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The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has controversially removed the head of its West Bank and Gaza office, Sarah Muscroft, by reassigning her to a new role after she “condemned” Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s “indiscriminate” rocket fire into Israel.
The English-born UN representative was relieved of her duties after recently tweeting: “Relieved to see a #ceasefire agreed ending hostilities impacting both #Palestinians and #Israeli civilians. Such indiscriminate rocket fire of Islamic Jihad provoking Israeli retaliation is condemned. The safety of all civilians is paramount – the ceasefire must be upheld”.
Ms Muscroft was initially forced to apologise for her “ill-informed” tweet and her “poor-judgement” and said “all civilians – everywhere – must be able to live in peace”, following pushback from pro-Palestinian activists and other UN officials.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, lodged a formal complaint in response to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. In the letter he outlined that although Israel has “not always agreed with all of Ms Muscroft’s tweets, or those of her UN counterparts, Israeli disagreement or criticism has been expressed in a normative way… Israel is disturbed to see that Palestinian outrage over tweets would so quickly devolve into ending the ability of a senior UN staffer to keep her job, and to express herself. This represents a clear surrender of the UN to threats and intimidation, and poses a very problematic norm”.
“Somehow, it is always open season to criticize Israel, with no repercussions; but if a UN staffer dares to speak against Palestinian terrorism, there is immediate backlash in fear of reprisal”, the letter continued. Referring to the recent condemnation of a UN Human Rights Commissioner Miloon Kothari who spoke of a “Jewish lobby”, he stated: “On the other hand, we recently witnessed a clear case in which a UN official who clearly breached the principles of impartiality and neutrality required from a member of an HRC Commission of Inquiry used clear antisemitic vicious parlance, and yet still maintains his position”.
Mr Erdan’s letter also outlined the removal last year of an official working for UNRWA, Matthew Schmale, who said in a TV interview in May 2021 that the IDF had operated with “huge sophistication” when asked whether IDF airstrikes in Gaza had been precise.
OCHA announced that Sarah Muscroft “will be assigned a new role”, explaining that they “have been present in the occupied Palestinian territory for the past 20 years, working to help meet humanitarian needs, guided by the humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, and humanity. Over two million people in the occupied Palestinian territory need assistance—they remain our only focus and priority”.
