UN Watchdog exposes terror takeover of UNRWA schools in Gaza and Lebanon

Hamas terror chiefs have been holding top positions in the educational system of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) according to a new report on the subject written by Legal Advisor Dina Rovner and edited by Executive Director Hillel Neuer from UN Watch. 

In the report entitled “Schools in the Grip of Terror: How UNRWA Allowed Hamas Chiefs to Control its Education System,” which exposes how UNRWA schools have been effectively taken over by Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon, the UN watchdog lists a catalogue of scathing condemnations.

Despite regularly and openly expressing approval of terrorist activity and even ties to the terror group, Hamas members and supporters were allowed to stay in their positions. “UNRWA knew – and did nothing,” the watchdog stated. 

“The UN agency that raises more than $1 billion annually from Western states with the promise to educate Palestinian children with values such as peace, tolerance, and universal human rights, instead has handed them over to the very operatives who recruit child soldiers, glorify suicide bombers, and preach the annihilation of a UN member state,” UN Watch said.

“By knowingly employing Hamas terrorist leaders as school principals and teachers, and by allowing terror chiefs to head the unions that oversee thousands of their teachers, UNRWA didn’t just tolerate extremism – the Western-funded UN agency institutionalized it, turning classrooms into incubators of hate.”

The report tracks how Hamas was able to commandeer UNRWA staff unions and has effectively “hijacked the agency’s entire education system.”

While Westerners may be familiar with public faces such as Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, more than 99% of UNRWA’s 30,000 employees are local Palestinian Arabs according to UN Watch, compared to just 120 international staff.

Lazzarini is a public advocate and fundraiser for UNRWA known within the international community, but many local leaders, especially in Gaza and Lebanon, are Hamas members or even leaders of the terror group. Many thousands of others are active Hamas members. 

“To put this in perspective, The Palestinian Arab local staff are the people who run all of UNRWA’s services, including its education system,” the watchdog revealed.

Last year, UN Watch exposed how a 3,000-member UNRWA staff Telegram chat group had many cheering the Oct. 7 atrocities, leading to an independent review headed by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna “to assess whether UNRWA is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and respond to allegations of serious neutrality breaches when they are made.” 

The Colonna Review, published on April 20, 2024, recognized that UNRWA staff unions are “politicized,” stating that “the politicization of staff unions is considered one of the most sensitive neutrality issues and needs to be addressed.” Not one of the recommendations related to maintaining neutrality in staff unions has been implemented.

Now, the U.S Israel Education Association (USIEA) is developing an education plan to provide an alternative to UNRWA.

“Looking at images from October 7 of these hostages and dead bodies being brought back into Gaza, and seeing not just the terrorists themselves, but children celebrating it, it shows you that there is something deeply wrong within that society,” EJ Kimball, director of policy and strategic operations at the USIEA, told i24NEWS. “That goes to the root of the education system.”

USIEA has worked together with others for many years to combat anti-Israel incitement perpetuated in Palestinian textbooks. “This was sort of a natural place for us to work on a new fresh idea, specifically looking at Gaza,” said Kimball. “There is an opportunity to fix a major wrong that has bred this continued violence and conflict.”

Following the U.S. defunding of UNRWA last year under the Biden administration, the USIEA issued a white paper earlier laying out its Alternate Gazan Education System (AGES) Fund which “seeks to reform the Gazan education system through several key parameters including a strong coalition of international partners, curriculum in textbooks, and teachers.” 

“The goal should be ‘Teaching to Coexist’ instead of ‘Teaching to Hate,’” according to their proposal.

“As discussions began to come out about the day-after, while recognizing that we don't know exactly when the day after will begin, planning for that day-after is definitely important,” said Kimball.

“There needs to be international support, and particularly from within the Arab world, to really drive this initiative,” he insisted.

“The challenge today is the fact that they've been corrupted throughout Gaza by Hamas and that it's just not viable to continue funding right now. So, if Congress is looking for an UNRWA alternative, the AGES Fund is a viable solution that brings in the international community and would also provide them an outlet for those funds to make sure that they are contributing towards peace and coexistence in the region, as opposed to funding that's continuing to lead to conflict,” Kimball added.