Following the US, Italy, Germany, Australia, and Canada, the UK and Finland have also decided to suspend funding to UNRWA.
Germany, Britain, and Finland have joined other countries in pausing funding to the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), following Israeli allegations that some employees were involved in the October 7 military operation carried out by the Palestinian Resistance.
Following the US, Italy, Germany, Australia, and Canada, the UK and Finland have also decided to suspend funding to UNRWA.
Ireland on Saturday voiced support for investigating Israeli allegations, but said it will not pause funding for the agency’s Gaza work.
“Full confidence in @UNLazzarini’s (agency head Philippe Lazzarini) decision to immediately suspend @UNRWA staff suspected of participation in the heinous attacks of October 7, to investigate thoroughly and show zero tolerance on terror,” Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin wrote on X.
UNRWA COMMISSIONER-GENERAL:
The suspension of the agency’s funding is shocking and threatens humanitarian work in the region, especially in Gaza.
I call on countries that suspended funding to reconsider their decisions.
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— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) January 27, 2024
Martin said that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees provided life-saving assistance to 2.3 million people and at incredible personal cost – with over 100 staff killed in the last four months.
“Ireland has no plans to suspend funding for UNRWA’s vital Gaza work,” underlined Martin.
Ireland, he said, provided the UNRWA €18 million ($19.5 million) in 2023 and will continue its support in 2024.
IRISH FM: We have no intention of suspending funding for UNRWA’s vital work in Gaza.
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— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) January 27, 2024
UNRWA’s Role in ICJ Ruling
The statement issued by UNRWA’s Commissioner-general Lazzarini on January 13, one day after Israel’s oral argument at the International Criminal Court, was included by the ICJ as evidence that Israel has “caused mass displacement of a population that is in a state of flux.”
The UNRWA statement added that “the plight of children in Gaza is especially heartbreaking” and that “an entire generation of children is traumatized and will take years to heal”.
The statement was also used to prove that the crisis in Gaza “is compounded by dehumanizing language.”
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 26,257 Palestinians have been killed, and 64,797 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7. Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
