AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
Palestinian officials and human rights groups are denouncing the move
by the United States and at least 12 other countries to temporarily
suspend funding to UNRWA — that’s the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees — after Israel accused 12 UNRWA employees of helping Hamas stage the October 7th attack. Nine of the employees have been fired. UNRWA said two of the accused employees are dead.
UNRWA is one of the largest employers in
Gaza, with a staff of over 13,000. It provides aid to most of Gaza’s 2.3
million residents. The agency has long been targeted by Israel. Since
Israel’s assault on Gaza began, over 150 UNRWA staffers have been killed.
Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur on the Occupied
Palestinian Territories, said on social media, quote, “The day after
@ICJ concluded that Israel is plausibly committing Genocide in Gaza,
some states decided to defund UNRWA,
collectively punishing millions of Palestinians at the most critical
time, and most likely violating their obligations under the Genocide
Convention,” unquote.
Meanwhile, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini
condemned the freezing of funds at a time when famine looms in Gaza. He
said, quote, “Palestinians in Gaza did not need [this] additional
collective punishment. This stains all of us,” he said. And the U.N.
Secretary-General António Guterres has urged donor nations to continue
supporting UNRWA.
For more, we’re going to Oslo, Norway, where we’re joined by Jan
Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Norway has
decided to continue its funding of UNRWA.
Jan, thanks so much for being with us. Can you start off by
responding to the cutting off of funding at a time when, among other
things, Gaza is under bombardment and is on the edge of famine?
JAN EGELAND: Yeah, it’s the worst possible reaction to these allegations that some — I mean, maybe a dozen — of the 13,000 UNRWA
aid workers betrayed our humanitarian principles of neutrality and
independence and participated in the horrific attacks on Israel. That,
however, was met immediately with the response of UNRWA
by, as you said, firing these staff and now having an independent
investigation. What the donors did — the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Italy,
Finland, Netherlands, Australia and some others did — was to cut all
aid to the children of Gaza, to the women in Gaza, to the completely
innocent there. It’s the worst possible move, at a time when this
trapped population is under bombardment. Do not punish the many innocent
for the sins of the few who did very wrong, it seems.
AMY GOODMAN:
Now it will be interesting to see if Israel hands over the evidence for
the U.N. to investigate this situation, because we’re talking about an
immediate cutoff by many of these nations, suspending weapons. I wanted
to read you a clip of the former Israeli official Noga Arbell, who said,
“It will be impossible to win the war if we do not destroy UNRWA, and this destruction must begin immediately.” The Prime Minister Netanyahu said there will be no UNRWA
in postwar Gaza. Your response, Jan Egeland? And talk about the
— you’re the head of large humanitarian aid group. How important is UNRWA to all of the groups, not to mention the people on the ground?
JAN EGELAND: UNRWA is completely essential. I mean, it’s true that I lead the NRC,
Norwegian Refugee Council. We’re a large humanitarian group, across the
world. We’re on all sides of all conflict lines, for the displaced and
the refugees. And we’ve been in Gaza for two decades. We’ve been funded
all over the world by the United States and by 40 other donor nations
and international agencies.
In Gaza, we have to recognize that all of us combined other groups are not even close to be what UNRWA is for the people of Gaza. UNRWA
was the response to the creation of Israel and the 1948 War that
displaced so many of the original Palestinian population to Gaza, to the
West Bank and elsewhere. UNRWA was then
created to give them relief and works. Since then, there has not been a
political, peaceful settlement. And that is because the international
community has not been able to force the parties, Israel and the
Palestinians, to settle this conflict, and thereby we end up by having
humanitarian groups like, first and foremost, UNRWA provide for the population.
So, to undermine and undercut UNRWA as
extremists, which the Israeli government are doing, is basically to say,
“We’re going to punish the women and children, the innocent, on the
other side for what some extremists have done, in a situation of utter
turmoil and perpetuous conflict, that we’re not ourselves willing to try
to settle with talks on a future.” It’s very wrong.
And the international donors must stay with the humanitarian
organizations, like Norway did. Norway is a large donor, giving much
more per capita to Palestinians than any other donor. We stay with UNRWA,
and we say, “Good that you terminated all of those contracts and fired
these people, and good that there is an investigation, and then we’ll
draw the conclusions what we should do for the future.”
AMY GOODMAN: Jan Egeland, what evidence is there of Israel’s charges? Have they handed over the evidence?
JAN EGELAND: As far as I know, it’s not been received by UNRWA
or by the U.N. investigators. I hope they will be received, so that
they can do a thorough investigation of this, very serious allegations. I
read about them in The New York Times. And if it’s true,
again, they betrayed all of our principles, really — neutrality,
impartiality, etc. — that is so important for us, who are unarmed
humanitarian workers in the crossfire around the world.
But, of course, no one who’s working across the Middle East can
guarantee that there are not people within our midst that may, in the
end, have hidden agendas. Palestinians cannot do that. Israelis cannot
do that. We know of many Israelis who have done very bad things in Gaza,
shooting at people with white flags. It’s documented and detailed.
They’ve even shot their own people with white flags. They have settler
organizations, Mafia-style settler organizations, displacing unarmed
women and children and families across the West Bank. Many of these are
recruited to the Israeli Defense Forces. They belong in jail, but they
are in the Israeli Defense Forces. No one can guarantee that there are
not problems. Therefore, they have to be investigated, and there has to
be action taken every time something happens. But don’t cut funding to
people in great need. It’s the worst possible response.
AMY GOODMAN:
Jan Egeland, I want to thank you for being with us, secretary general
of the Norwegian Refugee Council, speaking to us from Oslo. I’m Amy
Goodman. This is another edition of Democracy Now!
