Israeli lawmaker shows off keys to locked UNRWA Headquarters in Jerusalem in Knesset session

Israeli Knesset Member Yulia Malinovsky held up the keys and the lock of the main door of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) headquarters in East Jerusalem during a parliamentary session yesterday bragging that she had locked the building and even the government could not access it as a result.

Malinovsky, who initiated the legislation to ban the UN agency from Israel and from working with Israeli government bodies, showed the lock to Knesset members, after raiding the UN agency’s office in East Jerusalem earlier this week.

לכבוד יום ירושלים, הענקתי לשר ירושלים מאיר פורוש, את המנעול והמפתחות למתחם אונר”א בגבעת התחמושת שלקחתי מהם.
הממשלה לא מצליחה להכנס לשם ואני כן.
אז הנה המפתחות, תכנסו ותקבעו ריבונות, או שאני צריכה גם לעזור לכם לפתוח את הדלת? pic.twitter.com/3YvLvZT56p

— Yulia Malinovsky יוליה מלינובסקי (@YuliaMalinovsky) May 28, 2025

“In honor of Jerusalem Day, I gave Jerusalem Minister Meir Porush the lock and keys to the UNRWA compound on Ammunition Hill that I took from them. The government can’t get in there, and I can. So here are the keys, come in and establish sovereignty, or do I need to help you open the door too?” she wrote on X.

Director of UNRWA Affairs in the West Bank, Roland Friedrich condemned the raid, as “another violation of Israel’s obligations as a member of the United Nations, which include protecting the agency’s facilities and facilitating its humanitarian work.”

Friedrich explained in a post on X that the group that had stormed the agency’s office in East Jerusalem claimed to be “liberating” the place on the “Jerusalem Day”, which Israelis commemorate as a day of “reuniting the city”.

At approximately midday today, a group of Israelis led by a Member of Knesset and accompanied by Israeli media entered without authorisation into UNRWA’s compound in Sheikh Jarrah, #EastJerusalem.

The group asserted they were “liberating” the “former UNRWA headquarters” on the… pic.twitter.com/VcvZzuRk5y

— Roland Friedrich (@GRFriedrich) May 26, 2025

In a related context, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini warned of the agency’s deteriorating financial situation, saying: “We are facing a severe financial crisis, and we need urgent support to ensure the continuation of our operations beyond next month.”

In October 2024, Israel’s Knesset passed two laws labelling UNRWA a “terror group” and banning it from operating in the occupied Palestinian territory, including measures to strip the agency of its privileges and prohibit any dealings with it. These laws went into effect on 30 January.

Israel has lobbied hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees. If the agency no longer exists, argues Israel, then the refugee issue must no longer exist, and the legitimate right for Palestinian refugees to return to their land will be unnecessary. Israel has denied that right of return since the late 1940s, even though its own membership of the UN was made conditional upon Palestinian refugees being allowed to return to their homes and land.

Established in 1949, UNRWA has served as a critical lifeline for Palestinian refugees, supporting nearly 5.9 million people across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognised by the international community.

READ: Israel’s Ben-Gvir vows to expand West Bank settlements