Western Defunding Of UN Aid Organization Must Be Reversed

Photos: YouTube Screenshots The decisions by at least 11 donor countries to suspend funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), following allegations that individual staff members were involved in the 7 October attacks in southern Israel, will deal a devastating blow to more than two million refugees in the occupied Gaza Strip for whom the organization serves as a sole lifeline, said Amnesty International. The organization is urging states to reverse their decisions and refrain from suspending funding to UNRWA. “It is deeply shocking – indeed inhumane – that several governments have taken decisions that will cause further suffering to two million Palestinians, who are already facing the risk of genocide and an engineered famine just days after the International Court of Justice ruling concluded that the survival of Palestinians in Gaza is at risk. It is particularly appalling that such action has been taken over allegations concerning 12 employees out of UNRWA’s entire staff of 30,000,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. “The allegations over the involvement of UNRWA staff in the 7 October attacks are serious and must be independently investigated; anyone against whom there is sufficient admissible evidence should be prosecuted in fair trials....