That major U.N. agency (UNRWA) should be in chaos

The Huffington Post is not known for treating Israel fairly. The February 1 article A Major U.N. Agency Is In Chaos. It’s Making Life Even Harder In Gaza was no exception. So I sent the following letter to the Huffington Post at corrections@huffingtonpost.com, with a copy to the pro-terrorists, anti-Israel author Akbar Shahid Ahmed (akbar.ahmed@huffpost.com):

Re the February 1, 2024 article "A Major U.N. Agency Is In Chaos. It’s Making Life Even Harder In Gaza" (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/us-un-unrwa-gaza-israel-aid_n_65bc2d3ee4b0a3aad5a464d7) by Akbar Shahid Ahmed: Besides being totally misguided, the article is infused with factual errors.

In terms of being misguided:

The article totally whitewashes the utter failure of UNRWA, which would have faded away seven decades ago if it hadn't already failed. It also whitewashes the way UNRWA, to greatly understate the situaion, is part of the problem.

It's been no secret that UNRWA schools have been educating children in hatred, in denial of the reality of Israel and instead teaching them to hate Jews and Israel. Multiple studies have been done over many years on the disgraceful textbooks used, with donors repeatedly threatening assistance if they were not changed, while the textbooks kept getting worse.

It's been no secret that UNRWA in Gaza is effectively controlled by Hamas, that roughly 10% of its employees are members of that terror organization or other terror organizations, and that roughly half of its employees have close relatives affiliated with Hamas and other terror groups.

It's been no secret that rockets and other weapons have long been stored in UNRWA facilities, including schools, that terrorists have hidden themselves in URNWA facilities, that attacks are frequently launched from UNRWA facilities, that many UNRWA facilities hide entrances to terror tunnels and many are built above terror tunnels.

None of this is mentioned and the accusations made against UNRWA are disparaged, despite the fact that most of them have been known to be true for years.

In terms of factual errors:

Israel didn't begin "a U.S.-backed offensive in Gaza on Oct. 7." On October 7, Israel was busy directly defending against the invasion and barbaric slaughter perpetuated by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah, other Palestinian terror groups and thousands of ordinary Gaza civilians. It wasn't until weeks later that Israel went on the offensive and sent ground troops into Gaza. Only well into the article is any mention made of the attack that started the war, and that mention was brief and uninformative to a surreal degree. Even then, the same paragraph incorrectly referred to a "forced exile" of Arabs, referred to as Palestinians even though they didn't adopt that identity until significantly, when almost all the Arabs who abandoned their homes did so as part of a war they and their brethren launched and only a relative handful were forced from their homes by Israel.

The entire article contains a glaring error of omission: no mention of to whom the bribes are being paid by Americans trying to leave Gaza. Obviously, they're not being paid to either Israelis or American officials, since neither has anything to do with the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing. That leaves Hamas or UNRWA officials. Perhaps that was omitted because mentioning that would undermine the anti-Israel thrust of the article?

The article falsely refers to Judea and Samaria, for which it uses the new name given to it by its Jordanian conquerors, as "occupied," ignoring the fact  that one cannot "occupy" one's own homeland, not to mention the fact that Israel turned over 40% of Judea and Samaria, containing more than 95% of their Arab residents, to the Palestinian Authority three decades ago.

Then there's the gratuitous and highly debatable line "the U.N.’s International Court of Justice, ruled that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza."

No mention that the accusation brought by South Africa is totally absurd, that arguably no army in history has done more to minimize civilian casualties than the IDF, that the ICJ is not a court and its "justices" are all political appointments most of whom render their decisions based on the orders of their autocratic governments.

I found the note after the article rather ironic: "As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to having well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls."

I also believe that a free press is critical to having well-informed voters, but I also believe it's critical that the free press is also responsible, separates fact from opinion and reports honestly. The article above that note didn't qualify on those grounds.

Sincerely,

Alan Stein

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