Arrest and Prosecute the UN Workers Caught Aiding Hamas on Oct. 7

By Seth Mandel

Tuesday, August 06, 2024

 

A white SUV pulls up to a crosswalk. There’s a body lying in the road. Two men get out of the SUV, one of whom is carrying a gun, and in broad daylight abduct the body. Once the victim is in the back of the SUV, the two drive away.

 

Most of the elements in this scene have since been specifically identified. The video was taken on October 7, 2023. The crosswalk is in Kibbutz Be’eri. The man without the gun has been identified as Faisal Ali Mussalem al-Naami. At the time, he was working as a social worker with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the UN’s outfit in Gaza. The body is that of Jonathan Samerano. Naami was one of 3,000 or so participants in the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust, a gruesome slaughter-and-rape-fest that took the lives of 1,200 innocents, including children. It was a scene of such barbarity that it would have been hard to fully comprehend had the terrorists not filmed themselves and proudly boasted of their exploits and left behind detailed instruction manuals they carried explaining how to go about the murder and rape with military precision.

 

According to an UNRWA release on Monday, nine employees were fired for having participated in the above inhumanity; Naami was probably one of them.

 

So: Justice is served, right?

 

Believe it or not, the UNRWA release yesterday was intended to be greeted with some kind of praise—a mix of “hey look, accountability!” and an attempt to pooh-pooh the idea that such misbehavior was more widespread throughout the agency.

 

But it is, in fact, irrevocably damning. The UN’s internal review would only say that “the UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the armed attacks of 7 October 2023.” Well, now you know what “may have been involved” actually means: There’s no maybe about it.

 

Now that even a UN review gritted its teeth and admitted the truth, it’s worth revisiting the allegations. In February, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant revealed the identities of twelve UNRWA workers who “actively participated” in Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

 

“In addition to these 12 workers,” Gallant said at a briefing at the time, “we have significant indications based on intelligence, that over 30 UNRWA workers participated in the massacre, facilitated the taking of hostages, looted and stole from Israeli communities, and more.” According to Gallant, “1,468 workers are known to be active in Hamas and [Palestinian Islamic Jihad]. 185 UNRWA workers are active in the military branches of Hamas and 51 are active in the PIJ military branch.”

 

Turns out this wasn’t all some Israeli fever dream, as many critics had hoped (and claimed). The agency really is shot through with Hamasniks. Some hostages were held by UNRWA employees in Gaza. The organization is unsalvageable and should be dismantled for parts.

 

And this feint of “accountability” is another reason that the agency can’t be saved. Firing these employees should be the beginning, not the end, of the disciplinary action.

 

Every single person that even the UN admits participated in a monstrous campaign of war crimes should be in custody. They deserve to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Everyone who worked with them in the field should be investigated and the higher-ups at the UN—who will feign ignorance unconvincingly—should have their turn in the dock as well.

 

Indeed, UNRWA was as much a mobile mercenary group as it was an aid organization. The internal review looked at 19 employees, but Israel gave the UN the documentation of over 200 active terrorists in its ranks and 1,500 who are affiliated with Gaza-based terror groups in one way or another. Sounds like there should be close to 2,000 investigations. When can we expect those?

 

Even if you pretended to believe the absurd excuse that high-level agency workers and UN officials didn’t know all this, none of them should still have a job. Most likely, there is real criminal liability there, but at the very least, the UN should be tripping over itself to cut loose anyone with supervisory responsibilities over these thugs.

 

In what other case would a person caught on camera carrying the corpse of a murder victim not be on trial for that person’s murder? How could anyone justify sending a penny to this organization under these circumstances? Indeed, why should it even be legal to do so?

 

The devaluing of Jewish life has reached a shocking level when a taxpayer-funded global body like the UN provides automatic immunity for murderers and terrorists—and that fact alone isn’t cause for outrage in every corner of the civilized world.