Category: International Humanitarian Law

Open Letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations

Urgent Call for Action – Unlawful Withholding of Salaries from 625 UNRWA Palestinian Staff

“I am one of your UNRWA staff. I fled Gaza nine months pregnant, starving, my body breaking down from malnutrition and high blood pressure. Doctors warned me I might be cut open without anesthesia. I begged for help, sent my medical reports, and escaped in maternity clothes. The border closed behind me.

I borrowed money I did not have, just to pay the bribes they call coordination fees. I dragged my five children with me and left my husband behind. After the invasion of Rafah, he vanished. No voice, no trace. I am now alone with five children, the eldest only nine, the youngest barely one year old.
Six months without pay. Six months begging, borrowing, breaking down. The bank wants its money. My children want their father. They want food. And I have nothing left to give.
So tell me, what exactly are you waiting for? For me to burn myself alive in front of the world so you can finally see that your silence is sentencing me and my children to death?”
— Testimony by Ola Ziada, English Second Language Teacher at UNRWA

“My house was destroyed. My mother, my wife, my four children all martyred. I alone was left breathing. I crawled from the north of Gaza to the south, running from death until I finally escaped the Strip. And what was my reward for surviving? My salary was cut. My lifeline taken. Tell me: what kind of justice is this? What kind of employer buries the dead in silence and punishes the survivor for daring to breathe?”
— Testimony of an UNRWA Teacher in Gaza

“I gave UNRWA twenty years of my life as a teacher. And when I fled under the bombs with nothing, UNRWA decided to cut my salary.”
— Testimony of an UNRWA Teacher in Gaza

Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

Six months ago, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Mr. Philippe Lazzarini, chose to use his so-called “discretionary power” to punish 625 Palestinian staff members in the education sector. Six hundred and twenty-five teachers and educators, people who escaped from the Israeli war machine in Gaza, who fled after their homes were flattened, who buried their families, were cut off from their salaries as if their survival itself were a crime.

The 625 UNRWA staff are not faceless employees. 

They Are Teachers: men and women who spent their lives in classrooms, carrying books and chalk, not weapons. They shaped entire generations of Palestinian refugees. If there is anything sacred in this world, it is the legacy of teaching. And yet, their reward for decades of service has been punishment and outright abandonment.

The former Commissioner-General, Pierre Krahenbühl, guided by his lawyers, invented Rule 105.3: an illegal clause that gave him the power to throw staff onto the street without pay whenever he wished. He created it but never dared to use it. 

But Mr. Lazzarini did. He pulled it out of the drawer and wielded it as a weapon. With a single stroke, he turned a dormant clause into a blunt instrument of collective punishment against the very people who kept this agency alive.

Mr. Lazzarini already showed his true face when he ordered the evacuation of international staff at the outbreak of war, abandoning Palestinian staff to bombs, bullets, and starvation, without protection, without directives, without support. And when some of those staff somehow crawled out of Gaza alive, the Commissioner-General decided to impose on them further punishment by cutting their salaries outright, leaving them, their babies, their mothers, and their families to fend for themselves, while he continues to collect his lavish salary, presiding over their suffering with cold indifference.

We have not forgotten and we will not stop demanding accountability for Mr. Lazzarini’s refusal to pay death compensation under the Malicious Acts Insurance Policy (MAIP) for more than 550 UNRWA staff killed by Israel. That crime will not be buried, and we will return to it in a separate letter. In the meantime, the families of UNRWA’s martyred staff remain abandoned. Each of them has Provident Fund savings ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 of their own money yet not a single dollar has been released. Mr. Lazzarini hides behind invented “legal impediments” to rob the dead of their dignity and the living of their survival.

But there was apparently no “legal impediment” when he chose to dig up and weaponize Rule 105.3: a rule that trampled every humanitarian principle by depriving 625 Palestinian staff, and more than 5,000 of their family members, of their meager salaries. With one stroke of his pen, he condemned them to hunger, sickness, and despair, all while he shields himself behind empty legal jargon and continues to draw his own lavish pay.

Mr. Lazzarini goes from one TV news channel to another, preaching about Israel blocking aid while he himself is blocking and inflicting more suffering on his own staff. What moral authority does UNRWA claim when it starves its own staff, its teachers, of the most basic right to a salary? 

While Gaza’s people are subjected to forced famine and genocide, Mr. Lazzarini adds to their torment, driving sickness and death into the lives of the very staff who carried this agency for decades.

Mr. Secretary-General,

You cannot wash your hands of this. The bloodless cruelty of this policy flows upwards, and your silence makes you complicit.

There is no excuse that justifies withholding the salaries of 625 Palestinian staff. You have the power, today, to reverse this unlawful and unjust decision.

Every day you allow this to continue, you stand shoulder to shoulder with Lazzarini in the deliberate starvation and humiliation of Palestinian teachers and their families. You are complicit in their suffering and you will bear responsibility for whatever further consequences befall them.

All titles, salaries, and privileges can be stripped away. What cannot be taken from you is the moral courage to act when it matters most, unless you choose not to use it.

“You only truly possess that which you cannot lose in a shipwreck.”
— Abu Hamed al-Ghazali

Respectfully,

Nadine Kaddoura

Founder CERTIORARIS; and;

former United Nations senior staff

Open letter to the Secretary-General 11112025Download

Who Will Be Bombed Next?

On 22 September, the General Assembly will resume the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution.

For those who missed the first round back in July: this conference was mandated by Member States through two GA resolutions. France and Saudi Arabia were named co-chairs, and Member States actually seemed serious about producing an “action-oriented outcome document” to finally chart an irreversible path toward peace. For a brief moment, there was even a glimmer of hope. But Washington was never going to let that stand.

They wasted no time unleashing a full-blown counterattack, trying to sink the entire effort before it could even leave the dock accusing the UN, and by extension many of their own Western European allies, of staging nothing more than a publicity stunt. Washington somehow managed to insult both its enemies and its closest allies in one breath. Their line couldn’t have been clearer:

“The United States will not participate in this insult but will continue to lead real-world efforts to end the fighting and deliver a permanent peace. Our focus remains on serious diplomacy: not stage-managed conferences designed to manufacture the appearance of relevance.”

And these so-called “real-world efforts”? In practice, they amounted to handing Hamas a fake negotiation paper while, at the same time, green-lighting if not outright ordering Israel to bomb Qatar, the very state hosting mediation talks.

In Washington’s lexicon, this is what passes for “serious diplomacy”: classic sabotage dressed up as statecraft, deception passed off as negotiation, and the bombing of allies framed as peacemaking. A choice that says more about Washington’s contempt for peace than any statement ever could.

Meanwhile, on 29 July, a bloc of Western European allies joined by Australia, Canada, and New Zealand cycled through the usual talking points: condemn October 7, call for a ceasefire, reaffirm support for a two-State solution. But tucked at the end of their joint statement was a line that betrayed the real intent:

“Urge countries who have not done so yet to establish normal relations with Israel, and to express their willingness to enter into discussions on the regional integration of the State of Israel.”

Normal relations. Regional integration. With a state that bombs whoever it wants, whenever it wants, even Arab countries that parade themselves as allies, the same ones bending over backwards to host negotiations.

And yet their Western partners urge the world to normalize ties with Israel and, while they’re at it, to normalize being bombed and accepting life under the constant threat of imminent attacks anywhere in the world, whenever Israel decides.  In essence, this is Washington asking Arab states to absorb Israeli bombs, live under the threat of more, and still line up to shake the hand that strikes them.

But Washington left the best for last.

Just days ago, as the General Assembly opened and announced the resumption of the conference on 22 September, the U.S. representative said she was “surprised and dismayed” by the process, once again denouncing the conference as “an ill-timed publicity stunt” that would “prolong the war and undermine efforts to achieve peace”  but assuring the world that Washington would continue to lead “real-world efforts to end the fighting.”

And those “real-world efforts” revealed themselves almost immediately: four days later, Israel bombed Qatar with the blessing of the U.S. This is the U.S. definition of peacemaking: preach diplomacy in New York while authorizing airstrikes on allies in the Gulf.

Europe, meanwhile, should look hard in the mirror. How long will it betray the very values it claims to stand for (rule of law, human rights, justice) while dressing up capitulation as diplomacy? Urging “normal relations” with Israel as it bombs mediators and allies is nothing less than complicity.

 A conscious choice for complicity.

Arab states should take note. Qatar will not be the last. Washington’s message is crystal clear: absorb the blows, keep quiet, normalize relations, and call it peace, until it is your turn under the bombs.

UNAT Calls the Palestinian Suffering Under Israeli Occupation “Ordinary”

At the very moment the United Nations, through the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), acknowledges the devastation in the occupied West Bank, UNRWA management is actively punishing its staff, and the United Nations Appeals Tribunal (UNAT) reinforces this by refusing to recognize the exceptional hardship they endure.


In July 2025, OHCHR warned that the Israeli “Iron Wall” operation has already forced the displacement of some 30,000 Palestinians and forms part of a broader pattern contributing to the illegal annexation of the West Bank and that there was an unprecedented “sharp surge in killings, attacks, and harassment of Palestinians by Israeli settlers and security forces” with Palestinian injuries in June 2025 reaching their highest monthly total in over 20 years.


The United Nations Appeals Tribunal (UNAT), however, took a shocking opposite view: that such devastation is no more than the ordinary lot of Palestinians.

In Hejab v. Commissioner-General of UNRWA (Judgment No. 2025-UNAT-1570, issued last month), the Tribunal shockingly found that:

“the difficult economic conditions of living in the ‘occupied Palestine territories’ do not make Mr. Hejab’s case exceptional” and that,

“difficulty in finding another job for an older staff member close to retirement in – Occupied Palestine- cannot be considered as an unusual circumstance” (paras. 65–67).


This reasoning exposes just how profoundly disconnected UNAT is from the daily realities of Palestinian life and their unimaginable suffering. While OHCHR acknowledges forced displacement, widespread killings, and economic collapse, the UN Tribunal reduces these very conditions to routine or normal challenges. It is against this backdrop that the case of Khaled Hejab must be examined. Equally disturbing is that it was not only the UN Tribunal that failed Mr. Hejab. UNRWA management itself set the stage by building untruthful and inflated allegations to justify the Palestinian senior staff’s dismissal. On the surface, the Agency proclaims its duty of care and its commitment to staff but in reality it is actively engineering the removal of Palestinian staff.


The particularities of the case make UNAT’s dismissal all the more troubling. UNRWA management dismissed Mr. Hejab on multiple baseless and distorted allegations, including an alleged conflict of interest, supposed mismanagement, and the deletion of private WhatsApp messages.


That supposed conflict of interest was nothing more than the fact that Hejab and a contractor had been neighbors for forty years in the same refugee camp and had attended the same school. UNRWA chose to treat this as compromising his integrity, as if such proximity were evidence of collusion.


But what does it even mean to be “neighbors for forty years” in the context of a Palestinian refugee camp? This is not New York, Geneva, or Paris, where people have the privilege of choosing neighborhoods, schools, jobs, or even countries of residence.

For Palestinians, the occupier decides: where they are born, where they live, where they can or cannot relocate. Entire generations are confined to the same camps, towns, or villages, with mobility dictated by checkpoints, military orders, and residency restrictions. Daily life is governed not by free choice but by military occupation.


UNRWA knows this damn well. After all, they serve all Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. The Agency has administered Palestinian camps for decades. It knows that in such settings, “neighbors” does not mean privilege, collusion, or concealed financial ties. It means survival in cramped, controlled, and immovable living conditions. UNRWA twisted Hejab’s own social reality into a ground for unlawful dismissal, punishing a staff member for circumstances dictated by the very structures of the Israeli occupation.


These accusations rested entirely on the findings of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS). Yet both the UNRWA Dispute Tribunal and the Appeals Tribunal observed that the Agency treated the OIOS investigation as if it were evidence itself, rather than conducting its own assessment of facts. Both UN Tribunals criticized this abdication of responsibility, underscoring that disciplinary measures must be based on established facts and not OIOS investigative conclusions that cannot withstand scrutiny.


The UNRWA Dispute Tribunal (UNRWA DT) eventually rescinded the termination, recognizing the flaws in the Agency’s decision. But when Hejab turned to the Appeals Tribunal (UNAT) seeking enhanced compensation arguing that his case was “exceptional” given the economic collapse in the occupied territories, his long unemployment, and his age close to retirement, the Tribunal dismissed his plea. It ruled that difficulty in finding another job or enduring the economic conditions of the occupied Palestinian territories did not amount to exceptional circumstances, calling them instead “routine or normal challenges.”


Such reasoning lays bare just how profoundly disconnected UNAT is from the daily realities of Palestinian life and their unimaginable suffering. While OHCHR acknowledges forced displacement, widespread killings, and economic collapse, the UN Tribunal reduces these very conditions to routine or normal challenges. I argue that the outcome reflects the cultural bias of UNAT judges, who apply Western standards of choice and mobility to a Palestinian reality defined by occupation and dispossession. 

The UNAT bench applies standards shaped in and for Western contexts where mobility, career options, and social networks are taken for granted and then judges Palestinians against them. 

What for a judge in New York or Geneva looks like an ‘ordinary difficulty’ is in fact the lived consequence of systemic occupation and dispossession. By erasing that difference, the Tribunal entrenches an unequal standard of justice: international staff are measured against realities of choice, while Palestinian staff are measured against conditions imposed by force.

Equally alarming was the Tribunal’s own note, in a footnote about the lack of due process, that UNRWA had asked Mr. Hejab to produce evidence while at the same time blocking his access to his UN email account, the very repository of the documents he needed to defend himself. 

From my own experience, I know this is not an isolated occurrence. UNRWA and other UN entities routinely deploy this tactic under the false pretext of “data protection,” denying staff access to their records while preserving those same records for the Agency’s own use in building a case. The asymmetry of power this creates is staggering: staff are expected to fight blindfolded, while management has unfettered access to every document, communication, and confidential record. This is a deliberate erosion of any aspect of due process. Indeed, judges in previous cases have highlighted that depriving staff of access to their files tilts the balance fundamentally against them, stripping proceedings of fairness.

Not only was Mr. Hejab denied access to his own email records to mount an objective and fair defense, but management also decided it would scrutinize his private WhatsApp messages. Why should UN management have access to the personal communications of a staff member? And if such intrusion is deemed acceptable, then why are staff not given equal access to the WhatsApp messages of senior management, where real collusion and misconduct are far more likely to be revealed? The selectivity of this intrusion underscores once again how accountability flows in only one direction: downward and never toward those in positions of authority.

The case of Mr. Hejab is emblematic rather than exceptional. It illustrates a recurring structural flaw: the United Nations internal justice system applies abstract legal standards that are wholly detached from the realities of occupation, while UNRWA management manipulates those standards to eliminate staff it wishes to remove. This produces a dual regime of accountability: international staff are assessed within contexts of autonomy and mobility, whereas Palestinian staff are judged within conditions of displacement, restriction, and occupation: conditions that are then shockingly dismissed as “ordinary.” This reasoning cannot be reconciled with the principle of judicial neutrality; it constitutes the entrenchment of institutional bias, concealed beneath the veneer of legality.

UNAT judges may sit in the comfort of Geneva or New York, but they are not adjudicating cases for staff living in those contexts. They are judges of international administrative law, and many of the staff who come before them live under conditions radically different from those of their white, Western colleagues. In cases involving Palestinian staff, those conditions include occupation, forced displacement, restrictions on movement, and a daily absence of choice. To ignore this is not neutrality; it is blindness. UNAT judges must be trained to understand the cultural and political realities in which staff live and work. Without such understanding, they simply cannot adjudicate fairly. Otherwise, the system ceases to be justice at all; it becomes a bureaucracy reinforcing inequality under the cover of law.

700 Killed, 560 Silenced: UNRWA, the UN Agency That Punishes Its Dead

One year ago, I published two articles exposing the deeply entrenched discrimination by UNRWA’s senior management against its Palestinian staff. Today, new and disturbing developments have emerged: ones that point not only to continued injustice but to an alarming pattern of decisions by the Commissioner-General and Western White Leadership within UNRWA that appear to serve the interests of the Israeli government and its lobbies at the direct expense of UNRWA Palestinian staff.

The ultimate trajectory?

The dismantling of UNRWA itself, particularly in Gaza.

Before revisiting the longstanding denial of rights to UNRWA Palestinian staff, it is essential to unpack the latest evidence.

UNAT Tribunal Slams UNRWA’s Abusive Use of “Neutrality” to Silence Palestinian Staff

A United Nations Appeals Tribunal (UNAT) judgment issued yesterday has delivered a stark and critical blow to UNRWA’s interpretation and enforcement of its so-called neutrality framework. In plain terms: UNRWA’s senior management, largely composed of Western officials, has been using this framework unlawfully to persecute its own Palestinian staff, often under the pretext of “anti-Semitism.” The judgment exposes the illegality and disproportionate severity of disciplinary measures imposed on Palestinian staff in ways that are unprecedented across the UN system.

This ruling shines a spotlight on the extreme and frankly, obsessive approach UNRWA has taken, positioning itself as one of the only UN agencies willing to weaponize neutrality as a tool of suppression. And the motivation? To appease the Israeli government and its lobbying networks.

The UNRWA Apartheid: Salaries for the West, Silence for Gaza

Equally disturbing is the Commissioner-General’s recent decision to suspend the pay of more than 560 Gaza staff and their families, while continuing to pay international (primarily Western) staff, even those hired under short-term surge contracts. In March 2025, Palestinian staff who had self-evacuated outside Gaza for survival were threatened with either returning to a warzone or being placed on “exceptional leave without pay.”

Less than a week ago, the Commissioner General enacted his threat and suspended the pay of some 560 Gazan staff and their families. The affected staff and their families, already displaced, were suddenly left without income or support.

This is not a logistical issue but rather a policy of abandonment. No Gaza staff member can return to the Strip today, even if they wished to. Yet UNRWA’s top leadership is punishing them for fleeing a warzone by cutting off their livelihoods.

Contrast this with the treatment of international staff: those who were evacuated were immediately offered remote working arrangements under the Alternate Working Arrangements (AWA) policy. They continue to receive full pay and benefits, working comfortably from their home countries and surrounded by the warmth of their immediate families. Even temporary international “surge staff,” recruited using the Gaza Emergency Flash Appeal funds to work inside Gaza, were not let go after evacuation: they, too, were shockingly placed on remote work and continue to be paid handsomely.

How is it legally and morally justifiable to offer full pay and protection to temporary international staff, brought in only to support Gaza operations, while denying the same to 560 Palestinian core staff whose work and knowledge sustain UNRWA’s education and relief operations?

Many of the suspended Gaza staff were educators who had developed alternative methods to continue basic education amid the conflict. Yet rather than support their efforts, the Commissioner-General is enacting policies that align more closely with the stated goals of the Israeli government: the dismantling of UNRWA and its mandate.

Publicly, the Commissioner-General says otherwise. But as we all know, in human rights, it is not the statements but the actions that define the truth.

Diplomats Get D-1 Contracts. Gazans Get Graves. UNRWA’s Moral Ledge

Despite receiving millions under the Emergency Flash Appeal for Gaza, the Commissioner-General is diverting funds away from Palestinian staff and toward bolstering UNRWA’s alleged diplomatic presence. Just today, UNRWA announced it is recruiting of “top-notch representatives” (yes you read that correctly…) for New York and Geneva at the D-1 level: positions that serve Western advocacy goals rather than Palestinian survival.

Why does UNRWA need more Western directors stationed far from the frontlines, getting paid huge salaries from the Gaza Flash Appeal (money that was destined for the Palestinians and not the Westerners) when its Gaza operations are collapsing and its staff are being systematically killed and buried under the rubbles?

Speaking of money and funding, a timely reminder.

Let us now return to what UNRWA owes to its Palestinian staff in Gaza.

As previously documented, UNRWA has systematically excluded its Palestinian staff from coverage under two key UN policies that are universally applied to other UN staff in conflict zones:

  1. Malicious Acts Insurance Policy (MAIP),  which provides compensation for death and permanent disability due to acts of war.
  2. Security Evacuation and Entitlements Policies,  which ensure that local staff are treated with parity during crises.

Despite being fully eligible under both, UNRWA’s Palestinian staff have been denied access to these protections for years. Why? Mainly because they are Palestinians, they don’t know their rights, and it comes with a significant cost to UNRWA.

At the time of my earlier reporting, 103 UNRWA staff had been killed by Israel.

Today, that number is estimated to exceed 700.

700 UNRWA humanitarian workers performing their duties under the United Nations Flag.

Yet UNRWA has refused to release an official death count, let alone compensate the families. Each family is entitled to approximately $120,000 in compensation: an essential lifeline under MAIP. Not one of these families has received a cent.

Instead, the Emergency Appeal funds are being used to finance the recruitment of international staff who are now sitting comfortably abroad under AWA status. At the same time, 560 Gazan families are left destitute.

What may be the most disturbing aspect of all: Gazan families have stopped reporting the deaths of their UNRWA-employed relatives. Why? Because they have discovered that once UNRWA is notified of a staff member’s death, their salary is immediately terminated, thereby cutting off the last thread of support for their surviving family.

UNRWA is punishing the families of the dead.

Let that sink in.

A few days ago, at the UNHQ’s noon briefing in New York, a journalist asked the following  question to the Secretary-General’s spokesperson

“Question:  what about UN staffers inside Gaza?  I mean, those Palestinian UN staffers?  What’s the situation for them now?  Are they have the same situation with other Gazan people?

Spokesman:  I mean, our Palestinian colleagues who work for the United Nations — most of them work for UNRWA — are doing two things.  They’re continuing to work to help civilians in Gaza.  And they’re also like the people they’re trying to help, just trying to survive.  They’re facing the same challenges as the rest of the population, while trying to work and maintain operations with the dwindling stocks that we have.”

But no mention was made of the 700 UNRWA staff killed. No mention was made of the UNRWA Palestinian families left without income or support. No commitment was made to compensate the dead. No acknowledgment of the systemic discrimination was uttered.

Instead, UNRWA continues to present a façade of solidarity with Palestinians, while actively undermining them from within.

Western staff are recruited, promoted, and protected.

Palestinian staff are suspended, unpaid, and buried.

This structural discrimination and racism from within UNRWA’s top leadership is enabling a system where Westerners are paid to advocate for the very people they are simultaneously disenfranchising. It is funneling donor money into Geneva offices and diplomatic posts instead of to the bereaved and the displaced. And it is doing all of this while flying the flag of neutrality.

What is clearly impossible to ignore right now is that UNRWA’s senior Westen led management is complicit in the structural dismantling of its own mandate by elevating Western political optics over Palestinian human lives.

You cannot claim to protect when your policies kill.

You cannot claim justice while burying your own staff.

There is no policy framework in the world that can excuse the abandonment of 700 of your own.

“The UN’s Quiet Betrayal: Palestinian Staff Who Fled Gaza Face Job Termination”

This article exposes disturbing news within the United Nations’ humanitarian agencies: the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF are preparing to terminate the contracts of Palestinian staff who fled Gaza for safety. These staff members, who at great personal expense relocated to escape the intensifying conflictin Gaza, have continued to fulfill their roles remotely, demonstrating utmost commitment to their missions. Yet, in an unprecedented move, WFP, WHO, and UNICEF are demanding that these employees return to a war-torn Gaza or face job termination. This decision not only threatens the lives of Palestinian staff but also reveals a troubling double standard in the UN’s duty of care, as telecommuting privileges afforded to international staff in safe locations are denied to those in crisis zones. 

In response to this pressing issue, I have formally addressed a letter ( attached below) to Mr. António Guterres, Ms. Cindy McCain, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Ms. Catherine Russell, urging them to halt the termination of Palestinian staff who have fled Gaza for their safety. I encourage you to share this letter widely and, if possible, send your own message to these leaders to amplify the call for a just and compassionate response to protect these dedicated colleagues.

As UN staff and advocates of humanitarian values, we have a duty to stand with our colleagues facing unjust decisions. By reading this article, raising awareness, and calling for an immediate halt to the termination of these Palestinian staff, you can help protect those who risk everything to serve.

In a shocking turn, the World Food Programme (WFP), World Health Organization (WHO), and UNICEF have made a quiet yet devastating decision: to terminate the contracts of their Palestinian staff members who managed to escape Gaza. 

These are the people who, at their own expense and against all odds, sought safety outside the war zone, yet remain dedicated to their work and the humanitarian missions of these organizations. Now, WFP, WHO, and UNICEF are demanding they return to Gaza—a war torn region with decimated infrastructure and a collapsing health system—or face the end of their employment.

This is not just a policy decision; it is a direct threat to the lives of the very people these organizations are meant to protect. Instructing staff to return under such conditions, while withholding the telecommuting options freely available to staff in safer locations, exposes a troubling double standard in the UN system’s duty of care.

The World Food Programme has 12 national staff members who work in Gaza. The 12 staff have self-relocated themselves outside Gaza. Each staff member paid $5,000, plus an additional $5,000 per dependent, to secure safety for themselves and their families.

Now living in precarious conditions, they rely solely on their modest salaries. Remarkably, , these staff members have continued to telecommute and fulfill their duties under intensely challenging circumstances.

In the face of the escalating violence in Gaza, particularly in the north, one might expect these humanitarian agencies to support and protect their displaced staff. 

Instead, WFP has moved to terminate the contracts of these 12 staff members. UNICEF is preparing to follow suit with its 13 Palestinian staff, and the World Health Organization (WHO) plans to do the same for roughly 10 additional Palestinian personnel.

Yes, you read that correctly.

According to our sources, WFP has already conducted discreet meetings with affected staff, instructing them to return to Gaza before the year’s end, effectively ending their telecommuting arrangements. 

Last we heard, Gaza is a war zone, its infrastructure obliterated, its civilian population struggling to survive amidst scarce medical and humanitarian resources.

How, then, can these organizations demand that their Palestinian staff return to such conditions, with the threat of contract termination, if they do not comply?

Consider this: in Geneva, a headquarters duty station is classified as “A” (non-hazardous), with no active conflict, and more than 50% of staff are allowed to telecommute. 

Geneva employees enjoy top-tier medical insurance, offices overlooking Lake Leman, and work in the prestigious Palais des Nations. General Service staff in Geneva earn no less than $8,000 a month. 

Yet WFP, WHO, and UNICEF see fit to terminate some 30 Palestinian staff who risked everything to escape the violence in Gaza.

For Palestinian staff, apparently, telecommuting is not an option.

This approach starkly contradicts the principles of humanitarian aid and the duty of care these organizations claim to uphold.

Recently, WFP held a virtual meeting informing staff that if they do not return to Gaza by the end of December, they will be placed on special leave without pay and their contracts will not be renewed upon expiry. This approach seems almost Machiavellian, designed to avoid paying termination indemnities by letting contracts run their course instead.

While WFP, UNICEF, and WHO appear eager to terminate their Palestinian staff contracts, they are also rapidly issuing temporary surge contracts to international staff, bringing them to the Rafah border—where, reportedly, there is little they can contribute. 

The difference? 

These newly recruited staff are mostly from the Global North; they are not Palestinian.

Asking Palestinian local staff to return to Gaza amidst an escalating conflict represents a direct threat to their safety, blatantly violating the organization’s duty of care—a principle meant to apply to all staff, not just internationals.

Many of these Palestinian staff members have lost their homes and are already in dire financial straits. Cutting off their last source of income would be devastating for them and their families.

Most of these staff have served WFP, UNICEF, and WHO loyally for over fifteen years. Is this how the Secretary-General intends to reward Gaza’s Palestinian staff who have upheld the values of these organizations, even in the face of personal danger?

Letter_to_UN_Agencies_on_Palestinian_Staff_TerminationDownload

2024 Worst Year for MultiLateralism at the United Nations?


2024 is the year that witnessed the highest number of extrajudicial killings carried out by the state of Israel.

Hello, Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Your views?

2024 is the year that saw the highest number of Children Killed and DECAPITATED by the state of Israel

Hello, Virgina Gamba, Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict. Your statement?

2024 is the year that saw the highest number of Women Killed by Israel, more than any other equivalent period of any war over the last two decades.

Hello, Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women. Do you really care about Arab Women?

2024 is the year that saw the worst humanitarian crisis and forced starvation imposed by Isr@el against the Palestinian people in Gaza

Hello, Joyce Cleopa Msuya Mpanju, USG United Nations OCHA; Hello, Cindy H. McCain, Executive Director of the World Food Programme

Maybe you don’t need to do anything because Israeli PM convinced you that he was providing 3000 calories for every Palestinian on a daily basis?

2024 witnessed the worst record of human rights abuse by Israel against Palestinians, killing doctors and medical staff, torturing Palestinians, pioneering pagers detonations in Lebanon, etc…

Hello, Volker Türk, High Commissioner for the United Nations Human Rights. Did you hear the boom?

2024 witnessed the worst record of sexual violence against Palestinian men and women.

Hello, Pramila Patten, Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict. What do you do exactly?

2024 witnessed the worst record of violence against Palestinian children, maiming them, orphaning them, and traumatizing them.

Hello, Najat Maalla, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Violence against Children. Do you really care?

2024 saw the Children of Palestine deprived of any emergency food and healthcare.

Hello, Catherine Mary Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF; we know you’ve visited Gaza only once. WOW!

2024 saw the Children of Gaza deprived of any education or normal upbringing and the highest number of mosques and churches destroyed by Israel.

Salut Audrey Azoulay, Executive Director of UNESCO, rings a bell?

2024 is the Year that Israel committed the worst live Genocide against Gaza.

Hello Alice Wairimu Nderitu, Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, do you really exist?

2024 is the year that the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Israeli PM Netanyahu, but he was still allowed to enter the UNHQ premises.

2024 is the year that the Israeli ambassador to the UN shredded the UN Charter in protest over the Palestine vote in the GA.

2024 is the year that the Secretary-General allowed Hitler to attend the 79th General Assembly.

2024 is the year that the United Nations principles of :

Maintaining International Peace and Security.
Protecting Human Rights.
Delivering Humanitarian Aid.
Upholding International Law

Became Useless Slogans.

UNRWA hires more international surge staff while it cuts off salaries of Palestinian staff killed in the line of duty

UNRWA management is no longer reporting the deaths of UNRWA Palestinian staff members killed by I@r@e@ in Gaza.

UNRWA Commissioner-General reports the death of approximately 207 Palestinian staff members, but this number is incorrect. The actual figure is much higher, double or triple, around 500. This number excludes the hundreds of dependents that have not been accounted for.

According to direct reports, the bereaved families have stopped notifying UNRWA about the death due to fear of their salaries being cut off immediately. 

When a staff member dies, UNRWA immediately removes them from the payroll instead of compensating them according to the Malicious Act Insurance Policy. Just a reminder: every bereaved family has the right to around 120,000 USD. UNRWA has not yet paid a penny.

The grieving families have chosen to stop reporting the death of their loved ones to safeguard their last remaining resource. Instead of fulfilling their obligations, UNRWA management further exploits the death of their staff members in their daily social media posts.

The discrimination is attributed to Western countries and allies being the only ones in charge of UNRWA senior management positions. Yesterday, the UNRWA Commissioner-General paid tribute to aid workers killed in the line of duty, stating that “… the war in Gaza broke all existing rules of war. Those responsible must be held accountable…”

Commissioner-General, could you start by taking responsibility for the families of UNRWA staff killed in the line of duty? 

Wouldn’t it be better if you stopped breaking your own rules? The United Nations’ rules? 

Could you explain why Palestinian staff are being discriminated against and not receiving the compensation they are entitled to? 

Why not inform your audience about the thousands of dollars your Western Surge staff are being paid for doing nothing? 

The funds intended for the bereaved families are now being disbursed to the international staff so they can enjoy rest and recovery.

In the meantime, the Commissioner-General continues pretending by writing more useless op-eds and firing more UNRWA staff.

The United Nations’Complicity in the Gaza Genocide

With the focus of global attention now on Iran’s retaliation to the Israeli assault on the Iranian embassy in Syria, the UN Secretary-General is providing additional cover for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. Seemingly overnight, the world’s collective gaze has swerved towards issues of ballistic missiles, belligerence, the principle of reciprocation, and Article 51 of the UN Charter.

In the midst of it all, Israel is meticulously strategizing its Rafah assault, further extending its acts of genocide without any accountability. Israel has so far killed over 42,000 Palestinians, including 15,000 innocent children and 10,000 women, while the wounded have surpassed the 80,000 mark.

Instead of focusing the world’s attention on the imminent invasion of Rafah and the continuous slaughter of the Palestinian people, the Secretary-General bewilderingly decided to spend the 5th of April emphasizing Israel as the aggrieved party.

It seems as if the Secretary-General might be indirectly supporting Israel’s acts of genocide. 

In his own words, these were his opening remarks:

“This Sunday marks six months since Hamas launched its abhorrent terror attacks in Israel. The 7th of October is a day of pain for Israel and the world.

The United Nations, and I personally, mourn with Israelis for the 1,200 people, including many women and children, who were killed in cold blood.  I once again utterly condemn the use of sexual violence, torture, injuring and kidnapping of civilians, the firing of rockets towards civilian targets, and the use of human shields. “

Concerning Palestinians, the Secretary-General stated:

“When the gates to aid are closed, the doors to starvation are opened”

But Mr. Secretary-General, the gates of aid are not closed. It is Israel that is blocking them.

“More than half the population – over a million people – are facing catastrophic hunger.”

But, Mr. Secretary-General, it’s not that the 2 million Palestinians are simply facing a disastrous famine. The reality is that Israel is deliberately starving them right under the world’s watchful eyes.

“Children in Gaza today are dying for lack of food and water.”

But Mr. Secretary-General, the cause of Palestinian children’s deaths is not a deficiency of water. Israel intentionally cut off any water supply to Gaza with the sole aim of killing more Palestinians.

“This is incomprehensible, and entirely avoidable.”

But Mr. Secretary-General, what is incomprehensible is how, after six months, you are quietly acknowledging the demise of diplomacy instead of denouncing the brutal killing of Palestinians. 

Diplomacy which alongside the United Nations, has become at best amoral.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the United Nations appears to show less concern with the innovative and savage methods of exterminating the Palestinians. More worryingly, any remaining vestiges of the principles of international humanitarian law seemed to have been killed along the way.

Instead, when asked yesterday about the UN’s role on the temporary pier that the US is constructing in Gaza, the Secretary-General’s spokesperson proudly stated that the UN “will support any plan to increase the delivery of aid, whether by sea, air, or, of course, most importantly, by land.”

Isn’t it baffling how the Secretary-General couldn’t manage to convince the US and Israel to provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people for a half-year, yet a US-built pier in Gaza, allegedly aimed at preserving Palestinian lives, is nearing completion?

When it comes to the prominent influence of the U.S. on the United Nations, one needs only look at the legislation enacted by Presidents G. Bush and Bill Clinton.

This US law unequivocally prohibits any form of financial assistance to any international organization that recognizes Palestine as a full member. This dear reader, is the chief reason that the bid for Palestine’s full membership in the UN hasn’t been successful and will never be.

This implies that if the United Nations Security Council ever approves Palestine’s full membership, the US, which is the largest contributor to the UN, is legally bound to retract its 27% assessed contributions. 

That is why the Secretary-General’s statements always start by reminding the world that we ought to condemn the 7th of October attacks and mourn those killed by Hamas while hinting that Palestinians could also be facing a mysterious famine…

The 7th of April in the UN also marked the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the Secretary-General made sure to issue another remarkable statement:

“We will never forget the victims of this genocide. Nor will we ever forget the bravery and resilience of those who survived, whose courage and willingness to forgive remain a burst of light and hope amidst this dark chapter in human history. 

Let’s ensure that the acts that began on April 7, 1994 are never forgotten — and never repeated. Anywhere.”

Yet Mr. Secretary-General, every day, every hour, every minute, every second, Palestinians are being killed in their own land. It is called Palestine. And the world is watching in silence. In cowardice.

The Secretary-General is, of course, not directly responsible for the killings of Palestinians. He, however, takes the path of least resistance and continues to offer a plethora of rationalizations and lies to conceal his cowardice and chiefly to preserve the US funding for the United Nations.

In doing so, the Secretary-General has effectively undermined any lasting faith in the virtue of multilateralism and the ethical grounding of diplomacy.

Defund as You May, The Right of Return will Not Cease to Exist, Palestine is Here To Stay.

The recent strategic move by Israel, the US, and various other Western nations to defund UNRWA is nothing but a well-orchestrated move to dismantle the Un Agency, in the mistaken confidence that doing so would somehow erase the inalienable right of return that Palestinians claim.

The deja vu crisis of defunding is about much more than just financial support and the provision of aid for humanitarian purposes. 

Don’t let yourself be led astray by misguided perspectives. 

Let’s not lose sight of the fact that UNRWA owns registration documents, historical archives, and substantial evidence collection, which includes more than half a million varied materials such as negatives, prints, slides, films, videocassettes, documents, and even original ownership papers. All these materials comprehensively cover the life experiences and the extensive history of Palestinian refugees right from 1948 to the present times.

UNRWA stands as undeniable evidence of Palestine’s rightful belonging to the Palestinian people. 

Palestinians, once the hosts to Jews on their land, have since been faced with the stark reality of their lands being claimed. Jewish immigrants then commenced a 75-year long battle of colonization against Palestine. 

The issue at hand extends far beyond the confines of humanitarian aid and services.  

The US and Israel are seeking to redefine what it means to be a Palestinian refugee. By attempting to defund UNRWA, Israel and the US are not only seeking to cut humanitarian aid or to collectively punish Palestinians. 

Rather, their ambitious goal is to eliminate the right of return for 5.5 million Palestinian refugees by abolishing UNRWA, which maintains the refugees’ registration services.  

Their goal is however, based on a fundamental misconception.  

International law grants refugee status to children of other refugee populations until they return to their permanent homes. Homes that were stolen by Israeli occupation and the land that Israel occupied. 

For over a decade, UNRWA has been continuously under attack, with the US and Israeli governments spearheading crisis after crisis, most notably during Trump’s 2018 campaign to defund UNRWA. 

The character assassination of UNRWA employees has been a persistent aim of Israel, with a string of baseless allegations against UNRWA in the past.  

For instance, in 2014, Israel used a drone video to falsely accuse two UNRWA staff members of smuggling Hamas missiles in an ambulance. It turned out they were only moving a stretcher in the ambulance. 

Why should the world continue to believe Israel after its propaganda of 40 beheaded babies was used to fuel the monstrous killing and dismembering of more than 13000 Palestinian children and babies?

In the span of two decades of my service in the United Nations globally, I have never encountered neutrality breaches, save for when I was working for UNRWA or when Israeli blogs were involved.

That’s primarily because the so called neutrality breaches are fueled by Israel’s persistent attempts to dismantle UNRWA. This constant assault on UNRWA by pro-Zionist blogs results in the US administration being inundated with false claims against UNRWA staff. This, in turn, initiates a cycle of crises centered on breaches of impartiality, ultimately leading to repeated financial cuts. 

The US administration and these zionist blogs are not the only culprits.

The fact that UNRWA largely depends on funds from the US and Western nations leads to senior executives being appointed from these countries.

The current Commissioner General hails from Switzerland and has dual citizenship with Italy, while the two deputy Commissioner Generals are from the USA and France. The other director posts are held by individuals from Germany and the UK. Given these influences, it hardly comes as a surprise that all these nations have hastily halted their financial support for UNRWA. 

The latest debacle surfaced when Israeli officials requested the UNRWA Commissioner-General to abruptly terminate the contracts of 12 staff members, whom Israel accused of involvement in the attacks on October 7th. This would undoubtedly be considered a neutrality breach and perhaps even a criminal act. 

From our inside sources, we’ve learned that the Commissioner-General of UNRWA instructed his team to announce the termination of those 12 staff members precisely at the same time as the International Court of Justice’s session on Friday, 26 January, which was passing an Order against Israel. The calculated timing aimed to soften the blow of the order from ICJ on Israeli authorities. The UNRWA CG put a 24-hour hold on his Communications Department following his statement. 

The CG’s statement began with: 

“The Israeli Authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on 7 October. I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay.  Any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.”

Some violations should be highlighted in the Commissioner-General’s statement. 

First, a disturbing fact is how the Commissioner-General seemingly took instructions from the Israeli authorities. This act contravenes the standards of conduct set for international civil service. Most importantly, it raises questions about the impartiality expected from international civil servants.

“If the impartiality of the international civil service is to be maintained, international civil servants must remain independent of any authority outside their organization; their conduct must reflect that independence. In keeping with their oath of office, they should not seek nor should they accept instructions from any Government, person or entity external to the organization.”

Despite the UN rules and regulations, the Commissioner-General swiftly ended contracts without launching an investigation, thereby violating the concerned staff’s fundamental right to due process. 

The Office of Investigations (OIOS) is put in a tight spot as it can no longer conduct an impartial and lawful investigation. Former staff members are under no obligation to cooperate with the OIOS, making the process even more challenging. 

Instead of rushing to terminate their contracts, the Commissioner-General had the option to first suspend the staff without pay, followed by an impartial investigation. His haste in terminating their contracts — even before commencing an investigation — hints at his attempt to appease the Israeli authorities, thereby breaching the standards of impartiality outlined by the International Civil Service’s code of conduct. 

It’s important to remember that allegations must be proven and substantiated.

A recent UNRWA  judgment issued on 31 December 2023 highlights the eagerness of the Agency to always appease the Israeli authorities by taking disciplinary measures against UNRWA staff regardless of the case’s merits.  This case involved a breach of neutrality. The Judge found that the CG imposed a serious miscounted disciplinary measure on an UNRWA staff allegedly because he was a teacher (as reported by the Israeli NGO) when it turned out that he was not one. The UNRWA Tribunal found in favor of the UNRWA staff and reversed the disciplinary measure. 

One day after the CG issued his statement on the termination of contracts, Western European countries declared their solidarity by freezing their financial aid to UNRWA. An unwanted consequence or a planned one?

Equally interesting was the reaction of the Secretary-General who expressed his horror at allegations against UNRWA staff. Yet, he has strangely not used the same term to describe the tragic death of 32,000 Palestinians, including the killing and  dismemberment of over 13000 children. 

Fear? Or sheer hypocrisy? 

As to the EU, on the day of the ICJ order on 26 January 2024, it issued a statement reaffirming its continuing support to the International Court of Justice and reminding the parties that ICJ orders were binding and that they must comply with them. 

Within days of the ICJ order, the EU took an abrupt U-turn, suspending its funding for UNRWA and demanding a review of all employees. Clearly, concerns for the integrity of their assistance do not match the reality on the ground. To make things stranger, the EU requested a review of all UNRWA employees (30,000 people) to verify that they were not involved in the attacks.

In the span of two days, the majority of Western donors had announced they were freezing funding based on a recycled “40 beheaded babies allegation” unseen by anyone, without any evidence and any sort of investigation into the matter.

Would these countries dare to withhold funds and weapons sale to Israel for the indiscriminate bombing of hospitals, UN schools, health clinics and UN shelters in Gaza? 

Today, hundreds of aid trucks are deployed at the Rafah border, with Israel blocking the delivery of essential humanitarian aid. The Palestinians wage a battle for survival, while the world watches in silence. 

Israel’s recent decision to declare the Kerem Shalom crossing a closed military zone is leading to a deadly famine. 

Israel is subjecting Palestinians to forced starvation, and the international community is observing in silence. 

It is thus clear that the humanitarian crisis will persist even if funds were not suspended.

The truth is confronting: we’re witnessing an American-Western led production aimed at more than just funds or humanitarian aid. 

This narrative seeks to shift focus from the ICJ order and set UNRWA—often synonymously associated with Palestinians—as the scapegoat. If UNRWA is guilty, all Palestinians must be deemed guilty, or so the story goes. 

Given these unfounded allegations, the conversation now centers around UNRWA staff being implicated in acts of violence, further dehumanizing entire Palestinian communities and validating their genocide. 

The message that Israel wishes to convey is that killing Palestinians is within its rights.

Led by Israel, a new wave of misinformation seeks to shift global narratives away from the injustices meted out to Palestinians. Such a scenario can only engender the opposite of goodwill and further erode the moral leadership of the Global North in the Middle East.

To the Global North we say: UNRWA does not need your funding.  

It needs you to comply with the International Court of Justice’s order by requesting Israel to stop its violence, open the humanitarian corridors and stop the bloodshed. 

Cutting funding to UNRWA at this critical juncture is nothing less than a brand new Laissez- Passer to prolong the genocide against the Palestinian people.

But one thing is certain: no amount of money will convince the millions of Palestinian refugees to give up their profound and enduring attachment to their homeland. 

To the Global North, we say:

Defund as you May, the Right of Return will Never Cease to Exist, 

and Palestine is Here to Stay.

It is Time to Decolonize the United Nations

Yesterday, the Secretary-General issued a statement on Gaza that began with a lengthy paragraph that condemned Hamas and highlighted the suffering of the Israeli people in great detail. However, throughout the two-page discourse, the name of Israel was seemingly forgotten, not even a single mention.

The Security Council is occupied by Western powers, which has rendered it paralyzed.

If you believe the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is independent, I invite you to reconsider.

Let’s take the ongoing case of South Africa versus Israel as an example. Instead of letting the Judges preside with objectivity and devoid of political influence, some Western Nations can’t seem to resist tampering. Bracing for a potential ruling favoring Palestine, Germany has jumped the gun and publicly backed Israel, even before the proceedings have concluded.

Just imagine the pressure that Germany’s judge in the ICJ, Georg Nolte, would be under, feeling the weight of his responsibilities and the difficult decisions he must make. 

Then there’s the story of the United States. It chose to step away from the mandatory jurisdiction of the court in 1986, following a ruling indicating the US was obligated to pay war reparations to Nicaragua. Notably, the ICJ’s current President, Joan E. Donoghue, hails from the United States.

Donoghue says she does not see herself as a representative of the United States to the court. On the eve of The Hague proceedings, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby called the genocide allegations “unfounded,” adding, “That’s not a word that ought to be thrown around lightly, and we certainly don’t believe that it applies here. “

Then you have France and Australia, who are also currently sitting on the ICJ, and we know their positions too well.

If you think these judges are independent, think again.

The insidious tentacles of racism and discrimination have infiltrated every corner of the United Nations’ work, revealing an alarming surge in recent years.

If you’re seeking a real-life illustration of entrenched discrimination and ingrained racism, consider how UN staff who hail from nations in the Global North interact with those from the Global South. A quick look at this scenario highlights the glaring disparity between staff from the Global North and those from the Global South at the United Nations.

Supporting evidence isn’t hard to find when you dig into the decisions handed down by the United Nations Dispute Tribunal. These rulings paint a worrying picture. 

Take, for instance, the recent case of Theunens vs. Secretary-General, UNDT/2023/145. Released just a week ago, its detailed records provide a disturbing glimpse into the pervasive patterns of racism and discrimination that UN staff from the Global South are forced to endure day in and day out.

This judgment relates to a senior Belgian staff member working with UNIFIL. UNIFIL is the UN’s peacekeeping mission, tasked with verifying the retreat of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon and aiding the Lebanese Government in reclaiming its crucial authority over the region. 

Contained within the UNDT judgment’s hefty 82 pages, is a chilling depiction of rampant racism, discrimination, misconduct, harassment, and a blatant abuse of authority. It’s the alleged wrongdoings of a Belgian senior staff member (Chief of Joint Military Analysis Centre – JMAC), directed at his Lebanese subordinates, that spanned across a disturbing long stretch of 10 years, from 2010 all the way through to 2020.

There seemed to be no effort to rectify this glaring issue. 

Allow me to draw your attention to a particularly striking instance of this evident discrimination and prejudice: the prohibition enforced on two native Lebanese staff members, Mr. El-Sibai and Ms. El-Joubeili, by their Belgian superior.

The Belgian Chief strictly forbade them from conversing in their mother tongue, Arabic, while their international counterparts were granted the liberty to communicate in their native languages like German, French, and so on.

Hold that thought if you believe such an event couldn’t possibly involve a United Nations employee. The next one might just raise your eyebrows a bit more. 

An incident involving the Belgian Chief of JMAC threw racial prejudices of the Global North under sharp light when he introduced two Lebanese national staff members to his French deputy. 

Instead of introducing them by their respective names Mohamed and Christine and recognizing their important roles as research assistants,  the Belgian Chief had a shocking habit of introducing them by their religion as “‘Mohamad the Shia Muslim and Christine the Christian’”

Even for someone like me who has worked for 20 years with the UN worldwide, this is difficult to accept and understand. 

It seems there’s a jarring reveal of the Global North’s real countenance unveiling nothing less than the epitome of racism.

Discrimination seeping to the very deep of everything.

Mr. El-Sibai the Lebanese national staff testified to the UN Tribunal that the atmosphere under the senior Belgian staff, was “hell” and that the Belgian’s Chief’s behavior was very intimidating,

“as if he was still in the army or as if we were in Guantanamo or prison. For some unknown reason there was always this division—two camps, the Arab speakers and the international colleagues. The Chief preferred to deal with the international colleagues more “than dealing with us.”

A third senior staff witness testified that he left UNIFIL because of the Belgian Chief JMAC and that “he had knocked at all the doors within UNIFIL, and nobody wanted to hear it, including the leadership”.

Dismantling systems of Western oppression, including colonization, is undeniably complex.

When examined by the Judge during the hearing, the Belgian Chief JMAC admitted:

that many military people and especially those, I mean my Deputies from France, they have a view on Lebanon, and they have a view on Christians and they have a view on Muslims, whether we like it or not.”

In echoing his colonial sentiments, he was quoted saying:

 “I may be misinformed by my experience, but I think in a country with internal issues, it is difficult for a citizen – not a citizen, but a person from that country to be objective.”

Could it be that the privilege of critical and objective thinking has been bestowed primarily upon those dwelling in the Global North, while it eludes the majority of the remaining world?

The Global North’s objective mind is indeed so evident in its refusal to acknowledge and condemn the 24 hour live broadcast of the atrocities committed by Israel against the Palestinian people – a practice shared by countries including Germany, the US, the UK, and Canada.

In her testimony to the Judge, Ms. El-Joubeili, the Lebanese national staff said:

“It was a nightmare to summarize those awful years spent in JMAC. It was a nightmare.

I had to cope with following psychotherapy, which helped me stay strong and not fall into the trap of the harassment, the abuse of authority, the intimidation, discrimination, all those awful bullying…

It was really toxic and unhealthy. It wasn’t at all the environment I was expecting in an international organization as the United Nations…

Nine years we paid from our health–mental health, physical health. Nine years were too long, way too long really.

It is so enraging, so revolting to have to go through all this for that long without being heard. I know these are the worst years of my life. Nine years in JMAC with the Chief are the worst years of my life.”

Essentially, the gripe against the Chief JMAC revolved around his establishment of a work environment that was oppressive, discriminatory and brimming with harassment. Moreover, he wielded his power in an abusive manner. 

Every single charge against him checked out; normally, in such circumstances, termination should have been the least disciplinary action. 

However, the outcome for the Chief JMAC saw him demoted by just one grade level. Instead of the door being shown to him, he was reassigned to a new role as a senior political affairs officer in the office of UNIFIL’s Head of Mission — the most influential position in UNIFIL. 

It seems more like he hit a career advancement jackpot.

Why would a senior staff member, convicted on charges of discrimination, harassment, and abuse of authority, continue to serve with UNIFIL in Lebanon, a highly volatile political battlefield? The answer is right in front of us. 

Could it be that he gets to keep his position because he has the advantage of Belgian nationality? Or is it possibly due to the unfortunate reality that the United Nations is indeed internally colonized? 

Not yet convinced? 

Keep reading to uncover more.

In a recent judgment, the UNRWA Dispute Tribunal upheld management’s decision to terminate a previous Chief of Security Operations and Analysis, cited in the judgment ElMenshawy UNRWA/DT/2023/034. Notably, ElMenshawy hails from the Global South and is an Arab.

His immediate superior, the Director of Security, hailed from the Global North. 

Our Arab Chief found himself in hot water, slapped with accusations of: 

1) Casting a shadow of doubt on his direct supervisor’s integrity, a gentleman from Britain; 

2) Being a source of distress for his co-worker within the Security Department; 

3) Curating an environment within the Security Department that can only be described as hostile.

The Arab Chief ElMenshawy found himself abruptly ousted from his position and faced with the stark reality of termination as a disciplinary measure for his actions. 

Compare this example to the Belgian Chief, who, for a protracted decade, wielded his power recklessly, intimidated, and discriminated against Arab staff. Was his punishment as harsh? No.

The Belgian Chief was merely demoted and reassigned to provide leadership in the Head of Mission office, a prestigious role. One may wonder about the seeming disparity. 

One thing is certain.

To reform the United Nations, it is necessary to decolonize it first.

artwork by Emmy Tran