New reports say UNRWA is working with terrorists, indoctrinating hate as organization hits back at critics

Following the many accusations and charges against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for its relationship with terrorists for involvement in the terrorist massacre of Hamas in Israel, this scandal-hit organization is facing new allegations of wrongdoing.

UN Watch, a Geneva-based NGO, released parts of a 150-page document that Executive Director Hillel Neuer told Fox News Digital shows “high-level UNRWA staff who are aligned with terrorists, who meet with them on a regular basis.”

Before presenting his documents to the world, Neuer tried to talk about it directly with UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini. In a letter to Lazzarini, Neuer explained that Lazzarini’s staff had complained that UN Watch had not sent its reports to UNRWA for comment before publication. Neuer then recounted several attempts to meet with Lazzarini in person to discuss UN Watch’s findings and explained that when it released its dossier, Lazzarini could not “accuse … that we did not show you the evidence in advance.”

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Neuer’s group then released photos of senior UNRWA staff, including Lazzarini and former UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krahenbuhl, meeting with suspected terrorist leaders. “You couldn’t get these pictures open [UNRWA officials’] on social media,” he said. “We found our own methods, but they don’t include them.”

Neuer pointed Fox News Digital to two undated photos showing Lazzarini meeting with groups that include members of terrorist organizations, including the Jihadi Islamic Movement, the Islamic Ansar League, and Hamas.

In another photo from late 2014, several UNRWA regional directors met with senior Hamas member Ali Baraka. Neuer said, and a report from Al Watan Voice confirms, that UNRWA staff want to “congratulate [Baraka] on the anniversary of Hamas.”

A terrorist from Hamas takes part in a military parade. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo)

In another incident, Neuer said he was able to obtain a photo and text of a February 2017 meeting between former UNRWA chief Pierre Krahenbuhl, Baraka, members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and others. According to UN Watch, Krahenbuhl reportedly told the meeting that “we are united, and no one can divide us.”

In September 2024, the US Department of Justice announced “terrorism, conspiracy to commit murder, and sanctions evasion” charges against Baraka and five other Hamas leaders for their role in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, a terrorist attack, which killed 40 and more Americans. Another 1,000.

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Pierre Krahenbuhl, UNRWA commissioner-general, speaks at a press conference in Amman, Jordan, on Aug. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Raad Adayleh, File)

Krahenbuhl and his staff were investigated in 2019 for reports of “sexual misconduct, discrimination, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority.” Krahenbuhl resigned from his post, but in April 2024 he was named head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Leading voices in the congress asked that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power “persuade the ICRC to consider this appointment” given Krahenbuhl’s “terrible tenure” as UNRWA commissioner-general.

Fox News Digital asked the ICRC about the photos of Krahenbuhl questioning terrorist leaders, and the organization’s concerns about his eligibility for the Red Cross position. A spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the ICRC “was not at the meeting, so cannot speak to the substance of the discussion.”

They also said that Krahenbuhl “has shown through his work at the ICRC and decades of humanitarian experience that he has one goal: to secure aid to people living in conflict areas. Meeting with any group that controls access to people, is an important part of the work of the ICRC and other aid organizations in conflict areas .”

Allegations of hate in UNRWA Education

The latest UN Watch document includes interviews with UNRWA students taken by local Palestinian film crews over a three-week period in the summer of 2024. In another interview, a 14-year-old former student of a school shared by UNRWA’s Ein Arik said that. his school taught him to “‘fight and resist’ so that ‘Palestine will be freed and our lands will return to us by the good grace of Allah.’ he explains that the solution to Jerusalem is to “kill the Jews. We are removing the Jews.”

A second NGO, IMPACT, has reported extensively on the learning materials used in UNRWA schools for over two decades. In a report dated Nov. 13, IMPACT-se calls 12 UNRWA high-ranking principals, deputies, directors or deputy directors of training centers who had membership in Hamas or PIJ. The report notes that nine of the 12 participated in the terrorist attack on October 7, “some even worked as Nukhba operatives,” members of the Hamas special forces unit. Two UNRWA- and Hamas-affiliated principals lead schools “under which Hamas tunnels are built.”

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UNRWA in Gaza on June 20, 2023. (Photos by Ahmed Zakot/SOPA/LightRocket via Getty Images)

IMPACT’s latest review is consistent with findings from March 2023 that two UNRWA schools run by members of Hamas had “encouraged[d] violence and terrorism in the curriculum you created.” Now, IMPACT has named three more schools where Hamas operatives worked as UNRWA staff. The NGO found that these schools promote “disrespect and disrespect for Israel” and “free entry[ed] content that incites hatred and violence against Israel is illegal.”

IMPACT found that UNRWA schools are “disrespectful[ing]” UNESCO values, which include “building peace, respecting non-Palestinian groups, and avoiding incitement to violence.”

The group’s report cites intelligence as saying “more than 10% of the 510 [senior] workers in the UNRWA education program in the Gaza Strip,” are members of PIJ or Hamas. UNRWA members are not allowed to participate in terrorist groups designated by the UN Security Council. the smallest lists in the world,” because “Russia and China can block any nomination they don’t like .” Neuer said this means there are “almost no Palestinian groups” on the list.

Fox News Digital has reached out to UNRWA’s press officers several times about its response to IMPACT-se’s and UN Watch’s dossiers, about allegations that UNRWA schools do not follow UNESCO standards, and about Lazzarini’s refusal to meet with Neuer.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini speaks at a meeting on the opening day of the Global Refugee Forum, in Geneva. (Jean-Guy Python/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Bill Deere, director of UNRWA’s representative office in Washington, told Fox News Digital, “UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has warned against the spread of disinformation against UNRWA,” which he says is “intended to create confusion and divert attention from political objectives. Disrupt the Agency.” Reiterating the content of the statement shared by Lazzarini in X after the release of Neuer’s dossier, Deere said, “UNRWA recommends that before giving oxygen to cases like these, double check the source and question the intention to avoid becoming an echo chamber of disinformation. and inciting hatred and putting other people’s lives at risk.”

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Speaking to UN Watch in an interview with UNRWA students, he said, “What they are not telling you is that these children were recorded without the knowledge or consent of their parents,” said Deere. “The children were separated from each other and asked a series of leading questions designed to elicit an answer. This is not delusional, perverted and desperate.”

The US was among the many countries that decided to support UNRWA in January after the first evidence emerged of its members’ involvement in the terrorist attacks of October 7. Congress suspended funding for UNRWA until March 2025.