Photo: AFP
THE raid carried out today by Israeli authorities on the UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem marks a grave escalation – one that strikes at the heart of international law and the norms that govern relations between states and the United Nations.
For the Israeli soldiers to force their way into a protected U.N. facility, remove the U.N. flag, and interfere with the operations of a humanitarian agency is not merely an administrative overreach; it is a direct affront to the inviolability of U.N. premises, a principle that has long underpinned global diplomacy and humanitarian protection.
No justification offered for the raid, whether framed as a municipal enforcement action or a dispute over alleged debts, can supersede the legal protections afforded to U.N. installations.
The principle is clear and universally accepted: United Nations compounds are immune from such unilateral state actions precisely to safeguard neutrality and ensure that humanitarian services can continue without intimidation or political pressure.
By breaching this immunity, today’s incident signals a disregard not only for international conventions but also for the humanitarian mission that UNRWA carries out under increasingly challenging conditions. The agency remains a lifeline for millions of Palestinian refugees. Interrupting its operations, undermining its legal status, and subjecting its facilities to coercive police action threaten to weaken an already fragile humanitarian landscape.
Even more concerning is the precedent this sets. If a U.N. compound can be raided and its flag replaced without consequence, what prevents similar actions elsewhere? The danger is not abstract. Humanitarian agencies worldwide rely on clear legal protections to negotiate relief corridors, shelter civilians, and maintain neutrality in conflict zones. Breaching those protections anywhere destabilises them everywhere.
This is why today’s raid demands immediate and unequivocal condemnation from the international community. Silence would not be neutrality; it would be complicity in the erosion of the legal architecture that enables humanitarian work to function. Member states must insist on the restoration of UNRWA’s full operational control, the return of any seized property, and a reaffirmation—public and binding—of U.N. immunity in Jerusalem and beyond.
The United Nations cannot fulfil its mandate if its agencies can be treated as instruments in domestic political or territorial disputes. The world cannot claim to uphold a rules-based order while allowing one of its foundational rules to be transgressed without consequence.
Today’s incident must be recognised for what it is: a deliberate challenge to international law and diplomatic decorum. It deserves nothing less than firm, collective repudiation.
– BTSMEDIA.my
