For years, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency has sent millions of dollars each month to Gaza to pay employees and support hospitals, schools and other infrastructure, according to a new lawsuit. The money is transferred from New York, where the agency has an office, to the West Bank, where the money is loaded onto trucks and transported through Israel to Gaza.
The complaint, filed Monday in Manhattan federal court, says some of those dollars ended up financing the military operations of Hamas, the Islamist group that has controlled Gaza for nearly 20 years and has vowed to wipe out the Jewish state. The money trail is at the heart of the case against seven current and former senior UNRWA officials who are accused of knowing that Hamas siphoned more than $1 billion from the agency to pay for, among other things , tunneling equipment and weapons that aided his attack. on Israel on October 7.
About 100 Israeli plaintiffs – including at least one who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, others who survived the attack, as well as the property of some who died – are seeking unspecified financial damages. They say UNRWA is responsible because it helped finance Hamas, which the United States and other countries consider a terrorist organization.
UNRWA was prosecuted several times since the attacks, with some cases claiming the agency encouraged Hamas and others attempting to cut off UNRWA funding. The case filed Monday goes further, describing how the plaintiffs believe the agency’s money ended up in the hands of Hamas and how the terrorists used its resources in the attack on Israel.
The suit says that in Gaza, unlike other places where the agency operates, UNRWA pays its 13,000 local employees in U.S. dollars which must be changed into shekels, the Israeli currency used in Gaza, by money changers affiliated with Hamas who accept a share. for the organization.
The civil suit faces numerous obstacles, including the question of whether a treaty grants immunity to U.N. officials. But if the case continues, it could allow other victims of Hamas attacks to seek damages from the UN. Even if it fails, the suit could pressure countries that give money to UNRWA to reevaluate their support.
“Hamas did not commit these atrocities without assistance,” the complaint states. He was “aided and abetted” by senior agency officials who, for more than a decade, financed Hamas’ “terrorist infrastructure” and knew they were “supplying Hamas with US dollars in cash that he needed to pay smugglers for weapons, explosives and other terrorist acts.” material.”
Juliette Touma, a spokeswoman for the agency, said Monday that she was aware of the lawsuit but “has not been the subject of any legal proceedings and, therefore, is unable to comment for now”.
A senior Hamas official did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hamas does not have access to the global banking architecture that allows money to be easily transferred across borders. For many years, Israel allowed external funds, including from UNRWA, to be sent to Gaza to pay for basic necessities. The Israeli government facilitated a one-year program Qataris’ effort to send money for humanitarian operations. But many questions arise over whether Qatari money was diverted by Hamas to finance military operations.
UNRWA was established in 1949 and is financed mainly by donations from UN member countries. The United States has long been the main contributor, donate $371 million in 2023, or nearly 30 percent agency contributions, according to a congressional report.
The defendants named in the trial are Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general of UNRWA; Pierre Krähenbühl, former director of the agency, now with the International Red Cross; Leni Stenseth, Sandra Mitchell and Margot Ellis, former deputy commissioners general; Greta Gunnarsdottir, director of the agency’s New York office; and Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees.
A spokeswoman for Ms. Stenseth declined to comment on the complaint, and a spokesman for Mr. Grandi referred all questions to the U.N. secretary-general’s office. Efforts to reach the other defendants were not immediately successful.
In a opinion writing Writing for the New York Times last month, Mr. Lazzarini distinguished individual acts from the agency’s work and said allegations that UNRWA or other United Nations organizations were involved in terrorism “will diminish even more our tools of peace and defense against inhumanity in the world.” .”
Under a treaty between the United States and the United Nations, the top four UN officials have full diplomatic immunity, according to Larry Johnson, a former deputy legal adviser to the United Nations. Lower-level civil servants benefit from “functional immunity,” meaning they cannot be prosecuted for actions taken in the course of their work.
“We do not believe that UNRWA enjoys immunity for aiding and abetting” attacks on Israel, Gavi Mairone, a human rights lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said in a statement.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers say UNRWA officials can be sued in a U.S. court because the agency has an office in New York, raised funds in New York and used New York-based banks. The attorneys also said the Alien Tort Statutes allow non-Americans to sue in U.S. federal court for injuries suffered as a result of a violation of international laws.
The lawsuit hinges on a long, winding cash trail that stretches from Manhattan to the Middle East.
According to the complaint, the agency would ask JPMorgan Chase each month to wire $1 million to the New York branch of Arab Bank, which is headquartered in Jordan and is one of the region’s largest financial institutions. The Arab Bank then transmitted the money to its branch in Ramallah, in the West Bank.
There, money intended for UNRWA operations in Gaza was transferred to the Bank of Palestine in Ramallah, then withdrawn as US dollars in cash, loaded onto trucks and transported through Israel to Gaza.
JPMorgan Chase declined to comment. The Arab Bank and the Bank of Palestine did not respond to requests to speak on the matter.
The suit argues that if UNRWA paid its personnel in Gaza in shekels, the money could be sent electronically, reducing the need to pay fees to money changers affiliated with Hamas. “Only Hamas benefits from UNRWA’s current cash management practices,” according to the complaint.
The complaint says the group used the money “to purchase, through smugglers, weapons, ammunition, explosives, construction materials for tunnels, and materials to make rockets.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyers said the sources they used to establish the details of the money trail included U.N. audits of UNRWA’s finances and a U.N. investigation of the agency, as well as press articles including comments from UNRWA on the movement of money from New York to Gaza. and the allocation of these funds.
The complaint does not reveal what evidence the plaintiffs will present to prove conclusively that UNRWA Gaza money was used to finance the October 7 attack. The complaint also does not provide specific details to support the claim that Hamas controls foreign exchange.
But a 2018 Key Aid Consulting report for UNRWA said the exchanges were open to “leaks,” which includes “misappropriation, fraud, corruption, double counting and any irregularity considered to be misappropriation of grants in cash or legitimate vouchers”. »
Monday’s lawsuit claims that whether officials specifically knew about the Oct. 7 attacks is irrelevant because they knew that “Hamas openly proclaimed its goal of targeting and assassinating innocent civilians” and knew that any support would be helpful.
UNRWA has long been accused of having links to Hamas. In January, Israel indicted a dozen agency employees to play a role in the attacks of October 7 or after. The UN said it fired several employees after learning of the allegations. These accusations prompted eight countries, including the United States, to suspend some of their aid to UNRWA.
In April, a an independent review commissioned by the United Nations said that Israel had failed to provide proof that many of UNRWA’s thousands of employees were members of terrorist organizations. This prompted several countries to start donating again.
Adam Rasgon And Patrick Kingsley reports contributed.
