Article shared by Niloufar Pourzand
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In these increasingly challenging times, we stand firm on our longstanding commitment to transparency. It is essential that we share with you a critical issue impacting our humanitarian mission.
Recently, 12 UNRWA employees were alleged to have been involved in the attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023. UNRWA holds a zero-tolerance policy towards such actions. In response, the Agency has terminated the contracts of those involved and has arranged for a transparent independent investigation led by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the highest investigative authority in the UN system
Following these allegations - and despite our swift response - several donor countries have temporarily suspended their funding to UNRWA.
This comes at a time when critical humanitarian needs across the Gaza Strip are at their highest. Most people in Gaza depend on UNRWA for survival. Over the past 115 days, UNRWA has provided shelter, food assistance, and primary health care to those who need it most. The lack of funds poses a severe threat to our humanitarian operations.
Civilians in Gaza, including 13,000 of UNRWA's humanitarian aid workers who are tirelessly working in unimaginable conditions to deliver aid, must now pay the price for the alleged actions of 12 employees. The urgent needs of the communities we serve must not be overlooked.
In this crucial hour, we ask you not to turn away from the people of Gaza. Many are hungry and the clock is ticking toward a looming famine. Amid harsh winter conditions, families are sleeping in the cold and rain. The reality they face is completely inhumane.
We urgently need your support to continue our vital work.
Please, stand with us. Stand with Gaza. We must guarantee the continuity of humanitarian relief efforts.
This decision, from the US and other European nations, is simply a more refined version of collective punishment. The reprisal for alleged actions from a dozen of people affects the work ov over 13,000 and what is even more sinister puts in even more danger to the entire Palestinian population, in Gaza and elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI thought, according to relevant international legislation, that the occupying country was responsible for the welfare of the people they occupied. Is this an exception? Has Israel offloaded that responsibility onto the international community through UNRWA? That must have been a rare UN decision Israel approved of. If Israel is not happy with UNRWA they could solve the problem through a two-state solution and UNRWA's reason to exist would no longer be there.
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