UNRWA presents itself as an impartial aid organization, but has been the subject of discussion since Friday itself. When it emerged that employees may have been involved in the October 7 Hamas attack, several countries suspended their payments. Four questions.
1. What does UNRWA do?
UNRWA, short for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, is the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees. Most major donors are Western countries, but countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait have also supported UNRWA in the past with millions in aid money.
The organization provides assistance to millions of Palestinians who have been displaced in the decades since Israel’s founding. Most UNRWA camps are not in the Gaza Strip, but in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the West Bank. The majority of the thirty thousand employees are also Palestinian themselves.
The money from the refugee organization falls into two categories: structural financing and incidental emergency aid or projects. According to UNRWA, most of the first category goes to the education of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA is calling for the second category, for example after the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria last year.
2. What is UNRWA accused of?
On Friday, UNRWA itself reported “serious accusations” by Israel against employees in Gaza. “Israeli authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA staff in the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7,” Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement. declaration.
The employees have been fired, said Lazzarini, who is ordering an investigation. “All UNRWA staff involved in acts of terrorism will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.” It is still unclear how many employees are involved and what exactly their alleged involvement entails. Israel has not publicly provided any evidence.
3. How do governments respond?
A series of countries have suspended funding for UNRWA. So far this concerns the United States, Italy, Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Outgoing minister Geoffrey van Leeuwen: “These accusations are too serious. We now need to know exactly what the investigation will reveal and what steps the United Nations will take.”
“I call on other countries to join us,” said Israel Katz, Israel’s Foreign Minister. “UNRWA must be replaced in the reconstruction of Gaza by organizations committed to real peace and development.”
The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) made the opposite call. Secretary General Hussein al-Sheikh: “With the continued aggression against the Palestinian people, all support for this international organization is needed.”
4. What are the consequences?
The shutdowns could make UNRWA’s impossible task even more impossible. This summer spoke the organization already faces a “critical cash shortage” after “ten years of chronic underfunding”. Until then, UNRWA had secured more than half a billion dollars for 2023, a third of what would be needed that year.
That was before the October 7 Hamas attack and the devastating counterattack Israel unleashed in response. In November, UNRWA said it needed almost half a billion dollars more to provide aid to the people of Gaza. Money came in in tens of millions at a time, but in Gaza the need has only grown. Famine threatens 40 percent of the inhabitants, UNRWA warned at the end of December. Get on the organization’s X channel to inform inside shelters hit by Israeli shelling. Commenting on the suspensions, Lazzarini wrote on Saturday: “These decisions threaten our ongoing humanitarian work across the region, including and especially in the Gaza Strip.”
The US funding freeze in particular could be a problem for UNRWA in the longer term. In 2022, that country contributed $344 million, by far the most of any country.