Israeli accusations against staff at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have led UNRWA donors to question themselves. The agency launched an investigation and separated several employees accused of involvement in the Oct. 7 attack. As soon as the allegations became public, the United States halted all new financing and certain countries followed suit this Saturday, January 27th. Nine countries stopped all payments to UNRWA within 24 hours. Suspensions that the agency boss finds “shocking.”
UNRWA maintains the refugee issue, hinders peace and serves as the civilian wing of Hamas in Gaza. This is what Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said this Saturday morning, who then added more on the social network X in the afternoon and called on other countries to stop their financing.
The US, Canada, Finland, Australia, Italy and the UK have stopped funding @UNRWA due to the personnel's involvement in the October 7 massacre. I call for more nations to join. @UNRWAHamas's ties to Hamas, providing sanctuary to terrorists and maintaining its rule are undeniable. Tea…
— ישראל כ“ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) January 27, 2024
A strong reaction from the head of Israeli diplomacy the day after his country's revelations. He demands that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East pay the price for its actions. And Mr. Katz goes further: Many of his employees are Hamas members with murderous ideologies who contribute to terrorist activities, he claims.
While the UN agency for Palestinian refugees announced on Friday the opening of an investigation and also the immediate termination of the contracts of the accused employees, Israel wants to advance a policy that guarantees that UNRWA will not do so, according to the head of Israeli diplomacy Be part of the next day in the Palestinian enclave. In other words, he wants to end the agency's activities in Gaza.
At this point, however, it must be emphasized that these are Israeli claims, our correspondent in Jerusalem specifies. Michael Paulregarding the possible involvement of twelve UN office employees in the Hamas massacres on October 7th, which were at the origin of the current war in Gaza.
“Shocking” bans for Unrwa
Unrwa boss Philippe Lazzarini said it was “shocking to see the suspension of funding in response to allegations against a small group of employees” on whom “2 million people depend for their livelihoods”, given the measures already taken and the role of the agency. . Survive.
Contacted by Agence France-Presse, Johann Soufi, international lawyer and former director of UNRWA's legal office in Gaza, defended the agency's “zero tolerance policy towards violence and incitement to hatred.” “Sanctioning UNRWA, which is struggling to keep the entire population of Gaza alive, because of the alleged responsibility of a few employees amounts to collective punishment of the people of Gaza, who live in catastrophic humanitarian conditions,” he said.
Especially since the affair came to light shortly after the United Nations' highest court, the International Court of Justice, called on Israel to prevent any possible “genocide” in Gaza. A “temporality that inevitably asks questions,” notes Yohann Soufi.
This Saturday evening, the UN agency's vital aid was about to end after countries decided to cut their funding, wrote Philippe Lazzarini, adding: “The Palestinians in Gaza did not need this additional collective punishment.” »
Nine countries are suspending funding @UNRWA in the middle of war as humanitarian needs for people in #Gaza deepen
It is indeed a blot on humanity…it is in fact the last thing people do #Gaza I need collective punishment now 👇👇 https://t.co/kQan6JVCK5— Juliette Touma (@JulietteTouma) January 27, 2024
The agency was caught in the crossfire
It must be said that shortly after the American position was adopted, after Washington very quickly announced this Saturday the suspension of its funding to UNRWA, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada then announced the suspension of their own funding.
But the European Union, another important donor to this UN agency, like Switzerland, prefers to wait and see. On Friday, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, indicated that he too wanted “complete transparency” from the agency before making a decision.
The same applies to the Union for Ireland, which has taken the “decision in principle” not to suspend its aid, which was welcomed by Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, who added to X: “It is wrong for others Governments do this.” Innocent civilians suffer even more. »
A fundamental decision by @MichealMartinTD not to suspend UNRWA funding. @UNLazzarini suspended immediately @UNRWA Employees are suspected of being involved in the horrific attacks on October 7th and investigations are ongoing. It is wrong for other governments to make innocent civilians suffer even more https://t.co/IAJhdvX91B
— Mary Lawlor UN Special Rapporteur HRDs (@MaryLawlorhrds) January 27, 2024
However, several other Member States did not hesitate to suspend their funding, such as Finland, Italy, the Netherlands and finally Germany. “We are determined to provide humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian population while protecting the security of Israel,” the Italian foreign minister said on the social network X.
Faced with these initiatives, Palestinian leaders are responding; Palestinian Authority Civil Affairs Minister's response: Unrwa, says Hussein al-Sheikh, needs “maximum support” and “not for support and assistance to be stopped.” Hamas, in turn, accuses Israel of wanting to “cut off funds” and withhold international aid from Gaza.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East, UNRWA, is currently the most important donor of humanitarian aid to the more than 2 million civilians in the besieged Gaza Strip and has been under attack for almost 120 days.
But between two attacks, Hamas also attacks the Unrwa leadership. In a statement, he condemned the firing of the agency's employees “based on Zionist information.” And outraged that Unrwa describes “the resistance forces as terrorist organizations”. “It is not UNRWA's job to take a political position,” says the Palestinian group, which believes UNRWA is “being blackmailed by countries that support Israeli terrorism.”
A highly political fight for Israel
Relations between Israel and UNRWA deteriorated this week when the UN accused two Israeli tanks of firing on one of its shelters in Khan Younes in the southern Gaza Strip, which was housing tens of thousands of displaced people.
But for several years the State of Israel has been trying to close UNRWA or limit its activities. He accused the agency of stoking radicalism among the Palestinian population, threatened to ban its operations in Jerusalem and called on its partners to stop funding.
In 2018, Benjamin Netanyahu's government received the support of American President Donald Trump: the United States stopped all funding for the agency and denounced “anti-Israel bias.” However, it failed to convince the majority of UN member states as UNRWA's mandate was extended for another three years by the General Assembly in 2022.
This Israeli struggle is highly political. Unrwa supports more than five million Palestinians, in Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank, but also in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
And for Israel, the very existence of this particular agency ensures that the displaced Palestinians and their descendants remain in this refugee status and, in its eyes, prevents their integration into the societies in which they now live. Removing their refugee status would undermine their demand for a right to return to their country of origin, one of the most sensitive points in the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
The Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid is in line with the government. He ruled today on X that it was time to “create an alternative that will not educate generations of Palestinians to hate.”
I welcome the decision by the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Finland, Italy and other countries to suspend funding for UNRWA.
It is time to create an alternative that does not educate generations of Palestinians to hate and does not cooperate with Hamas' terrorism.
— יאיר לפיד – Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) January 27, 2024