Reverse the decision to suspend funding to UNWRA

Written by: Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine on 28 January 2024

 

The anti-Palestinian Australian government has acted speedily to suspend promised allocations of recently announced funding to the United Nations Relief and Works for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).

This was announced by Foreign Minister Penny Wong immediately following allegations by Israel that some UNRWA staff members had participated in the October 7 Hamas actions.

UNRWA has suspended those against whom the allegations have been made. Their involvement has not been proven, and UNWRA is investigating the Israeli claims.

It is significant that Israel’s claims have been made straight after the International Court of Justice decided to proceed with South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide. The ICJ accepted that there was a case to answer and issued provisional rulings ordering that Israel take all measures to prevent genocide in Gaza, prevent and punish direct incitement to genocide in Gaza, and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. Israel is not only continuing with its genocidal war – it has now manufactured the cessation of humanitarian aid.

Even if the actions on October 7 of a handful of the courageous and selfless UNWRA workers are proven, it is entirely wrong for the whole organisation, and the millions of desperate Palestinians who are dependent upon it for food and other supplies, to be punished by the withholding of funds.

Below, we publish a statement from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). 

We fully support its call for governments that are punishing UNWRA at the behest of the genocidal Zionist regime to restore funding to UNWRA as a matter of urgency – Eds.

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A message from the “Foreign affairs Department at DFLP” to the world’s parties and societal frameworks: A new Israeli lie followed by Imperialist countries... and the victim this time is the UN Relief and Palestinian Refugees Agency.

Once again, it is confirmed that the Israeli plan goes beyond the aggression on the Gaza Strip to affect all aspects of the Palestinian issue, in an attempt by Israel to benefit as much as possible from the support provided by the Western coalition to it, and this time the goal is the Relief Agency and millions of Palestinian refugees. 

If the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip was based on the lie of killing children, burning civilians, and beheading, then some Western countries followed it and built on it their political positions and practices towards the Palestinian people, even though the White House confirmed that it has no tangible evidence to confirm the allegations of killing and burning, and that what the American President spoke about this matter was inspired by a phone call with “Stinky Yahoo” and from Israeli reports that were proven to be incorrect even by the Israeli police, who were unable to prove a single piece of information from the dozens of lies spread by Zionist propaganda in the first days of the aggression. 

A new Israeli-American project directly targets Palestinian refugees and their right to return, after Israel announced that 12 employees working for the relief agency in the Gaza Strip participated in the October 7 operation, which resulted in a number of Western countries announcing that they would cut their financial contributions to the agency. United Nations Relief and Works for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which is considered the primary source in providing educational, health and relief services to millions of refugees who are spread in: Gaza Strip, West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

As a result, Israel quickly picked up on these positions and announced publicly and explicitly: that the UNRWA will not be part of the day after the Gaza Strip, which confirms that there is a real plan being worked on between a group of countries that targets the UNRWA and its future under the pretext of the participation of some of its employees in the October 7 operation. 

Although the Commissioner-General of UNRWA announced the dismissal of a number of employees pending the results of the investigation, which is a surprising and unacceptable measure, a number of Western countries (the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, Finland, and Italy) anticipated the results of the investigation and suddenly announced the cessation of financial support for UNRWA, under Israeli pressure. Which accuses the UNRWA of corruption and subjugation, despite the United Nations confirming that it conducted a number of investigations, all of which confirmed the UNRWA’s commitment to the values and principles of the United Nations, and therefore the Israeli allegations are incorrect.

We in the “Foreign affairs Department of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine” cannot understand the Western positions regarding the UNRWA except that it is a cheap blackmail tool that some countries have resorted to in the context of continuing the war they are waging against the Palestinian people, and these are measures that can only be explained as a war of starvation. Collectively against millions of refugees in the context of exploiting the current conditions to eliminate the refugee issue and the right of return by targeting the UNRWA, as it is one of the basic foundations on which the right of return is based. 

We call on the parties of the world, especially in the countries concerned that support the Israeli aggression, to raise their voices in rejection of these measures that directly respond to the positions adopted by the Israeli government, which has been inciting for years against the UNRWA and its services, and we affirm that new attempts to target UNRWA on the financial level will be doomed to failure given Because the reasons relied upon are false and misleading and lack accuracy and objectivity in all their details. 

While we hold the concerned countries responsible for the repercussions of their positions and policies towards the Palestinian refugees who will defend their right to education, health and a decent life free from oppression and aggression. we reaffirm our right to return to our homes and properties from which we were displaced in 1948 by the force of murder and terrorism committed by Zionist terrorist groups with direct support from The British Mandate, which abused the trust of its mandate over Palestine and colluded with the Zionist movement in implementing its historical project of occupying Palestine and displacing its people.

 

 

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