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Jews against the Occupation ’48 (JAO’48) is calling on the international community to demand Israel be prevented from imposing a ban on the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), due to take effect on January 30.

JAO’48 said on January 9 that the ban would “completely undermine the delivery of humanitarian aid work and vital services to the people of Gaza, as well as to the Palestinian population in the other unlawfully occupied territories”.

It described the ban as a “death sentence” for UNWRA, part of Israel’s “illegal extermination and expulsion” of Palestinians.

Israel’s justification for the ban is based on a smear campaign, the group said, and is “aimed at destroying UNWRA altogether”. But Israel cannot be trusted to provide, or allow, any viable alternative to UNWRA.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said, “No other UN or NGO does such work” and “UNRWA can be replaced only through a functioning Palestinian state which would address the plight of Palestine refugees”.

Federal Labor, along with six other countries, expressed concern last October about Israel’s law on UNWRA. They urged Israel to abide by its international obligations and facilitate the “full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance in all its forms as well as the provision of sorely needed basic services to the civilian population”.

Since then, Australia supported a UN resolution supporting Palestinians’ “permanent sovereignty” over their natural resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and, for the Syrians, in occupied Golan.

“It would follow that Australia could take firm action to protect UNWRA’s continued existence,” JAO’48 said, and demanded that the Labor government puts “severe pressure on Israel not to implement this legislation”.

[Jepke Goudsmit is a member of Jews against the Occupation ’48.]