The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, spoke out on Monday after Israeli officials allegedly forced their way into its headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem and lowered the UN flag.
Here's UNRWA spokesperson Jonathan Fowler speaking to UN News (AI transcript, check against delivery): "Today we've seen a blatant disregard of Israel's obligation as a United Nations member state to protect and respect the inviolability of UN premises. So basically what happened was early this morning, Israeli police, accompanied by municipal officials, forced their way into the UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem. They came in with motorbikes. as well as trucks and forklifts, and they cut all communications. 
"They subsequently seized furniture, IT equipment and other property. And indeed, they actually pulled down the UN flag from the tower in the compound and they replaced it with an Israeli flag. This comes in the wake of months of months of harassment that included arson attacks in 2024, hateful demonstrations and intimidation outside the compound. And these were supported by a large scale disinformation campaign. 
"And in addition, anti-UNRWA legislation that was passed by the Israeli parliament in breach of Israel's international obligations. And as a result of this, UNRWA personnel were actually forced to vacate this compound at the beginning of this year. However, whatever action that's taken domestically, this compound retains its status as a UN premises. I really want to emphasize that. And it's immune from any form of interference. Now, the State of Israel is party to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. That convention is crystal clear. It says that UN premises are inviolable. In other words, they're immune from search and seizure, and it also protects UN property and assets. 
"Now, the International Court of Justice has also underscored this, most recently in its advisory opinion that was issued in October. to say that Israel has to cooperate with UNRWA and other UN agencies. It's a matter of international law that there can be no exceptions to this. So to allow this to happen, I mean, it represents a new challenge to international law. It's something that's extremely dangerous anywhere that the UN is present across the world. So not just in Israeli territory or occupy Israel, the occupied Palestinian territory, but also, anywhere around the world where this should not be allowed to stand. And we would really, really urge the Israeli authorities to rethink this because this kind of thing is extremely dangerous at the global level." 
 

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UNRWA-compound-searched-Jonathan Fowler

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