New documentary investigates UNRWA’s origins, power and alleged terror ties

SPECIAL: As Israeli bulldozers demolished structures at UNRWA headquarters on Tuesday after Israel enacted legislation last year banning UNRWA operations in Israeli territory, a new documentary sheds light on the controversial UN agency’s close relationship with Hamas terrorists and its lax controls over allowing antisemitism to be taught to generations of its students.

While UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini condemned the action against UNRWA buildings as a violation of international law, Israeli officials said that the campus was not in active use and the demolition was carried out in accordance with Israeli laws.

The development comes weeks after the United Nations General Assembly voted to renew UNRWA’s mandate until 2029, despite growing opposition and abstention from many Western countries. The renewal comes after months of controversy around the agency after Israeli officials released videos showing UNRWA employees participating in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 massacre. These allegations are still being investigated and UNRWA said it had laid off a number of staff following the allegations.

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During the war in Gaza, the Israeli military also discovered weapons, tunnel shafts and other Hamas infrastructure at UNRWA facilities, including schools.

Fox News Digital reported last week that UNRWA USA acknowledged reports that the Trump administration was considering designating UNRWA as a foreign terrorist organization, and agency officials were urging congressional staffers to oppose the move.

Last October, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated the Trump administration’s policy to the UN and UNRWA while speaking to journalists in Israel. “The United Nations is here. They are on the ground. If they get the job done, we are ready to work with them, but UNRWA is not. UNRWA has become a subsidiary of Hamas.”

new documentary titled “DISSOLVING UNRWA” now draws renewed attention to the organization’s structure, history and political role.

The film examines UNRWA from its founding in 1949 to its current activities. The report includes interviews with refugees, Arab and Israeli voices, as well as former UNRWA officials.

Participants in the film argue that UNRWA has long supported UN General Assembly Resolution 194, a 1948 measure that Palestinians interpret as granting refugees and their descendants the right to return to their homes in Israel; In the documentary, this idea helps to perpetuate refugee status rather than resolve it.

A man stands in Gaza with the help of UNRWA. (Reuters)

Zlatko Zigic, former director of the UN Organization for Migration from 1997 to 2017, said in the film that “UNRWA’s problem is the concept of the Palestinians’ endless struggle for return”, adding that protecting the right of return to Israel “has become a means of perpetuating the conflict”.

The documentary also includes scenes filmed in UNRWA schools showing classroom lessons where children are taught that they will one day return to Israel. In one scene presented in the film, Jews are referred to as “wolves” and a teacher asks elementary school students “What have the Jews done to us?” he asks. Before telling them that they were deported, deported, their families were killed and that they should be grateful to UNRWA for setting up refugee camps for them.

Former UNRWA legal counsel James Lindsay, who also appears in the film, said in an interview with Fox News Digital that the dynamic lies at the heart of what he believes is a systemic problem.

“The real problem with oversight, I’m sure, is that it has to be at the ground level of local authorities; in this case we’re talking about Gaza, so we’re talking about Hamas,” Lindsay said. “People who work for UNRWA are subject to UNRWA, yes, but more importantly they are subject to the local authorities, which is Hamas.”

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A Palestinian child walks near a UNRWA school housing displaced persons who were hit in an overnight Israeli offensive in Gaza, July 5, 2025. (Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters)

Donor governments may see detailed paperwork and reporting, but the reality on the ground can look very different, Lindsay said.

He argued that UNRWA leadership has historically not attempted to prevent the employment of Hamas members and that the organization views Hamas as part of Palestinian political life.

“UNRWA made no effort to keep Hamas out,” Lindsay said. “The opinion of the members of the general commission was that UNRWA had no problem with Hamas.”

He described an environment in which local staff and contractors faced significant pressure from Hamas, creating incentives to comply with demands rather than risk retaliation.

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An IDF infographic containing statements from those claiming to be UNRWA workers who participated in the October 7 massacre. (IDF Spokesperson Unit)

“If Hamas comes to you and says we want maybe 5 percent of the concrete you use, or that you have to show that 5 percent more food is distributed than there actually is, you don’t say no,” he said. “If you don’t do what Hamas says, you won’t be fired. Very bad things will happen to you.”

These facts rarely reach senior international staff, who make up only a small portion of UNRWA’s workforce in Gaza, Lindsay said.

“You’re talking about a total of 12,000 to 13,000 personnel in Gaza, maybe 25 of which are actual international personnel,” he said.

Over time, he said, many humanitarian workers develop what the U.S. State Department calls “clientitis,” a phenomenon in which aid agencies become politically identified with the populations they serve.

This photo, taken during an Israeli army media tour on February 8, 2024, shows Israeli soldiers at the evacuated compound of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

“Humanitarian organizations have come to identify with the people to whom they provide humanitarian assistance,” Lindsay said. “In this case, this means identifying with one branch of the Palestinian political scene, namely Hamas.”

Lindsay said he initially believed UNRWA could be reformed, but later concluded that the agency’s structure made meaningful reform impossible.

“There can be no reform in the sense that reform is not allowed by responsible people in the government,” he said. “It is also difficult to reform UNRWA because UNRWA members have reached what the State Department calls ‘clintitis’.”

He also criticized the agency’s handling of educational content, saying teachers in UNRWA schools were subjected to the same threats and pressure as other staff.

UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City, Gaza, on 21 February 2024. (Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“What will people do under a murderous totalitarian government like Hamas?” Lindsay said. “They won’t risk their chances.”

Following the final vote in the General Assembly to renew UNRWA’s mandate, Lindsay noted that the agency saw the result as a vote of confidence, but that opposition was growing.

“There was one vote against renewing the mandate in 2022 and 10 abstentions,” he said. “Last time there were 10 votes against and 18 abstentions. The movement is against UNRWA because of what has been put forward in the last few years, especially since October 7, 2023.”

He added that although UNRWA has broad support among UN member states, these countries are not the agency’s main funders.

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A Palestinian child carries an aid box provided by UNRWA in Gaza City, amid a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

“The vast majority of countries in the UN are anti-Western and strictly pro-UNRWA,” Lindsay said. “But donors are important because all the money comes from voluntary donations, largely from Western countries, countries that are starting to get nervous. And I think that’s a real threat to the continuation of UNRWA.”