Jerusalem, Undefined – The chief of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees denounced the Israeli authorities’ seizure of assets from its east Jerusalem compound on Monday, which police told AFP was part of a debt-collection operation.
With trucks and forklifts, the authorities took “furniture, IT equipment and other property”, and the compound’s United Nations flag was replaced with an Israeli one, Lazzarini added.
Lazzarini has been declared persona non grata by Israeli authorities, who banned his agency from operating inside the country early this year.
Israeli police told AFP in a statement that the seizures were “carried out by the Jerusalem municipality as part of a debt-collection procedure”.
“Police are present to secure the municipality’s activity,” the statement said.
Jerusalem police spokesman Dean Elsdunne told AFP that the debt collection was related to the Arnona, an Israeli residence tax that covers municipal services.
But Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the West Bank and east Jerusalem, disputed that assessment.
“There is no debt because the United Nations — and UNRWA is part of the United Nations and is a UN agency — is not required to pay any kind of taxes of that kind under international law and under the law that Israel itself has adopted,” he said.
Under a 1946 convention, the UN and its assets must not be taxed by host countries.
‘Systematic campaign’
The compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem has been empty of UNRWA staff since January, when the law banning its operations took effect after a months-long battle over its work in the Gaza Strip.
Israel had accused UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas militants, claiming that some of the agency’s employees took part in Hamas’s 2023 attack on the country.
A series of investigations found some “neutrality-related issues” at UNRWA, but stressed Israel had not provided conclusive evidence for its headline allegation.
Nevertheless, the UN said in August that nine staff working for UNRWA would be sacked because they may have been involved in the attacks.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement strongly condemning Israeli authorities’ “unauthorised entry” into the east Jerusalem compound.
“This compound remains United Nations premises and is inviolable and immune from any other form of interference,” he added, urging Israel to “immediately take all necessary steps to restore, preserve and uphold the inviolability of UNRWA premises and to refrain from taking any further action”.
The Jordanian foreign ministry also denounced the move, calling it “a blatant violation of international law and a breach of the immunities and privileges granted to UN organisations”.
In a statement, it quoted spokesman Fuad al-Majali as saying Jordan “rejects and strongly condemns Israel’s continued systematic campaign to restrict UNRWA and undermine its vital and irreplaceable role in providing services to Palestinian refugees”.
Though the UNRWA ban applies in east Jerusalem due to its annexation by Israel, the agency still operates in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
“Whatever action taken domestically, the compound retains its status as a UN premises, immune from any form of interference,” Lazzarini said.
