Daoud Kuttab has denounced Israel’s seizure of UN refugee agency facilities in East Jerusalem
Israel’s seizure of UN facilities in occupied East Jerusalem amounts to “highway robbery,” Palestinian-American journalist Daoud Kuttab told RT.
His comments come amid an escalating dispute over facilities belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the UNRWA. Israeli security forces seized the agency’s Kalandia vocational training center in East Jerusalem last week. Israel disputes the UNRWA’s rights to the site and plans to repurpose it as part of a Jerusalem municipal development project.
Earlier this year, the Israeli authorities seized and partially demolished the UNRWA’s former headquarters in the Palestinian neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
“Israel… literally stole, took over [UNRWA] buildings and turned them over to the Israeli municipality of Jerusalem. This is highway robbery, literally stealing UN property without any authorization,” Kuttab told RT’s Rory Suchet on Thursday.
Israel enacted legislation in late 2024 barring the UNRWA from operating on what it considers sovereign territory, alleging that the agency has links to Hamas. The UN has rejected the allegations and maintains that Israeli domestic law cannot override the country’s international obligations.
Kuttab also discussed the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
