A new documentary investigates UNRWA’s origins, powers and alleged links to terrorism

INTERMEDIATE: As Israeli bulldozers destroyed buildings at the UNRWA headquarters on Tuesday after Israel passed a law last year banning the agency from operating on Israeli territory, a new documentary sheds light on the controversial UN agency for its close ties to Hamas terrorists, and its lax control over allowing anti-Semitism to be taught to generations of its students.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini condemned the action against UNRWA buildings, calling it a violation of international law, while Israeli officials said the compound was not used and the demolition was carried out in accordance with Israeli law.

The development comes weeks after the United Nations General Assembly voted to renew UNRWA’s mandate in 2029, despite growing opposition and withdrawal from several Western countries. The update followed months of controversy surrounding the agency after Israeli authorities released videos showing UNRWA staff participating in a massacre led by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The allegations are still being investigated, and UNRWA has said it has dismissed several staff following the allegations.

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During the Gaza war, Israeli forces also recovered weapons, tunnels and other Hamas infrastructure from UNRWA facilities, including schools.

Fox News Digital reported last week that UNRWA USA acknowledged reports that the Trump administration is considering designating UNRWA as a foreign terrorist organization and that agency officials have urged congressional staff to oppose the move.

Last October, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to reporters in Israel, reiterated the Trump administration’s policy on the UN and UNRWA. “The United Nations is here. They are on the ground. We are willing to work with them if they can make it work, but not UNRWA. UNRWA has become a subsidiary of Hamas.”

A new documentary titled “Unraveling UNRWA” is now drawing renewed attention to the organization’s history and political role.

The film examines UNRWA from its founding in 1949 to its operations today. Includes interviews with refugees, Arab and Israeli voices, and former UNRWA officials.

The participants of the film say that UNRWA has long promoted the UN General Assembly Resolution 194, a measure of 1948 that the Palestinians interpret as giving refugees and their descendants the right to return to their homes inside Israel, the view shown by the documentary has helped to perpetuate the refugee situation rather than solve it.

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

Zlatko Zigic, who was the director of the UN migration agency from 1997 to 2017, says in the film that “the problem of UNRWA is the concept of the endless struggle of the Palestinians to return,” adding that maintaining the right to return to Israel “has been a tool to perpetuate the conflict.”

The documentary also includes scenes filmed inside UNRWA schools, showing classroom lessons where children are taught that one day they will return to the land of Israel. In one scene depicted in the film, Jews are called “wolves,” and a teacher asks elementary school students, “What are the Jews doing to us?” before telling them that they were expelled and deported, that their families were killed, and that they should thank UNRWA, which built refugee camps for them.

In an interview with Fox News Digital, UNRWA’s former legal adviser, James Lindsay, who also appears in the film, said powerful lies are at the heart of what he believes is a systemic problem.

“The biggest issue of oversight has to be done, I’m sure, almost at the grassroots level where the local administration, in this case we’re talking about Gaza, so we’re talking about Hamas,” said Lindsay. “The people who work for UNRWA are under UNRWA, but more importantly they are under local authorities,” in this case Hamas.

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A Palestinian boy walks near a UNRWA school sheltering people displaced by Israel’s overnight strike, in Gaza City, July 5, 2025. (Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters)

Lindsay said that while donor governments may see detailed paperwork and reporting, the ground truth can look very different.

He said that historically the leadership of UNRWA did not try to prevent Hamas members from working, and said that the organization considers Hamas as part of the political life of Palestine.

“UNRWA is making no effort to keep Hamas out,” Lindsay said. “The commissioner-general’s position was that UNRWA has no problem with Hamas.”

He described a situation where local workers and contractors face heavy pressure from Hamas, creating incentives to comply with demands rather than risk retaliation.

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An IDF infographic with descriptions of what it says are UNRWA workers involved in the Oct 7 massacre. (IDF Spokesperson Unit)

“If Hamas comes to you and says, we’d like maybe 5% of the concrete that you’re using, or maybe you need to show 5% of the food distributed than what was actually there, you can’t say no,” he said. “If you don’t do what Hamas says, you won’t be fired. You’ll have terrible things happen to you.”

Lindsay said those facts rarely reach senior international staff, who make up a small part of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza.

“In Gaza you are talking about maybe 12,000-13,000 workers in total, of which maybe 25 are foreign workers,” he said.

He said that over time, many aid workers developed what the US State Department calls “clientitis,” which is a condition in which aid organizations begin to identify with the politics and demographics of the people they serve.

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

“Humanitarian organizations have begun to identify the people they are providing assistance to,” said Lindsay. “If that’s the case, that means identifying one form of Palestinian politics, which is Hamas.”

Lindsay said that he initially believed that UNRWA could be changed but later concluded that the structure of the organization made meaningful change impossible.

“It cannot be changed in such a way that it is not allowed to be changed by the people in charge of the government,” he said. “It is also difficult to fix UNRWA because UNRWA members are what the State Department calls clients.”

He also criticized the way the agency handles educational content, saying that UNRWA school teachers are subject to threats and coercion like other workers.

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

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

After the recent General Assembly vote to renew UNRWA’s mandate, Lindsay said the agency viewed the result as a vote of confidence but noted that opposition was growing.

“In 2022, there was one vote against the renewal of the mandate and 10 against,” he said. “Recently, there were 10 votes against and 18 abstentions. This organization opposes UNRWA because of the things that have been issued in the last few years, especially since Oct.7 of 2023.”

He added that although UNRWA enjoys broad support among UN member states, those countries are not the organization’s main donors.

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A Palestinian boy carries an aid box delivered by UNRWA, between Hamas and Israel, in Gaza City, February 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

“Most of the UN countries are anti-Western and support UNRWA,” Lindsay said. “But the donors are the ones who count because all the money comes from voluntary donations, especially from Western countries, the same countries that are starting to fear. And that, I think, is a real threat to the continuation of UNRWA.”