A view of Gaza City after Israel’s destruction of it, February 4, 2025
WE CAN’T say the mask has slipped. US President Donald Trump has never masked his contempt for human rights or international law.
But the US president saying the United States will “take over” the Gaza Strip and expel all its inhabitants is a watershed moment. It is an unambiguous demand for ethnic cleansing on a huge scale.
Trump doesn’t mince words about what he sees happening to Palestinians who refuse to be driven out, saying they have to go to “some place they can live and not die.” Nor is the erasure of the Palestinians to be confined to Gaza; he moots Israel’s annexation of the West Bank too.
It hardly needs saying that if Trump wanted Palestinians to “live and not die,” he would not continue to arm the Israeli war machine that has killed them in their tens of thousands over the past year, or connive, by extending the suspension of funds to the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, at starving them of food and medicine.
The same point applies to the British government.
The mood music from Labour’s Trump apologists is that there’s nothing to see here — it’s just Trump, he says a lot of wild things. Scottish Blairite Jim Murphy says we shouldn’t take him “literally in what he says because he often has no intention of doing it.” Cabinet Minister Steve Reed says there’s no need for a “running commentary” on US presidential statements and we should give Trump credit for securing the current ceasefire.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy likewise refuses to acknowledge the US government’s extremism, saying “Trump is right” to want to rebuild Gaza — a ludicrous evasion of the central part of Trump’s proposal, which is to rebuild it without Palestinians — before reiterating support for the two-state solution.
To say Trump’s plan for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians is too outlandish to take seriously ignores the brutal fact that the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians is already happening.
Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.UK Foreign Minister David Lammy confirms that UK government and military are active participants in Israel’s genocides and that the F-35 parts that they suspended from supplying to Israel are instead simply diverted via the United States. He says see https://youtu.be/QILgUHrdWREGenocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Original article republished from MEMO under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Palestinians and UN workers examine the destroyed makeshift tents and shelters after Israeli attack hits a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) school, killing and injuring many in Nuseirat Refugee Camp of Deir al-Balah, Gaza on July 15, 2024 [Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency]
The Basque Government has awarded UNRWA the 2024 Ignacio Ellacuria Prize for Cooperation and Solidarity as a result of its “dedication to the Palestinian people over 75 years in a context of continuous conflict”.
The jury highlighted “the more human side of the direct work that it carries out in favour of justice and human rights with the Palestinian population” and concluded that it deserves this award “because of the real risk of disappearing,” since “it would imply taking away the Palestinian population’s right to refuge and the right of return to their lands and homes.”
UNRWA works in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria and supports around 5.9 million Palestinians, providing them with education, medical care, camp infrastructure, microfinancing and other essentials.
Over the past few years, however, funding for the agency has been cut by donor states, while Israel has worked to defame and defund it.
Israel has lobbied hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees. If the agency no longer exists, argues Israel, then the refugee issue must no longer exist, and the legitimate right for Palestinian refugees to return to their land will be unnecessary. Israel has denied that right of return since the late 1940s, even though its own membership of the UN was made conditional upon Palestinian refugees being allowed to return to their homes and land.
ed: If you’re not seeing the video it shows current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer responding to Green Party MP Carla Denyer at Prime Minister’s Question Time. Starmer refuses to describe Israel’s Gaza genocide – which he, his government and the UK’ s military are actively participating in – as a genocide.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspeding 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Palestinian children sit with pots near makeshift tents as they wait to receive food aid in Khan Younis, Gaza on October 28, 2024. (Photo: Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“It’ll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza,” warned a spokesperson for the U.N. Children’s Fund.
Humanitarian groups and United Nations officials issued dire warnings Tuesday about the potentially catastrophic consequences of Israeli lawmakers’ vote to ban the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the body primarily responsible for delivering lifesaving aid to the people of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
James Elder, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said Tuesday that if the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is unable to operate due to the measures passed overwhelmingly by the Israeli Knesset on Monday, “it’ll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza.”
“So a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children,” said Elder.
The legislation that Israeli lawmakers passed in a 92-10 vote bars UNRWA—a frequent target of Israeli smear campaigns and military attacks—from operating or providing “any service” within “in the sovereign territory of the state of Israel.”
Israeli lawmakers also passed a measure declaring UNRWA a “terror” group, barring Israeli officials from engaging in any contact with the agency.
The Guardian noted that the newly passed measures—which are set to be implemented within 90 days—are “expected to lead to the closure of UNRWA’s East Jerusalem headquarters and would effectively block the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza via Rafah.”
“The severing of diplomatic relations would preclude Israel from issuing entry and work permits to foreign UNRWA staff and prevent coordination with the Israeli military to permit aid shipments,” the newspaper added.
“Humanitarian actors rely on coordination with UNWRA to deliver aid and alleviate suffering. UNWRA cannot be replaced by NGOs.”
Agnès Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, warned in a statement Tuesday that the measures represent “an outright attack on the rights of Palestinian refugees.”
“It is clearly designed to make it impossible for the agency to operate in the occupied Palestinian territory by forcing the closure of the UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem and ending visas for its staff,” said Callamard. “It amounts to the criminalization of humanitarian aid and will worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis.”
“This appalling, inhumane law will only exacerbate the suffering of Palestinians, who have endured unimaginable hardship since the horrific attacks by Hamas and other armed groups in southern Israel one year ago, and whose need for global support is greater than ever. The international community must be quick to condemn it in the strongest possible terms and exert any influence they have on the Israeli government to repeal it.”
The U.N. General Assembly established UNRWA in the aftermath of the 1948 Nakba, and the agency is central to humanitarian operations in the famine-stricken Gaza Strip—a role that aid groups described as necessary and irreplaceable. According to a World Health Organization official, roughly a third of the healthcare workers assisting the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza work with UNRWA.
“UNRWA plays a critical role in serving civilians in desperate need in Gaza,” the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Tuesday. “Humanitarian actors rely on coordination with UNRWA to deliver aid and alleviate suffering. UNRWA cannot be replaced by NGOs like IRC.”
“The bill passed in the Israeli parliament is an unprecedented attack on a U.N. agency and, if implemented, would only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe,” IRC added. “We strongly urge that this legislation is not applied. We continue to advocate for an immediate ceasefire to get aid in, to release the hostages, and to meet the growing and dire needs of the civilian population.”
Sam Rose, deputy director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, said in a CNN interview that “the entire humanitarian system” in the Palestinian enclave “relies every minute of every day on UNRWA to deliver services to 2 million people living in the worst possible conditions.”
Implementation of the ban, Rose warned, “would be devastating for us, devastating for other aid agencies—but more importantly, for the population here that’s suffering so much.”
Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide.
A worker with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and displaced Palestinians check the damage inside a U.N. school-turned-shelter near Gaza City after a reported Israeli strike on October 19, 2024. (Photo: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)
“This legislation not only contravenes the basic principles of human rights that led to the U.N. General Assembly’s founding of UNRWA, but also violates a range of Israel’s international legal obligations.”
Over a year into Israel’s obliteration of the Gaza Strip, Israeli lawmakers faced sharp criticism on Monday after voting for a pair of bills targeting the United Nations agency responsible for humanitarian aid in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.
The first bill, which says that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) “will not operate any missions, won’t provide any service, and won’t hold any activity—directly or indirectly—in the sovereign territory of the state of Israel,” passed the Israeli parliament 92-10.
The second legislative proposal—under which the Israeli agency that handles humanitarian issues, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), will have to cut off contact with UNRWA—passed the 120-member Knesset 87-9. Critics called the votes “grotesque” and “outrageous.”
The Israel-based organization Adalah said in a statement that “despite widespread international pressure and condemnation, the Knesset has nearly unanimously passed two bills aimed at dismantling UNRWA, all while Israel continues its genocidal assault on Gaza and intensifies violence across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
“This legislation threatens a vital lifeline for over 2.5 million Palestinian refugees throughout the occupied Palestinian territory,” the group warned. “It represents a deliberate attempt to fundamentally undermine UNRWA and its essential mission of supporting the relief, education, and human development of Palestinian refugees. Specifically, the laws aim to strip Palestinians—who were forcibly displaced from their homes during the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 war—of their status as refugees and their right of return.”
The United Nations General Assembly created UNRWA in 1949, in the wake of the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” when more than 750,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homeland to establish the modern state of Israel—whose officials have claimed without providing evidence that a dozen of the agency’s 13,000 staffers in Gaza were involved with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
“This legislation not only contravenes the basic principles of human rights that led to the U.N. General Assembly’s founding of UNRWA, but also violates a range of Israel’s international legal obligations, including those under the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” said Adalah. “The international community must hold Israel accountable.”
The US allegedly asked Israel not to ban UNRWA, but it did so anyway.
The Biden-Harris administration must take real action to stop Israel from killing even more Palestinians.
Although Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its war on Hamas-controlled Gaza—which has killed at least 43,020 people and injured another 101,110 since last October—governments around the world have not acted to stop the bloodshed. The U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden’s administration have even provided Israel with billions of dollars in military aid and blocked cease-fire resolutions at the United Nations.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration finally threatened to cut off weapons if the Israeli government does not take “urgent and sustained actions” to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within 30 days. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s letter specifically raised concerns about the legislation that passed the Knesset Monday.
Asked about the Israeli bills on Monday, Matthew Miller, a U.S. State Department spokesperson frequently slammed for his statements about Israel, pointed to the secretaries’ criticism of the legislation in the recent letter and acknowledged that UNRWA serves the West Bank and plays “an irreplaceable role” in Gaza, where Palestinians are starving to death.
.@leobruneau asked StateSpox about Israel voting to ban UNRWA earlier today.
Miller: The passage of this legislation could have implications under US law…UNRWA plays a critical role in delivering humanitarian assistance
Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s regional director in the Middle East and North Africa, said Monday that “Israel has bombed Palestinians to death, maimed them, starved them, and is now ridding them of their biggest lifeline of aid. Piece by piece, Israel is systemically dismantling Gaza as a land that is autonomous and liveable for Palestinians.”
“Its banning of UNRWA today is condemnable and another step in this crime,” she argued. “The decision will further undermine the ability of the international community to provide sufficient humanitarian aid and to save lives in any safe, independent, and impartial way. UNRWA was not only the biggest and most established agency that has been delivering aid and sustenance to the people of Gaza for years, it was also a thread that connected them in some hope of solidarity and security to the United Nations.”
“We are in no doubt that Israel and its allies are fully aware of the terrible consequences that this decision will have on Palestinians living in Gaza, many of whom are already starving,” she added. “We join others in warning again that this will result in more death, more suffering, and more forced displacement of people from their besieged homeland. It is impossible not to believe that this is their aim.”
Leading up to the votes, human rights advocates have been sounding the alarm. On Saturday, over 50 groups including Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, and ActionAid released a joint statement demanding action and warning that “dismantling UNRWA would be catastrophic for Palestinians especially in Gaza and the West Bank as they are deprived of essentials such as food, water, medical aid, education, and protection. It will also have catastrophic consequences for millions of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, where essential humanitarian aid is crucial for both the refugees and the host communities.”
How can the Israelis remain a #UN member when they not only violate the most basic laws of the @UN Charter but declare UN Secretary General @antonioguterres persona non grata and expel the UN refugee agency that millions of #Palestine refugees depend on, @UNRWA, as well as… https://t.co/8VZat2Gqt3
Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general, delivered a similar warning on social media Monday, declaring that the Knesset action not only “is unprecedented and sets a dangerous precedent” but “it opposes the U.N. Charter and violates the state of Israel’s obligations under international law.”
“This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to Palestine Refugees,” he continued. “These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell.”
“It will deprive over 650,000 girls and boys there from education, putting at risk an entire generation of children,” Lazzarini added. “These bills increase the suffering of the Palestinians and are nothing less than collective punishment.”
