Israel will confiscate the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in the Sheikh Jarrah district of East Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank to construct illegal settlements on it, reports said Thursday.
"According to information released to the public today, the entire UNRWA area in Ma'alot Dafna, Jerusalem, is slated to become a housing project with 1,440 units,” the Israel Hayom newspaper reported.
It noted that the project is in the "preparatory stages.”
UNRWA had not commented on the report.
Aryeh King, the far-right deputy mayor of Jerusalem, has repeatedly demanded in recent months the establishment of thousands of illegal units to expand the Ma'alot Dafna settlement.
Israeli authorities ordered UNRWA to vacate its headquarters in East Jerusalem on May 30 within 30 days under the pretext of the U.N. agency’s "failure to obtain approval” from the Israel Lands Authority to construct the facility on that land.
But UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler told Anadolu Agency (AA) at that time: "We learned about the decision through the media and did not receive any information directly from the Israeli authorities.”
"We are unequivocal about our stance. UNRWA has maintained a presence in this headquarters and another facility in East Jerusalem since the early 1950s,” said Fowler.
Simultaneously with the decision to confiscate the headquarters, the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, is preparing to vote on a bill in its second and third readings that designates UNRWA as a "terrorist" and prevents it from operating in East Jerusalem.
In May, UNRWA closed the compound after Israeli protesters twice set fire to its perimeter. Philipe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of UNRWA, said no one was injured but that staff had to put the fires out themselves because firefighters and police were slow to arrive.
Israel has been lobbying to have UNRWA closed, as it is the only U.N. agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees.
UNRWA was established by a U.N. resolution in 1949 and is mandated to provide assistance and protection to refugees in its five areas of operation: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
