How CNN Minimized the UNRWA Scandal

The Israelis have presented to the world evidence that at least a dozen staff members of UNRWA took part in the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. In addition, Israel has presented evidence that 3,000 UNRWA teachers on a Telegram site praised — deliriously — the October 7 attack, and called for more such attacks. CNN’s coverage of this UNRWA scandal was skewed to downplay its seriousness. More on CNN’s failures to properly report on UNRWA can be found here: “Why Is CNN Downplaying UNRWA’s Scandals?,” by David M. Litman, Algemeiner, February 1, 2024:

In a January 29 CNN article entitled “What we know about Israel’s allegations against UN staffers in Gaza,” the network got it wrong when it comes to definitions of Palestinian “refugees.” While CNN later corrected that error after media criticism, the authors (Sophie Tanno, Hira Humayun, Richard Roth, Heather Chen, and Alex Marquardt) also failed to capture the extent of the scandals plaguing UNRWA, the refugee agency for Palestinians.

Beginning with the definitional error, the article originally stated:

The organization characterizes Palestinian refugees as any “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 War.” Those who fit that definition now number 5.9 million, made up largely of the descendants of original refugees.

This statement is not true, since the definition says nothing of descendants, who would clearly not fit that definition provided….

CNN ought to have made clear that there is one rule for Palestinian refugees, and another for all other refugees. The Palestinians have been allowed to pass on their refugee status to their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on, making that status an inheritable trait. Among the hundreds of millions of refugees created since World War II, only the Palestinians are allowed this singular benefit.

The real number of Palestinians who would fit the definition, according to a post by then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo following a State Department study, is less than 200,000, not 5.9 million.

Pompeo’s estimate of “<200,000” is much too high. About 30,000 Palestinians are still alive of the 700,000 who left Israel just before, during, and just after the 1948 war.

After CAMERA informed CNN that the original UNRWA definition of a refugee, which was quoted in the article, had been expanded in subsequent years to automatically include descendants of Palestinian refugees, the network updated the language to clarify the definition and the numbers the article had assigned to that definition.

The network published the following correction:

This article has been updated to clarify the definition of who qualifies for UNRWA aid.

The language now reads:

The organization characterizes Palestinian refugees as any “persons whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 War.” Those who fit that definition and their descendants now number 5.9 million, all of whom are considered eligible for UNRWA support.

…But CNN’s article is also misleading in another way. It fails to capture the extent of the scandals plaguing UNRWA….

Similarly, CNN’s website appears devoid of any mention of the UNRWA staff Telegram channel, documented and exposed by UN Watch, which is rife with incitement and glorification of terrorism by UNRWA employees, including celebrating the October 7 massacre. Notably, rather than take the issue seriously, the United Nations responded by trying to insult the organization that produced the evidence….

That organization is UN Watch, run by Hillel Neuer, and it has been responsible for nearly all the revelations about UNRWA staff who either participated in, or celebrated, the October 7 atrocities. CNN failed to report the news provided by UN Watch about the Telegram channel used by UNRWA staff, where 3,000 UNRWA teachers shared their enthusiasm for the Hamas massacres.

CNN still has not reported, as of early February, on the use of UNRWA schools and other facilities by Hamas, where it hides weapons and fighters, and from which it fires on IDF soldiers.

There is no mention of the fact that a former UNRWA union head was fired only after it was publicly exposed that he was a Hamas political leader, and that the former UNRWA Gaza director was removed from his position simply because he admitted Israeli strikes were precise during the May 2021 Israel-Hamas war. During the current war, there have also been documented instances of terrorists firing from UNRWA facilities.

Not only have Hamas operatives fired from UNRWA schools and offices, but they have used those schools as weapons warehouses and as hideouts for themselves.

The long, documented history of UNRWA schools teaching content that incites terrorism and hatred is also omitted.

This history is important context for CNN’s audience. It would inform them that this is not an isolated incident of bad behavior at UNRWA. It explains why so many countries are now suspending aid to the agency, given its long record of bad behavior.

Instead, CNN’s Newsroom resorted to bringing in former UNRWA Director-General Christopher Gunness, who oversaw many of these scandals, to whitewash the agency’s bad behavior. Rather than acknowledge the seriousness of the issue, Gunness implied the revelations were a “political attack” timed with the International Court of Justice proceedings, presumably to take attention away….

Christopher Gunness used to rant on Twitter about “Judeo-Nazis” and wrote “humorous” verses about the killing by Hamas of “collaborators.” So it’s not surprising that he would suggest that the evidence, scrupulously compiled by the IDF, about the UNRWA staff members who took part in the October 7 attacks, and about the 3,000 UNRWA teachers on their Telegram channel celebrating those attacks, and about the 12,000 UNRWA staff members who have been linked to terrorist groups, was all just a way to divert attention from the meeting of the ICJ where it considered the charge, brought by South Africa, that Israel had been guilty of “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” in Gaza.

Here are some of those questions that CNN might ask UNRWA:

What does UNRWA intend to do about the 3,000 teachers who celebrated the October 7 atrocities? Will they be fired — just as the 13 UNRWA staff members who took part in that attack have been fired?

What, if anything, will UNRWA do about the 12,000 members of its staff who have been linked to terror groups such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and PFLP?

For years UNRWA has promised to revise its textbooks, to remove all antisemitic content and incitement to violence that inexorably leads some Palestinians to participate in, or to celebrate, attacks such as those of October 7. It has never done so. Will it do so now?

That’s enough for now. That’s more than enough.