SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
This week, Israel bulldozed the Jerusalem offices for the main United Nations agency that provides health and education services to Palestinians. Power and water will be cut next week at the agency's remaining facilities. This is all part of a bitter standoff between the U.N. and Israel, as NPR's Emily Feng reports.
EMILY FENG, BYLINE: This is what remains of the UNRWA site in East Jerusalem. It's now closed, but you can still see these piles of crumpled metal, wooden beams, concrete.
The demolition of UNRWA was sudden.
JONATHAN FOWLER: We got notice when they turned up at the Jerusalem facility.
FENG: This is Jonathan Fowler, an UNRWA spokesperson. The agency was once the backbone of social services for many Palestinians in East Jerusalem and across the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank.
FOWLER: If the water and electricity is cut from the clinic and the clinic is forced to cease operating at the end of this month, there is no alternative.
FENG: No alternative for these people, he says. Aryeh King, one of Jerusalem's deputy mayors, disagrees. He's been pushing to close down UNRWA for years.
ARYEH KING: They never pay rent. They built their enormous illegal buildings.
FENG: UNRWA disputes this. They say they started renting the land from the country of Jordan long before Israel took control of East Jerusalem after the 1967 war. But the bigger issue Aryeh King points out is he believes UNRWA sponsors violent terror. The agency fired about two dozen of its employees but never conceded to accusations they were among Hamas militants who attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. An independent review led by a former French foreign minister said that Israel did not provide evidence to support its claims against UNRWA.
KING: Suddenly, people understood what is - UNRWA is all about - brainwashing children, heads (ph) in young children in East Jerusalem, Arab young children that are brainwashed against Jews, against Israel.
FENG: UNRWA says it's committed to neutrality in all of its activities. That includes educating about half a million Palestinians. UNRWA also provides a lot of basic services for them, like food assistance and health care. But Israel has frozen UNRWA out of Israel and stopped it from delivering aid in Gaza. And King believes Israel will close another UNRWA facility soon - an educational training center just outside of Jerusalem. He wants to build houses and government offices on the UNRWA sites. The agency - really the entire United Nations, King says - is not needed.
KING: It's a organization motivated by all kind of agendas, mainly against Jews everywhere in the world and specifically against Israel.
FENG: And this week, Israel was among the first wave of countries that confirmed membership on a new Board of Peace just launched by President Trump - an organization that critics fear could undermine the influence of the U.N.
Emily Feng, NPR News, Jerusalem. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
