In a New York Times op-ed on Feb. 3, the foreign minister of Norway, Espen Barth Eide, says “the main lifeline for Gazans is the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA.” Mr. Eide explains that Norway is a relatively small country but “one of the top donors to UNRWA, last year committing $45 million — an amount still far less than the United States.”
He further explains that UNRWA is threatened by a suspension of funding by donor countries:
the nearly 75-year-old agency that is almost entirely funded by voluntary contributions. Now, at least 15 countries, including the United States, have announced a halt to payments to UNRWA, pending an investigation, because of Israeli intelligence reports that a dozen of its workers took part in the terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
The foreign minister says ”now is exactly the wrong time to halt funding for UNRWA.” He urges “fellow donor countries to reflect on the wider consequences of cutting UNRWA off.”
If these decisions are not reversed, we run a serious risk of worsening the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza. And since UNRWA also supports millions of Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, a stop to payments could further destabilize an already extremely volatile region.
The foreign minister insists:
We should not collectively punish millions of people for the alleged deeds of a few. Suspending the funding to a key U.N. agency over the alleged conduct of 12 employees is not the answer.
If some members of a police department committed a crime, one would hold those individuals to account, not disband the entire police force. We must distinguish between what individuals may have done and what UNRWA stands for.
The foreign minister adds: “We need to demand transparency and accountability from UNRWA. But the people of Gaza and Palestinian refugees across the Middle East should not pay the price for the transgressions of individuals. We cannot abandon the Palestinian people now.”
The foreign minister reviews the toll on UNRWA since Oct. 7:
Since this war began, UNRWA’s staff members in Gaza, who are mostly locally hired, have continued performing relief services under extreme conditions and at a daily risk to their own lives. They, like so many others, have paid a heavy price: Since Oct. 7, more than 150 UNRWA employees have been killed.
The foreign minister provides some history of UNRWA:
Since UNRWA was established in 1949, it has provided basic services, education, shelters, camp infrastructure and emergency assistance to people who fled or were expelled from their homes in the 1948 war that followed the establishment of Israel. At that time, the refugee population was about 750,000. Today, four generations later, some 5.9 million Palestine refugees are eligible for UNRWA services across the region.
He adds the important point that “Palestinians did not choose to live their lives as refugees. I am convinced that they, like the rest of us, would prefer a life in a country they could call their own.”
Norway has made the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians a priority since negotiations leading to the first Oslo Accord between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which was signed in 1993. For the past 30 years, Norway has chaired an international donor group for Palestine focusing on supporting the establishment of Palestinian institutions, which is key for establishing a Palestinian state.
Looking to the future, the foreign minister says:
The question of the fate of Palestinian refugees is at the heart of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, yet 75 years later a political solution remains elusive. A fair and just resolution will be an essential prerequisite for peace and the two-state solution, for Israel as much as for the Palestinians.
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UPDATE: Nations which have not stopped funding UNRWA are listed in a NYT article dated Jan. 30.
The United Arab Emirates and Spain have doubled their contributions. (Spain’s foreign minister says “only a dozen of the 30,000” UNRWA employees had been accused of crimes.”) Ireland has no plans to suspend funding, and Turkey said the decisions, in response to “allegations against a few UNRWA staff, will primarily harm the Palestinian people.”
The European Union, which contributed 82 million euros to UNRWA in 2023, has no plans to suspend funding and said it would make “upcoming funding decisions in light of the outcome of the investigation.” New Zealand is providing a further $5 million “to respond to the extreme humanitarian need in Gaza and the West Bank.” www.nytimes.com/...
Portugal announced on Feb. 2 that it would make an extra million-euro donation to UNRWA despite the accusations. efe.com/...
The NYT article dated Jan. 30 also points out that UNRWA immediately fired the accused workers and opened an investigation, but important donor countries have suspended payments anyway, at least until the investigation is concluded.
A table showing all the UNRWA donors is part of an article in Al-Jazeera (Jan. 28) describing what the agency does and which donors have cut fundng and why.
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UPDATE April 2024:
“They’ve been saying UNRWA is an arm of Hamas,” Senator Van Hollen told a reporter. “There’s nothing — nothing! — in the intelligence to support that claim. That’s a flat-out lie.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/19/opinion/biden-gaza-war.html?