Remarks by Caroline Yadan, Member of French National Assembly Translated from French original
Mr. Ambassador,
Mr. Chairman,
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
When UNRWA was founded, it had a mission.
Never mind that there is a clear breach of equality with the world’s other refugees, be they African or Asian;
Never mind that Palestinian refugee status has no time limit and can be passed on from generation to generation;
Never mind that the number of Palestinian refugees has multiplied by 7.6 since 1948, to nearly six million people today, and that only 20 to 30,000 of them would be considered as such if they came under the authority of the High Commission for Refugees;
Never mind that 5 million of them live autonomously on a territory managed by governors they have elected;
Never mind that the budget and staff allocated to UNRWA are three times greater for 20 times fewer refugees than for UNHCR;
Never mind that Palestinian refugees are kept in their status and in camps without ever seeking a lasting solution to integrate them, in order to justify the subsidies allocated;
Never mind that the 800,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries between 1948 and 1950 were never granted refugee status.
Never mind that UNRWA had a mission.
Yet UNRWA failed in its mission.
First and foremost, its mission of education. The Palestinian refugee agency should have provided education that promotes inclusion, a pluralistic view of history, tolerance, equality and non-discrimination.
Instead, UNRWA’s children have been learning the language of violence for decades. Whatever the grade level or subject studied, the teaching given to Palestinian children incites hatred and exterminating passion, glorifies acts of terrorism, encourages jihad, spreads anti-Semitism and demonizes Israel by denying its existence.
UNRWA schools have become places for indoctrinating hatred of Jews and training future terrorists:
- “Jews are devious, treacherous and hostile” (UNRWA manual - Study card - Islamic education 9th year, trim21, p.27)
- “The aim of Zionist gangs is to perpetuate massacres” (UNRWA manual - Modern history of Palestine, 10th year, p.164)
- “Die as martyrs and perform Jihad…”; “The Jews are doomed to destruction” (UNRWA Handbook - Islamic Education Vol 1, 11th and 12th grade p 10 and p.21)
At the beginning of violence is thought.
On October 7th, teenagers with a knife in one hand and a grenade in the other, in a pornography of horror, massacred entire families, burned babies alive and decapitated them in front of their parents, raped and sexually mutilated women, tortured the elderly, and kidnapped inhabitants to sequester them in the tunnels of Gaza.
Children of 8, 9 or 10 years of age stepped over dead bodies to loot the homes of murdered Jews.
UNRWA knew. It failed in its mission of education. A mission to respect human rights.
Human rights, meaning respect for the Other, rejection of violence, terrorism and fanaticism.
And yet, the day after October 7th, over 3,000 UNRWA employees were rejoicing in this orgy of sadism committed in the name of Allah, and celebrating the genocidal impulse of Hamas terrorists;
Yet at least twelve UNRWA employees had taken part in the massacres, and some of them were holding hostages taken from their families;
Yet some 1,200 UNRWA employees in Gaza are members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and 6,000 of them have close relatives working for these terrorist organizations.
Within UNRWA, therefore, there are criminals bent on murder, intent on exterminating their fellow human beings.
UNRWA knew. It failed in its mission to respect human rights.
A mission to transmit peace in the service of refugees, at last.
Peace cannot be envisaged alongside terrorists, brothers of ISIS, who benefit from hundreds of millions of dollars, distributed by the naive international community, to build engines of war, to transform water pipes into rocket launchers, to dig hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, intended not to protect its civilian population but to store weapons of war with the aim of killing women and children in Israel.
Only the truth can lead to peace.
The factual truth, which no one at this summit can ignore.
The truth that shows the discovery of a tunnel used by Hamas and of a major computer data center just below the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza.
The one that reveals Hamas’s use of UNRWA’s resources, facilities, water, electricity and machinery, in particular to build tunnels and coordinate the logistics of the October 7 pogrom assault.
Is it necessary to point out at this summit that anyone who has knowledge of a crime, the effects of which it is still possible to prevent or limit, constitutes a crime or an accessory to a crime?
UNRWA knew. It failed in its mission to transmit peace.
Albert Camus reminded us that “there is always a philosophy for lack of courage.”
So, in the wake of these damning revelations, it’s time to show courage, justice and honor: time to put an end to the hypocrisy and shipwreck of an agency that encourages terrorism and helps perpetuate conflict by providing the necessary means to those who keep it alive.
It’s time to think differently about the future of Palestinian refugees, to eradicate evil and enable future generations to live together peacefully on a shared land.
So that the victims, since the cruelty of October 7, have not died in vain.
