Jerusalem on the Brink: UN Agency Takeover Ignites International Firestorm Over Israel’s Defiance of Global Norms

Palestine – Yesterday, Thursday, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered Israel’s decision to confiscate the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in East Jerusalem, “a blatant violation of international law and an infringement on the immunity and prestige of United Nations institutions.”

Earlier Thursday, the private Hebrew newspaper “Israel Hayom” said that the “Israel Lands Authority” decided to confiscate the UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem to establish 1,440 settlement units, and explained that the project is in its “preparatory” stages.

As of 20:00 (UTG), UNRWA had not commented on what was published by the Israeli newspaper.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said that the decision “is a flagrant violation of international law, a violation of the immunity and prestige of the United Nations institutions, and a violation of the United Nations Charter and the terms of its membership, in addition to the resolutions of the United Nations and the Security Council.”

The Ministry considered that “the systematic campaign of incitement practiced by the occupation against UNRWA; A premeditated hostility to liquidate the issue of Palestinian refugees and their inherent right to return, which clearly emerged during the genocidal war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.”

It called on “the international community to join the Palestinian position rejecting this unjust decision, as it is an additional tool to consolidate the occupation and oppression against the Palestinian people, and to take what is necessary to punish Israel as a rogue state, and hold its leaders accountable as war criminals.”

The UNRWA headquarters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which includes offices and warehouses, has been subjected to a series of attacks by right-wing Israelis in recent months, including an attempt to burn it down.

At the end of last May, the Israel Lands Authority informed UNRWA that it must leave the building within 30 days and pay a fine.

But UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler told Anadolu at the time: “I would like to emphasize that we learned about the decision through the media, and we did not receive any information about it from the Israeli authorities.”

Fowler added: “We are absolutely clear about our position; UNRWA has been present in this headquarters and another in East Jerusalem since the beginning of the 1950s. We have every right to be where we are. “We are not going anywhere.”

In conjunction with the decision to confiscate the headquarters, the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) is preparing to vote in second and third readings on a draft law that considers UNRWA a “terrorist” and prevents it from operating in East Jerusalem.

UNRWA is subjected to a severe campaign from the Israeli government, which claimed that the UN agency was cooperating with the Palestinian faction movement, which the UN agency strongly denied.

Anatolia