by Dr. Alex Joffe and Dr. Asaf Romirowsky
UNRWA - Up to no good
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| Pierre Krähenbühl, Commissioner-General of UNRWA during press conference. 30 January 2018. UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré via Flickr CC |
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,251, August 11, 2019
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: A corruption scandal
involving sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation against
whistleblowers, and lots of business-class travel has gripped the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA). It represents a new low for UNRWA and is an indictment of the
idea of an international agency dedicated to a single interest. But it’s
also a unique opportunity to see behind the curtain of a billion-dollar
UN bureaucracy and phase it out.
Serious corruption allegations against the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA), derived from a leaked UNRWA ethics report completed in December
2018, were exposed last week by Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse.
The published account accuses Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl of
appointing Maria Mohammedi, with whom he had a relationship “beyond the
professional,” to a newly created and fast-tracked role as senior
adviser and flying her around the world business class. The UN says it’s
still investigating.
According to the report, Mohammedi’s new job
allowed her to join Krähenbühl on his busy and expensive travel
schedule. Current and former UNRWA officials describe him as perpetually
absent from Jerusalem, a submarine who “surfaces for a couple of days”
of public meetings and then “disappears into the unknown for protracted
periods.” UNRWA, which complains it’s strapped for cash, would have
footed the bill for all of it.
The commissioner-general’s travel, the report
explains, left Chief of Staff Hakam Shahwan in control of UNRWA’s
operations in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, Shahwan himself stands accused
of bullying staff, acting like a “thug,” bypassing procedures for
procurement and other financial decisions, and excessive partiality to
the Palestinian Authority. UNRWA says he was “separated” from the agency
after writing anonymous emails to journalists trying to discredit the
report. Shahwan says he’s on paid leave and hasn’t commented on specific
allegations.
The 10-page report also accuses Deputy
Commissioner-General Sandra Mitchell of using her power to get her
husband, Robert Langridge, promoted to a more senior position. She has
stepped down but remains on staff. Mitchell and Langridge deny the
allegations, as do Krähenbühl and Mohammedi.
In the past, UNRWA has been accused by Israel and
independent researchers of employing Hamas members and using antisemitic
textbooks. Rockets have also been found hidden at UNRWA schools on
several occasions. Perhaps it’s unsurprising that an organization so
corrupt at the bottom is even more corrupt at the top.
The report’s timing is especially damaging. Thanks
to the Trump administration’s cuts in American funding to UNRWA earlier
this year, which reduced the US contribution to zero, the agency’s
fortunes have plummeted. UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who sat
on the ethics findings for months, finally indicated in July that he is
“committed to acting swiftly on the full report.” Now Switzerland,
Belgium, and the Netherlands have suspended their funding pending an
investigation. Excessive business-class travel probably didn’t sit well
with donors who have been showered with stories about the dire state of
UNRWA’s finances.
As it is completely reliant on donors, UNRWA is
always living on the edge. Its funding is uncertain and it maintains a
culture of secrecy. The agency regularly assesses its management, but
publishes uniformly positive reports. The imperative is always to
support calls for future funding and avoid lending ammunition to
critics, namely the US and Israel.
One lesson to be learned from this scandal is that
funders must demand internal controls, external audits, and public
access to information. Assurances regarding Palestinian needs aren’t
enough. Scrutiny is also needed for the Palestinian Authority, which
uses foreign aid to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in pensions to
terrorists and their families.
A second lesson concerns the danger of devoting an
international organization to a single population. UNRWA was
effectively taken over by Palestinians decades ago. Politicization began
at the bottom with school curricula, but crept upward, with senior
managers calling for the Palestinian so-called right of return.
The US funding cuts were the first serious
challenges to a long overripe status quo. This latest scandal is an
opportunity for the US, together with other angry donors, to demand a
phase-out plan for the entire organization.
UNRWA’s 30,000 employees could join the
Palestinian Authority, which would take over its health, education, and
welfare responsibilities like the state it claims to be. UNRWA’s
expensive international cadre, including lobbyists in Washington and
Geneva, should be disbanded. And Palestinian residents of Arab states –
all of whom are considered refugees by UNRWA – should become citizens of
those states, as they are in Jordan, or of the Palestinian Authority.
If Palestinians truly desire a state, they should join the call for
UNRWA’s abolition.
This is an edited version of an article that appeared in The Wall Street Journal on August 6, 2019.
Mr. Joffe is a fellow at the Middle East
Forum. Mr. Romirowsky is executive director of Scholars for Peace in the
Middle East and a fellow at the Middle East Forum. Both are senior
nonresident scholars at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.
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