...15 months ago, the Hamas terror organization won more than 90% of the vote to run the UNRWA workers union in the UNRWA Arab refugee camps in Gaza. The salaries of UNRWA workers are paid through contributions that UNRWA receives from 38 contributing countries. The U.S. provides 30% of that budget, Canada contributes 4% of that budget, and the European countries contribute well over 55% of that budget.

In other words, the western democracies of the world pay the salaries of the Hamas terrorists on the payroll of UNRWA.

During a special UNRWA conference on the subject of Palestinian Arab refugees in Geneva last June, I asked UNRWA Director Peter Hanson about the fact that Hamas dominated his personnel. Hansen did not deny that fact. Instead, Hansen remarked that, "UNRWA does not check the religious affiliation of its workers" – as if the Hamas was some kind of religious denomination...

..."Oh I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don't see that as a crime," the CBC Web site quoted Hansen as saying.

"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."

Hansen told the CBC, however, that the UN expects all employees to act with neutrality.

"We demand of our staff, whatever their political persuasion is, that they behave in accordance with UN standards and norms for neutrality," he said.

Israel's foreign ministry said Monday that the government viewed Hansen's comments with the utmost gravity.

"Hansen confirms that Hamas is part of UNRWA," ministry spokesman David Saranga said.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman called Hansen's comments especially worrisome given the aerial photographs released last week showing a long object - a Qassam rocket according to the Israel Defense Forces and a stretcher according to UNRWA - being loaded into a van marked "UN."...