UNRWA: Will the UN agency that angered Israel be abolished?
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is getting worse every day. Comprehensive efforts to prevent this are not working as expected due to Israel's destructive behavior. Currently, the organization that is active in this regard is UNRWA , the Middle East Agency of the United Nations (UN), which is designed to help Palestinian refugees.
Israel has so far destroyed 188 infrastructures under the care of this humanitarian organization. As if that wasn't enough, the real terrorist Zionists declared UNRWA a "terrorist organization".
Therefore, from October 7 until now, the invaders have been trying to destroy the UN infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
The result is dire – UNRWA estimates that at least 561 people have been killed and 1,768 injured in its shelters since the war began. Also, 274 paramedics and more than 500 medical workers were killed.
These figures are exactly in line with all the other figures produced by the ongoing Israeli carnage in Gaza. No one was spared: neither doctors, nor civil defense workers, nor city mayors, nor traffic police officers.
But all of this serves a greater purpose than mere "general punishment."
As Israel did during the previous Gaza wars, is not trying to hide or justify its attacks on the organization. Without providing any evidence, Tel Aviv has launched an international smear campaign against the Middle East Agency, which has been providing education, medical and humanitarian services to millions of Palestinian refugees for decades.
Significantly, some Western and even non-Western countries responded to calls for Israel to sanction UNRWA by withholding much-needed funding.
It is true that a number of countries later restored funding to the UN agency, but only after significant damage had been done. Furthermore, most Western countries have not taken any action against Israel because of its constant targeting of UNRWA facilities.
This indifference emboldened Israel so much that on May 29, the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) declared UNRWA a "terrorist organization." The draft law was adopted in one reading.
Later, on July 18, the representative of Israel, David Menser, accused the head of UNWRA of being a "sympathizer of terrorism."
In fact, Israel's hatred of the Middle East agency predates the current war. For years, the Israeli government, with the help of the Trump administration, has tried to shut down the agency altogether.
For information, UNRWA was established on December 8, 1949 by UN General Assembly Resolution 302. It was founded a year after the adoption of UN Resolution 194, which gave Palestinian refugees the right to "return to their homes".
Although the organization's mission has evolved into a permanent mandate, the agency's role is as important now as it has been since Palestinian refugees have not been granted the right to return home.
Since the start of the war, dozens of countries have been active in supporting the agency. Ireland is one of the leaders among such countries. He allocated about 22 million to support the organization in March itself. According to the statistics of 2022, countries such as the USA, Germany, the European Union, Sweden, Norway, and Japan took the leading positions in terms of supporting the agency, but these actions were limited after Israel's accusations.
The decision by the United States, Germany and the European Union, the three biggest donors to UNRWA's $1.17 billion budget, to freeze funding is a major blow to the nearly 75-year-old UN body.
Ilan Pappe, author of the book Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, strongly criticized these countries' decision to stop funding the agency, telling Al Jazeera: "All Western countries are blindly following Israel's instructions on UNRWA."
Australia, Austria, Canada, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States have stopped funding the agency.
Countries such as Belgium, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey and of course Ireland continued to support UNRWA.
On February 1, Petra De Sutter, the Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium, who gave the organization $12.6 million in 2022, wrote on the X platform:
"Belgium will continue to fund UNRWA. This agency plays an invaluable role in providing urgent and critical humanitarian aid in Gaza."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who allocated 25.2 million dollars to the UN body in 2022, analyzed the current situation:
"It saddens us to see the attacks against the UN Middle East Agency staff. We should support it for the sake of the people's defense," Jafokash said.
Why does Ireland sympathize with the Palestinians?
The tenacious struggle of the Irish people to be freed from the British yoke is the main reason for his sympathy for the Palestinians.
Unlike countries that support Israel's ongoing war in Gaza, Prime Minister Varadkar has expressed his active support for the Palestinians.
Why does the US not want to continue giving aid?
The US is the only major donor that has not restored funding to UNWRA. No change is expected until at least next year.
On March 23, Congress passed four bills that freeze funding for the Middle East Agency until March 2025. Currently, it has allocated $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. This step was welcomed by the Israeli government.
Leading Democrat Bernie Sanders said he would oppose the bill not only for arming Israel, but also for the negative impact it would have on the Middle East Agency.
"At a time when hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children are facing starvation in Gaza, this law prohibits funding to UNRWA, the UN's life-saving humanitarian aid agency. This will exacerbate the already dire situation in Gaza," he said in a statement.
Why does Israel not like UNRWA?
Oren Marmorstein, a spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, said: “The problem with UNRWA and Gaza is not the problem of a few bad apples. It is a poisonous and rotten tree whose roots are HAMAS.”
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) condemned the move after Israel's parliament passed a bill to designate the Middle East Agency as a "terrorist organization" in late May.
MSF Secretary General Christopher Locker called the move "a senseless attack on humanitarian aid and an act of mass punishment of the Palestinian people."
At the same time, the head of the European Union's foreign policy, Joseph Borrell, said that he rejects attempts to call the Middle East Agency a "terrorist organization".
"How can an agency within the UN be a terrorist organization?" Borrell added.
What does the future hold for the Palestinian Authority?
On 30 June 2023, UNRWA's mandate was extended for another three years following the announcement of the Strategic Plan for 2023-2028.
However, a year later, Gaza and the Middle East Agency were subjected to serious attacks: houses and buildings were blown up, infrastructure was destroyed, and tens of thousands of civilians were killed.
The agency is facing major problems due to the deaths of its employees, the destruction of its facilities, and pressure from influential critics sympathetic to the invaders.
Also, the possibility of Donald Trump's return to the White House may threaten the existence of the agency.
The UN is well aware of these problems. There is currently no substitute for an agency. That is why, in the international framework, the countries should seriously start protecting the humanitarian aid agency, supporting Palestine and destroying the long-standing roots of Israel.