is an exercise in obfuscation--not only limiting itself to general 'condemnation', but ignoring the implications of what UNRWA laxity is enabling.

On Friday, an Unrwa spokesman, Christopher Gunness, reacted to an Israeli television broadcast of the event, saying, "Unrwa condemns armed interference in its facilities by militants or during military incursions. Such interference endangers the lives of Unrwa teachers and the children in Unrwa schools and heavily disrupts our education program. Sound education is a basic building block of Palestinian society and is a necessity for the success of the two-state solution."

But Israeli officials said the statement failed to mention potential victims on the other side of the border or to make a direct reference the November 2 incident. "Regrettably, the abuse of human shields by Palestinian terrorists and the violation of a U.N. installation for terrorist purposes have not yet been clearly condemned by the U.N.," an Israeli envoy to the U.N. General Assembly committee overseeing Unrwa, Gershon Keidar, said.

Abuzayd is oblivious to what is going on--which is evident from a complete lack of shame, and no apology, when the UNRWA enables terrorists. Instead, her fallback position is "We can just complain"--that and the pooh-poohing of Israel response:

She also said that by cutting the flow of goods into Gaza, Israel only strengthens "those who are on the extreme." On the other hand, she praised the increase of contributions to Unrwa from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, which included funds of $20 million to Gaza and $27 million to Jenin dedicated to the rebuilding of terrorists' houses that had been demolished by the IDF.

After all, we can't have homeless terrorists. Of course, if Saudi Arabia and friends are such great supporters of the UNRWA, why doesn't Abuzayd go to them to make up the shortfall.

Technorati Tag: UNRWA and Karen Koning Abuzayd.