White House urges Israel to pause laws banning UN's Palestine refugee agency

​​​​​​​By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The White House urged Israel on Wednesday to pause implementation on a pair of just-passed laws that would severely restrict the operations of the UN's Palestine refugee agency.

Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration is engaged in conversations with Israel "to pause implementing this legislation," and further urged Tel Aviv to "ensure UNRWA can effectively carry out its mission and facilitate humanitarian assistance."

"We also support steps to strengthen UNRWA as well, in part so that UNRWA's impartiality and neutrality, including to respond to allegations, as you have all covered, to ties to terrorism, but we are certainly deeply troubled by that, and we're continuing to have conversations with the Israeli government," she added, referring to the agency by its acronym.

Israel's legislature, known as the Knesset, passed two bills Monday pertaining to the agency. One prohibits UNRWA from operating inside Israeli territory while a second bars Israeli officials from having any contact with the aid agency.

The latter law effectively revokes a 1967 treaty that allowed UNRWA to operate in areas under Israeli control.

Israel has accused UNRWA employees of complicity in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack, alleging that the agency’s educational programs “promote terrorism and hatred.”

UNRWA, headquartered in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, denies the accusations and asserts that it remains neutral, solely focusing on supporting refugees.

UNRWA was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949 to provide assistance to Palestinians displaced by the UN's creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

More than seven decades later, it continues to be the main provider of services to millions of Palestinian refugees who reside in the occupied Palestinian territories, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Following last week's Israeli attack on Iran, Jean-Pierre urged Tehran not to retaliate.

"Iran should not respond to Israel's retaliation. They should not. If it chooses to do so, if they do, we will support Israel in defending itself, but they should not. They should not respond to Israel's retaliation," she said.