The United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany… The list of countries which have suspended their financial support for UNRWA has continued to grow for several days.
France, which has not planned any payment for the first quarter of 2024, said it was waiting to have more information before making a decision on the aid it pays to this UN agency.
It has come under fire after Israeli accusations that certain employees participated in the Hamas attacks on October 7.
The time has come to “create an alternative that will not educate generations of Palestinians in hatred”, judged the leader of the Israeli opposition, Yaïr Lapid.
What is Unrwa?
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is a United Nations agency created in 1949 that helps Palestinian refugees by managing access to education, health, food aid... Of the 2.2 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, between 1.6 and 1.7 million are refugees within the meaning of UNRWA, that is to say Palestinians who left or were driven from their lands in 1948, as well as their descendants.
Refugee children, “the vast majority of children in Gaza benefit from the courses provided by UNRWA,” explains Johann Soufi, the former head of the UNRWA legal office.
Two million people in Gaza depend on aid from the agency, according to its director Philippe Lazzarini.
What have we accused of Unrwa since October 7?
Israeli authorities accuse several employees of the organization of being involved in the Hamas raids, which left nearly 1,200 dead on October 7, triggering the war in the Middle East.
The degree of their alleged involvement is currently unknown.
“In order to protect the Agency's ability to provide humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and to open an investigation to establish the truth without delay,” announced Philippe Lazzarini, director of Unrwa, in a press release.
According to Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the UN, twelve people are targeted by this investigation and nine have been fired.
Read alsoOctober 7 attacks against Israel: UNRWA dismisses employees accused of being involved, an investigation opened
In early December, the Israeli military reported that its troops operating in Gaza had found dozens of rockets hidden under boxes bearing the UNRWA logo in a home.
A journalist from an Israeli television channel also claimed that one of the hostages kidnapped on October 7 had been detained “in an attic for nearly 50 days (…) by an Unrwa teacher.”
The information, which was relayed by the “Jerusalem Post”, could not be verified.
And now, a story about UNRWA.
Back in November, we at @Jerusalem_Post shared journalist @bokeralmog's report that an Israeli who had been held hostage in Gaza said that he had been held captive in the home of a teacher employed by @UNRWA who was also a father of ten children.… pic.twitter.com/P6juXuvRJG
— Avi Mayer אבי מאיר (@AviMayer) January 27, 2024
Johann Soufi regrets that these facts are not the subject of an independent investigation.
He also wonders about the “chance” which causes these accusations, for facts dating from October 7, “to be revealed on the day of the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the risk of genocide in Gaza , based in particular on reports from UNRWA”.
Why is UNRWA a contested organization?
For several years, UNRWA has been questioned for the ambivalence it allegedly displays towards Hamas.
According to a study by the NGO UN Watch, once affiliated with the American Jewish Committee but now independent, members of UNRWA staff, primarily teachers, celebrated the attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas in a Telegram loop.
“Is it proven that these people really belonged to UNRWA?
», asks Johann Soufi who believes that “the comments on Telegram of a few individuals, necessarily anonymous, should not call into question a United Nations organization which has proven itself in history”.
Also read “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”: from Gaza to Beirut, the shadow of the Israeli killers of the Nili unit
Israeli authorities also accuse the UN agency of distributing school textbooks to Palestinian children containing incitement to violence and hatred towards Jews.
According to the NGO Impact-SE, the books contain numerous sentences such as
“
Zionists are terrorists
”
or
“
how to cut the neck of the enemy
”.
“For a very long time, UNRWA has been accused of being complicit in an education that leads to hatred of Israel and Jews, they knew it,” assures researcher Elizabeth Sheppard-Sellam, lecturer at the University of Tours.
Accusations that the organization refutes.
“One of the key principles of the UNRWA educational program is to use the curriculum of the host countries,” assures the agency on its website which ensures “enriching the programs” by placing emphasis “on critical thinking, human rights education and adherence to the values and principles of the United Nations”.
Why have several countries decided to stop funding UNRWA?
In just a few days, eight countries have already suspended their financial support for UNRWA.
Judging these accusations to be “exceptionally serious”, France indicated in a press release “that it has not planned a new payment for the first quarter of 2024”, saying it was waiting for the end of the investigations to adopt a firmer position.
If the Israeli government has not communicated on possible proof of this involvement of UNRWA agents, “the fact that serious countries, not all known for their friendship with Israel, have suspended their funding”, confirms the suspicions. , according to researcher Elisabeth Sheppard-Sellam.
Read alsoHamas attacks: several countries suspend their support for UNRWA after accusations against employees
The situation could quickly become dramatic for UNRWA, which depends 89.2% on contributions from States, according to information published on its website.
The United States is the largest contributor, to the tune of 343 million dollars compared to nearly 29 million for France, out of a total budget of 1.2 billion in 2022. “It is shocking to see the suspension of funds in reaction to allegations against a small group of employees", taking into account the measures already taken and the role of the agency on which "2 million people depend for their simple survival", reacted Philippe Lazzarini, the director of the agency , in a press release.