UNRWA school director Naief al-Hattab, who openly praised this week's terrorist attack in Jerusalem, pictured with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in Gaza. Photo: elderofziyon.blogspot.com.

Among the many Palestinians who openly celebrated Tuesday’s terrorist atrocity at a synagogue in Jerusalem, during which four worshippers and a police officer were brutally murdered, were several employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA.)

UNRWA is a body devoted solely to Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war as well as their descendants who, unlike the children of refugees in other conflict situations, legally inherit refugee status. Among its responsibilities is the education of Palestinian children, often taught by local teachers who have no incentive to keep their political beliefs – however extreme – outside of the classroom.

Popular Jewish blogger Elder of Ziyon has amassed evidence of UNRWA employees lauding the Jerusalem attack, among them Maha al Mosa, an UNRWA teacher in Syria who prayed for the two terrorists to be accepted in “paradise” as “martyrs,” Ibrahim Hajjar, another teacher based in Hebron, who published a poem praising the terrorists, and another Syrian-based teacher who, using a pseudonym, posted a celebratory picture of Adolf Hitler on his Facebook page.

The latest outrage centers on Naief al-Hattab, school director of UNRWA’s Zaitoun Elementary School Boys “B” and former school headmaster of Shijia Elementary School Boys “A” for Refugees. Writing on his Facebook page, al-Hattab congratulated the terrorists on their “wonderful revenge.” Al-Hattab, who shook hands with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on his visit to Gaza in October, has previously posted inflammatory statements and images, among them one of a young child brandishing a sub-machine gun. It is not clear whether this child is related to al-Hattab, or whether he attends the Zaitoun Elementary School which al-Hattab runs.

The Zaitoun school complex caters for boys and girls separately. As this report from UNRWA reveals, the girls school was completed in 2012 with “funding from the United States of America.”

The UN Security Council yesterday condemned the Jerusalem atrocity as a “despicable terrorist attack.” On the ground, however, it is clear that many of the international organization’s employees have a very different interpretation of Tuesday’s slaughter, and are not afraid to say so.