UNRWA head to step down
By URIEL HEILMAN, The Jerusalem Post
Kofi and clan, asutely aware of the damage done to the UN by the Oil for Food scandals, has replacement plans for Peter Hansen. Hansen, a Danish born political-science grad, has been part of the UN inner circle since 1978, and was tapped to head up UNRWA (Relief and Works Agency) back in 1994.
I suggest that dumping Hansen falls far short of what is needed in the UN's housecleaning. The whole agency should be abolished as separatist, discriminatory, since it is a supporter of terrorists in general.
For those not hep to this particular arm of the UN, it is solely dedicated to the welfare and social services of Palestinians considered "refugees". Please note, all other "refugees" of the world come under the jurisdiction of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees Office. This is only for Palestinians.
In addition to questioning why the UN would have an agency that serves such a small percentage of total of the world's refugees, it is important to note this particular agency also has the dubious honor of being the largest staffed, boasting approximate 25,000 employees.
The staff membership composition came under fire not long ago when it was discovered that the agency had members of Hamas on the payroll. However Hansen has been quoted as saying in response "I don't see that as a crime".
Mr. Hansen evidently believes that non-violent members join violent jihadist terrorist groups.
The agency controlled over $300 million in relief funding in 2004 and, like most relief agencies, still insists that is not enough. However those providing the funds is yet another controversy destined to haunt the UN.... if the MSM cares to concentrate on something long enough to bring the problem to the world's attentions. This, of course, would entail them covering something other than besmirching the Cowboy President and the US Coalition. Highly unlikely, of course.
The following financial data comes from an article entitled "UNRWA's Shady Donors" . Two percent of the UNRWA funding is from organizations that fund Middle East and global terrorist groups. It might be prudent to note that this site is obviously pro-Israel. However the financial data put forth is easily verifiable. So in this case, the messenger is hardly the issue. Rather it is expected that the UNRWA itself would not voluntarily draw attention to their supporters, and that the anti-Israeli MSM would be happy to ignore the facts.
Since the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada in 2000, UNRWA has received $510,000 from the Islamic American Relief Agency, a charity created by the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA). In October 2004, the US Treasury found that IARA had transferred millions of dollars to terrorist networks run by Osama bin Laden, and has since frozen IARA's assets.
IARA's chief, Mubarak Hamed, is personally accused of raising $5 million for al-Qaida during a fund-raising trip to Sudan and other locations in the Middle East in 2000.
UNRWA has so far shown no concern that one of its donors is an al-Qaida sponsor.
Weighing in with a donation of $5,076,000, the Islamic Development Bank is a significant contributor. This bank created and manages the Al Aqsa Fund, found to be a terrorist financial channel linking wealthy Gulf-based terror financiers to Hamas.
The US Treasury has added the Al Aqsa Fund to its list of Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entities, and the fund has been banned in the United Kingdom and Germany.
Could it be possible that following the closure of the Al Aqsa Fund, the Islamic Development Bank has found UNRWA a safer route to reach Hamas with financial aid?
UNRWA's public records of financial sponsors also list a $1,640,000 contribution by a donor registered as the "Saudi Committee." This contributor's full name is the Saudi Arabia Committee for Support of the Intifadat Al Quds, and it has been linked with the funding of a number of Hamas suicide bomb attacks against Israeli civilians.
UNRWA also received $3,538,276 from the Syrian Arab Popular Committee, also known as Popular Committee for Supporting the Intifada.
This organization, created by the Syrian Ba'athist government, calls for the continuance of Palestinian attacks against Israel. Committee president Ahmed Abdel Karim has regularly organized rallies in Syria and Lebanon in which activists have called for Israel's destruction.
It may well be that getting rid of Hansen is only the start of what is really needed. And that would be the dissolution of a UN agency that dedicates itself only to Palestinians while wrapping the rest of the world's refugees within a separate organization.
Creating and maintaining a single agency, funded with cash by anti-Jew terrorist groups, and dedicated only to anti-Israel refugees, could not prove more revealing about the UN and their attitudes in general. Singling out only Palestinians is obviously discriminatory and biased. And so very "UN".
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