UNRWA official met with Palestinian terror groups secretly, declared ‘We are one’

The former commissioner emphasized a ‘spirit of partnership’ and said UNRWA’s decisions could be challenged or even reversed at the terror group representatives’ requests. 

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

A former UNRWA commissioner met with Palestinian terror groups secretly in Lebanon in 2017 and told them, “No one can separate us” and “We are one,” UN Watch reports.

Former UNRWA commissioner general Pierre Krahenbuhl held a meeting in Beirut in February 2017, and attending were Chief in Lebanon Hakam Shawan, Ali Baraka from Hamas, Abu Imad Al-Rifai from the Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Salah Al-Youssef from the PFLP and representatives from other Palestinian terror groups.

Hamas official Ali Baraka had close ties with terrorist entities in Syria and Iran and was listed by the US as a wanted terrorist.

Abu Imad al-Rifai, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, bragged about organizing suicide bombings targeting US and British military personnel.

Krahenbuhl was apparently aware that the meetings were problematic because he insisted on secrecy and warned exposure could “lead to a loss between donor countries and UNRWA, which might result in reduced or even halted funding.”

The former commissioner emphasized a “spirit of partnership” and said UNRWA’s decisions could be challenged or even reversed at the terror group representatives’ request.

Krahenbuhl said they had the opportunity to meet with him “a thousand times” to discuss their concerns or objections to policies and could reverse them.

He said, “Your cooperation with us in security matters and your commitment to not closing UNRWA institutions, facilities, schools, or offices also completes this partnership. If we can achieve this, it means we are united, and no one can separate us.”

These documents exposed by UNWatch give insight into how UNRWA established close ties with terror groups to the extent that Hamas embedded its terror infrastructures inside UNRWA buildings and schools, with many UNRWA teachers also involved in acts of terrorism.

UNRWA was met with scrutiny last year when it came to light that a number of UNRWA workers were actively involved in the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7th.