The Israeli targeting of UNRWA headquarters in Jerusalem… “An assault on international legitimacy and a direct attack on a UN agency.”
20/1/2026 – Union for Justice Foundation
In a dangerous precedent reflecting the Israeli occupation authorities’ insistence on shedding their international obligations, the Israeli occupation authorities, on Tuesday morning, with the participation of the extremist Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, carried out demolition operations of mobile offices within the compound of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied Jerusalem.
The “Union for Justice” views this attack with utmost seriousness, as it included the lowering of the United Nations flag and the raising of the flag of the occupying power, affirming that this conduct does not constitute merely a material assault, but rather a direct targeting of the legal personality of the international organization as a whole.
UNRWA, as an original subsidiary organ of the United Nations General Assembly, enjoys absolute legal immunity that may not be infringed. The act of occupation bulldozers demolishing buildings within the compound constitutes a blatant violation of the “Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations of 1946,” which obliges host states or occupying powers to protect the organization’s premises and prohibits entering, searching, or seizing them under any legal or administrative pretext. This renders the Israeli action a grave breach of the rules of public international law.
The “Union for Justice” affirms the firm legal position that Israel, as an occupying power, holds no legitimate sovereignty over East Jerusalem. Consequently, laws issued by the Israeli Knesset targeting the prohibition of the Agency’s activities are null and void in absolute terms for their contradiction of the United Nations Charter and relevant Security Council resolutions. The attempt to impose Israeli domestic laws on international premises constitutes a “usurpation” of authority and a blatant assault on international legal jurisdiction as enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention, which protects humanitarian institutions in occupied territories.
The claim by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the compound “does not enjoy immunity” or that the seizure was carried out to collect “financial debts” — as UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini denounced in early December the “confiscation by Israeli police of the organization’s property at its East Jerusalem headquarters, while police claimed it was part of debt collection” — represents a serious legal misrepresentation. Under Article II of the 1946 Convention, the United Nations and its assets are exempt from all forms of direct taxes and fees, and its property is not subject to any local judicial or enforcement measures. The use of trucks and cranes to confiscate furniture and technical equipment constitutes “organized looting” under a security cover, clearly aimed at paralyzing the Agency’s ability to carry out its humanitarian mandate and stripping its legal presence of substance.
“An Israeli Knesset member, Yulia Malinovsky, publicly boasts about the destruction of facilities at UNRWA’s headquarters in occupied Jerusalem.”
The presence of extremist political figures at the demolition sites confirms that the motives behind this action are not administrative, but rather a systematic policy aimed at liquidating the Palestinian refugee issue through the destruction of its witnessing institutions. The “Union for Justice” warns that targeting UNRWA today — an organization that has operated for seven decades — represents a global “alarm bell”; allowing such violations to pass without effective international accountability opens the door to the violation of all diplomatic missions and international organizations worldwide, threatening the collapse of the diplomatic system that has been stable for decades.
What occurred at the UNRWA compound in Jerusalem constitutes a compound legal crime that requires immediate UN action by the General Assembly and the Security Council to ensure the restoration of international immunity and the protection of the organization’s assets, along with the activation of international accountability and judicial prosecution mechanisms against those responsible for these orders, as they represent a deliberate violation of the UN immunity regime. It also necessitates the provision of immediate international protection for UNRWA staff and facilities in Jerusalem to ensure the continuity of vital services for Palestinian refugees.
The “Union for Justice” stresses that protecting UNRWA’s presence in Jerusalem is not merely a humanitarian obligation, but a safety valve to protect international law from political arrogance that seeks to impose an illegitimate reality by force of arms over occupied land, imposing on the international community a duty of protection and confrontation of this blatant contempt for the global order.
International law will remain the sole reference, and attempts to impose a “new reality” by force of arms over occupied territories will not alter the legal truth in any way.
End
