Hamas has radicalised children in UNRWA schools in Gaza, watchdog NGO report claims

Years of inadequate control have enabled Hamas to radicalise an entire generation of Palestinian youth in Gaza in UNRWA schools, Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, said at a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday.

Neuer, who leads the Geneva-based organisation, levelled this accusation at the UN, but also donor countries such as Germany.

The report shows the financial, operational and personnel links that, according to UN Watch, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has maintained with Hamas.

As early as 2011, the UNRWA union in Gaza, under the leadership of Suhail Al-Hindi, vehemently rejected the UNRWA management's plan to introduce Holocaust lessons in schools.

At his farewell ceremony in April 2017, Al-Hindi was praised for speaking out against Holocaust education.

The report calls for a thorough international review and comprehensive reforms. He rejects the findings of previous UN investigations, such as that of former French minister Catherine Colonna last year, as inadequate.

Neuer also called out what he termed UNRWA's perpetual "infantilisation of the Palestinian people", entrenching political dependency, fuelling resentment and preventing genuine self-government and long-term stability, and that its current structure was undermining any path to lasting peace.

Closed schools 'seeds for even more hatred and violence'

Representatives of the UN have rejected previous accusations against its main relief agency in Gaza and the West Bank.

In an interview with Euronews, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini explained that Israel is withholding information on the allegations that Hamas has infiltrated the schools. UNRWA had investigated all allegations.

In January, Israel banned the relief agency from operating in the Palestinian territories. According to the aid organisation, it is still trying to support the people in Gaza, but the ongoing Israeli attacks have made this virtually impossible.

Lazzarini believes that closed schools are the real danger. "The Israeli forces have destroyed or damaged most of the schools and educational facilities in Gaza," Lazzarini said.

"Instead of going back to school like most children around the world, some 660,000 girls and boys in Gaza are now left to rummage through the rubble, desperate, hungry, traumatised and mostly grieving for loved ones," he explained.

"The longer they stay away from school with their trauma, the greater the danger that they will become a lost generation and thus sow the seeds of even more hatred and violence."

UNRWA was founded in 1949. Its mission is to provide aid, healthcare and education to millions of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and neighbouring Arab countries such as Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

UNRWA is one of two UN refugee organisations. While UNRWA looks after Palestinians, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is responsible for all other refugees worldwide.

Hillel Neuer is a Canadian-born international lawyer, and he is considered one of the "100 most influential Jewish personalities in the world," according to Maariv, a prominent national daily newspaper published in Israel.

The EU, the US, the UK and several other countries have designated Hamas as a terrorist organisation.

However, the UN has failed to do so after two motions were rejected. Officials of the UN have condemned specific actions carried out by Hamas's military wing as "acts of terror" or "terrorism," without applying this label to the entire organisation.

The UN Watch's stated goal is to expose abuses at the United Nations and, in particular, double standards towards Israel.