Tension rocketing up between Israel and U.N. refugee agency

A month after a U.N. official suggested that some Hamas members are on his payroll, the issue is still reverberating in Washington. JTA has learned that some two dozen members of the U.S. House of Representatives so far have signed a letter calling on Secretary of State Colin Powell “to suspend immediately all U.S. assistance to UNRWA until you can confirm that the agency no longer employs members of Hamas or other terrorist organizations and to work toward a new UNRWA leadership that is verifiably committed to countering terrorism and incitement to violence.” The letter, which refers to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, an agency serving 59 Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere in the Middle East, is to be delivered to Powell this week or next. UNRWA chief Peter Hansen drew Israeli ire on Oct. 3 when he told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that there were Hamas members on the agency’s payroll. “Hamas as a political organization does not mean that every member is a militant, and we do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another,” the Danish official said. Israeli media long have reported that the UNRWA teacher’s union, for example, is dominated by members of Hamas, which calls for Israel’s destruction and the murder of Jews.