Israeli lawmaker vows to pursue banks and companies cooperating with banned UNRWA
Days after the Jerusalem offices of an embattled United Nations Relief and Works Agency were closed, a Knesset member vowed to pursue banks and other institutions cooperating with UNRWA.
“This organization has lost its mandate, and now we will pursue them,” said MK Yulia Malinovsky of the opposition Israel Beitenu party outside UNRWA’s Jerusalem headquarters. “We will do everything to throw them out of here, even against the wishes of some government ministers who still live in a movie that what was will be. It won’t be. We will pursue banks that still continue to cooperate with UNRWA. We will pursue private companies, we will pursue government foreign ministry offices that still live in La La Land, thinking it’s an organization with diplomatic immunity.”
An Israeli ban on UNRWA went into effect on Thursday, prohibiting the agency from operating within Israel and barring Israeli officials from cooperating with it.
Malinovsky was joined by Ayelet Samerano, whose 21-year-old son, Jonathan, was killed at Kibbutz Be’eri, after fleeing there from the Nova Music Festival on October 7. Video footage circulating on social media showed a Palestinian emerging from a white SUV and placing Jonathan’s body into the vehicle. Then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant notified UNRWA that the Palestinian was identified as UNRWA social worker Faisal Ali Mussalem al-Naami.
“I have another war, and that is to bring back my son. I don’t need to look for how to fight now against those who try to thwart what has passed as law,” Samerano said, referring to the ban. “I want to be focused on bringing back my son. I deserve it. This is the most minimal thing I deserve from this state.”
She added, “And I call on all bodies working with UNRWA, and anyone in the government trying to change it in one way or another, to cease doing so. Right now, help me bring back my son, and don’t prevent us from implementing this law that is so important for the entire country.”

On Friday, Mandy Damari, the mother of recently freed British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari, disclosed on Twitter that “Hamas held Emily in @UNRWA facilities and denied her access to medical treatment after shooting her twice.” Mandy added that “it’s miracle that she survived.”
UNRWA has been under fire for months with Israeli officials demanding the agency be stripped of its authority in Gaza and defunded amid revelations that members of the agency’s staff participated in Hamas’s October 7 attacks.
Palestinian refugees are the only refugee population with its own dedicated UN agency. The rest of the world’s refugees fall under the mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Legislation passed by the Knesset stripped UNRWA’s diplomatic immunity, prohibited it from operating in Israeli sovereign territory, and barred Israeli officials from cooperating with the agency. Without work permits for foreign staff or coordination of passage at checkpoints, the agency will not be able to function in Judea, Samaria or the Gaza Strip. Israel withdrew its diplomatic recognition of UNRWA in November.
In early January, UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog organization, accused UNRWA of having an “unholy alliance” with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Its 55-page report accused Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General, and his colleagues of allowing Hamas and other terror groups to infiltrate the agency.
According to the report, over 10% of UNRWA’s senior educators in Gaza are members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israeli authorities have also alleged that hundreds of UNRWA’s 13,000 Gazan employees, including teachers, are active members of Hamas. It also found that the terror groups influenced UNRWA policies, indoctrinated Palestinian children through agency schools, and established military infrastructure near UNRWA’s Gaza facilities.
More than 100 survivors of Hamas’s October 7 attacks filed a $1 billion lawsuit against UNRWA in June, accusing the agency of “aiding and abetting” the terror group. According to the suit, the lead plaintiff, 84-year-old Ditza Heiman of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was held captive for seven weeks in the home of a Palestinian man who said he was a UNRWA teacher at a boy’s school. The suit also alleges that UNRWA enacted an employee payment scheme to benefit Hamas in violation of UN protocols.
Israel’s largest bank froze UNRWA’s account in February over suspicious financial transfers that the agency failed to adequately explain. That same month, Israeli forces discovered a Hamas complex located directly under the UNRWA’s Gaza City headquarters and connected directly to the agency’s electricity system. The facility included numerous computer servers belonging to the terror group.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 79 remaining hostages, 35 have been declared dead.