UN agency accused of 'exploiting' Palestinian refugees, 'enabling' Hamas

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East is not doing the job for which it was created, according to two experts who spoke at a Sept. 19 Newsmaker.

Mordechai Kedar, a research associate of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Israel's Bar Ilan University, and David Bedein, president of the Center for Near East Policy Research in Jerusalem and Jerusalem bureau chief of the Israel Resource News Agency, said that far from helping Palestinian refugees, the agency "exploits" them and "enables" what they described as the "Hamas-led" government of Gaza.

They also claimed that "Arab militants" have "all but taken over" agency. The agency denies that it has Hamas represenatatives on its payroll.

Describing it as "something out of Mad Magazine," Belein said a UN resolution asserts that the agency should not do anything that would improve the lives of Palestinians because that would be "a violation of their civil rights."

Kedar and Belein said one solution would involve transferring UN responsibility for helping Palestinian refugees from the agency to what they described as the "highly successful" UN High Commission on Refugees.

The National Press Club Newsmakers program provides a forum to address timely issues by presenting one viewpoint at each event. Over the years, the Club has been a venue for exploring the Middle East peace process by hosting Palestinian, Israeli and other officials from across the region.