The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East ( UNRWA ) was called for “immediate improvement” on Monday by an independent panel.
After Israel claimed that 12 UNRWA aid workers may have been involved in the southern Israeli evil attack on October 7, the examination was issued.
French minister Catherine Colonna, who headed the assessment, said that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had appointed the board to precisely determine UNRWA’s impartiality, not the allegations against the 12 workers.
Guatemala set up a separate research by an inner UN guardian to follow up on Israel’s charges.
What conclusions was made from the UNRWA assessment?
The 54-page record identified “neutrality-related problems” in the application of the “robust” techniques UNRWA has in place to “ensure conformity with the humanitarian principles of independence. “
More concerns were raised by the militarization of staff unions, public political statements made by staff, and “problematic articles” in school textbooks.
The review noted that social media posts were frequently posted in response to aggressive incidents that had affected those people’s coworkers or home.” Most alleged breaches of impartiality relate to social media posts.
The size of the Gaza operations and the fact that the majority of the personnel were locals receiving UNRWA assistance contributed to another issues, according to the review.
The report noted progress being made in UNRWA’s ability to clear its colleges of slanted textbooks. Still, nearly 4 % of textbooks contained statements referring to Israel as the” Zionist occupation,” or Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
The panels made recommendations to improve independence, including through relationship with donors, impartiality of personnel and behavior, impartiality of education, and governance.
UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini has already stated that he will take the panel’s advice but warned against what he described as Israel’s “deliberate and deliberate strategy” to disband the business.
UNRWA claims to be facing a deliberate attempt to shut down its operations.
Israel’yet to provide evidence’ to back accusations
Colonna claimed that Israel had not provided evidence to support its claims.
Israel made it known that many UNRWA employees work for terrorist organizations. However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this,” Colonna told reporters in New York.
In March, Israel claimed that some 450 UNRWA workers in Gaza were “terrorists. “
Israel has not previously expressed concern about any of the tens of thousands of names on UNRWA staff lists it has regularly received since 2011 according to the review panel. UNRWA employs roughly 32,000 people, 13,000 of them in Gaza.
How did Israel respond?
The Foreign Ministry of Israel urged the donor nations to abandon UNRWA.
The Colonna report ignores the extent of the issue and offers cosmetic solutions that do not address the enormous scope of Hamas ‘ infiltration of UNRWA, according to ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein.
” The problem with UNRWA-Gaza is n’t that of a few bad apples; It is a poisonous, rotten tree with Hamas roots, he claimed.
This is not what a genuine and thorough review should be about. This is how an attempt to avoid the issue and not to immediately fix it appears to be. “
Hamas, the Islamist militant group ruling Gaza, is classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, the EU, the US and several Arab states.
Accusations have already caused significant donor disruption.
Israel’s accusations led international donors to swiftly cap some$ 450 million ( €422 million ) in funding for UNRWA, which the panel calls “irreplaceable and indispensable to Palestinians ‘ human and economic development. “
Most nations have resumed donations, though some, such as the US and UK, continue to keep their distance.
The US, which makes up$ 300 to$ 400 million annually, has passed legislation that allows for a suspension of UNRWA funding until at least March 2025.
UNRWA was established in 1949 to assist Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven out of the country during the 1948 conflict. Nearly 6 million Palestinian refugees are currently served by it.
