Court dismisses lawsuit aimed at defunding UNRWA

A US federal district court dismissed a civil lawsuit that falsely claimed that a US charity supported terrorism by providing financial contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa) on Friday.

The lawsuit is part of a broader attack by the Israeli government and its supporters on Unrwa, until recently the primary provider of humanitarian assistance in Gaza. 

In response to the ruling dismissing the lawsuit, Mara Kronenfeld, Executive Director of Unrwa USA said, “Unrwa USA is gratified to see that the court judge recognized the multiple defects in the plaintiffs’ argument and sees this meritless case for what it is.

"It is a politically motivated attempt to bog Unrwa USA down in frivolous lawfare and intimidate us out of doing our essential humanitarian work.

"That effort is all the more disturbing given that experts around the world, including Israeli human rights groups, are terming what is happening in Gaza a genocide.”

Mandated by the UN to provide a range of essential services to registered Palestine refugees throughout the Middle East, Unrwa has played an indispensable role amid the latest Israeli assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 60,000 (a conservative estimate), and displaced nearly the entire population of more than two million, half of whom are children.  

Throughout the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Unrwa USA – which is a nonprofit independent of the UN agency – has been an important vehicle for people in the US to help Palestine refugees in need.

Unrwa managed the logistics for the UN’s aid delivery system, operating 400 distribution sites across the Gaza Strip—until Israel replaced them with the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

GHF is a privatized, militarized aid scheme conceived and backed by Israel and the US to control and coerce a starving population.

It operates just four aid sites and Palestinians are forced to walk miles through rubble and danger for a chance at food, only to be corralled into fenced-off pens and, in many cases, shot.

Since GHF’s implementation, the Israeli military and private contractors – or mercenaries – have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians at or near GHF sites.