UNRWA ban risks multiple international law violations, chair of key UK committee warns

The chair of the UK's International Development Committee has warned the foreign secretary that Israel’s ban on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) risks violating multiple international laws and asked how he will respond.

“Israel’s effective legislative ban on Unrwa must not be allowed to be implemented,” the chair and Labour MP Sarah Champion wrote in a letter to David Lammy sent on Wednesday. 

“A ban would not only risk contravening numerous laws and obligations but would lead to an immediate, potentially irreparable, degradation in the living conditions of Palestinians.”

Last month, the Israeli Knesset passed two laws effectively banning Unrwa from being able to operate inside Israel, Gaza, the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.

The laws, scheduled to take effect on 28 January, likely breach the Charter of the United Nations, the Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law obligations of occupying powers, Champion said.

“They also appear to violate provisional rulings of the International Court of Justice on preventing genocide in Gaza, and may deepen violations listed in the ICJ advisory opinion of 19 July on the illegality of the ongoing occupation,” she wrote.

She asked Lammy to tell the committee by 6 December what contingencies are in place if the laws are implemented and what representations he has made to his Israeli counterparts on their impact.