The Supreme Court of Justice on Tuesday rejected out of hand the petitions filed by left-wing and human rights organizations – including Adalah and Gisha – against the laws approved by the Knesset that prohibit the activities of the UNRWA agency in Israel.
The decision was made after the petitioners decided to withdraw their petitions, following the clarification by the judges in a hearing held on the matter about a week ago that the petitions do not present an evidentiary foundation proving individual harm as a result of the laws. During the hearing at the time, the judges hinted that the petitions should be rejected and recommended that the petitioners withdraw them. In the meantime, the petitioners requested a ten-day stay to provide a response and ultimately announced the withdrawal of the petition.
In their decision, the judges ruled that “the petition is dismissed without an order as to costs” and clarified that “the petitioners’ rights and claims are reserved.” This means that the Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the claims against the laws, and the proceedings ended at this stage without a substantive ruling. However, the mere fact that the claims were preserved leaves the petitioners with the option of re-raising them in the future in other proceedings.
UNRWA Law Initiative MK Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beiteinu) responded to the Supreme Court’s decision to reject the petitions: “As expected, the High Court judges rejected the petitions against the UNRWA laws that I enacted. The entire political campaign that tried to portray the High Court as leftist and that would overturn the laws has proven to be cynical. When you know how to enact laws and not poke fingers in your eyes, there is no need to worry about their disqualification.”
She added: “Having said that, it should be noted that the government has not yet ordered the evacuation of the UNRWA compounds in Kafr Aqab and Area C. If this is not done by the end of the week, I will submit, together with an organization in Tel Aviv, a petition to the High Court of Justice against the government so that the judges will oblige the Minister of Defense to comply with the laws of the state.”
UNRWA laws, whose enactment was completed in the Knesset, stipulate a complete ban on the agency’s activities on the territory of the State of Israel, the cancellation of the historic agreement with it from 1967, and the sweeping severance of all official contact and infrastructure – including water, electricity, and banking – by the state authorities. The move was preceded by intelligence information and evidence that was presented, according to which dozens of the organization’s employees took an active part in the massacres, kidnappings, and acts of terrorism on October 7, and hundreds more turned out to be operatives in the terrorist organizations Hamas and ‘Palestinian’ Islamic Jihad.
Furthermore, the lawmakers emphasized that UNRWA facilities have regularly served as a hideout for terrorist infrastructure, and that the agency’s education system perpetuates and incites hatred of Israel and terrorism – thus turning the organization into a body that serves Hamas and perpetuates the conflict instead of acting as a neutral aid organization.
Within this framework, the UNRWA compound’s main headquarters in Ma’alot Dafna is being evacuated. As well as other buildings in the Shuafat refugee camp and East Jerusalem. However, their huge campus in Kafr Aqab, which houses UNRWA schools and clinics and a large community center, has not yet been evacuated. It should be noted that forces from the Jerusalem Municipality have previously arrived on the scene and attempted to evacuate, but have been met with violence and even live fire.