The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) denounced allegations by the so-called UN Watch, which it described as “an organization with a deep history of unfounded and politically-driven assertions against the Agency.”

It said UN Watch released a report accusing 22 UNRWA personnel of promoting violence and hate through social media channels. It said that 10 of the 22 persons mentioned in the report are UNRWA personnel; the others are not associated with the Agency.

“UNRWA is upholding the values of the United Nations and has a zero-tolerance policy for hatred. The Agency takes each allegation seriously. It has immediately launched a thorough investigation through due process to determine if any of these 10 persons, out of more than 28,000 personnel, violated the Agency’s social media policies that prohibit personnel from engaging in non-neutral behaviors online,” UNRWA said in a statement.

“In previous reports over a five-year period, UN Watch identified a total of 101 cases where UNRWA personnel allegedly posted content on social media that was in breach of its Regulatory Framework, including the neutrality policy. Upon investigation of these cases, UNRWA found that 57% of the allegations could not be tied to personnel employed by the Agency at the time of the reported incident. Personnel who were found in breach, then, were either censured and/or subjected to financial penalties.”

UNRWA stressed, “To suggest that hate is widespread within the Agency and schools is not only misleading and false but validates sensationalist and politically-motivated attacks that deliberately harm an already vulnerable community: refugee children. UNRWA’s mandate is to provide life-saving humanitarian assistance to over five million Palestine refugees, a responsibility the Agency takes very seriously.”