Nine Western countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, have suspended funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the only UN relief agency dedicated to a specific refugee population. The decision, over the weekend, came after Israel’s allegations that 12 UNRWA workers had participated in Hamas’ October 7 attack.
The United States, the largest donor having made contributions of more than $340 million in 2022 and $296 million in 2023, took the lead in breaking with the financing. The move was mirrored by Germany, the second largest donor, and then the United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Finland, which together contributed about sixty percent of UNRWA’s budget last year.
The countries expressed concerns over the alleged role of UNRWA staff members in the attack and called for a thorough investigation before resuming aid to the organization.
Japan said on Sunday that it also had “decided to suspend additional funding to UNRWA for the time being,” in a broadening of international reaction and the broad impact of Israel’s allegations on UNRWA’s funding.
Norway and Ireland, on the other hand, stood out as countries which are continuing to back UNRWA, highlighting the agency’s critical role in assisting Palestinians, particularly in Gaza. Ireland’s Foreign Minister, Micheál Martin, said “Ireland has no plans to cancel funds for UNRWA’s vital Gaza work.”
Meanwhile, Norway has differentiated between individual actions and the agency overall, highlighting UNRWA’s vital role in distributing relief and guaranteeing basic needs and rights.
Amid the financial crisis, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini is appealing to countries to reassess their decisions, demonstrating the agency’s vital humanitarian role in Gaza.
Lazzarini expressed shock at the immediate suspension of funds based on allegations against only a few individuals among UNWRA’s total 13,000 employees, 3,000 of whom have been coming to work on the strip during the war. UNWRA has terminated the named employees and has initiated a transparent and neutral investigation, he said.
UN and Palestinian officials are urging continued support for UNRWA, highlighting its vital role during a serious humanitarian crisis as a lifeline for the more than two million people in the besieged enclave and also as the largest employer on the strip. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asserted that “the tens of thousands of UNRWA employees should not be penalized” for the alleged actions of a small minority, which does not even constitute 1%.
Conspicuously, Israel’s allegations came barely one day after the ruling of the Court of International Justice ordering the Jewish state to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
In light of the “already dire human apocalypse” there, as Dr. James Dorsey, an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, put it, there has been sharp criticism of decisions to suspend UNWRA funding on the basis of Israel’s allegations alone–some of which have previously been found to be inaccurate–as falsely premised on the concept of “guilty until presumed innocent.” Two of the 12 named employees, for example, are dead, according to UNWRA.