The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip has political ‘neutrality issues’ but Israel has yet to provide ‘proof’ that some of its members are allegedly linked to ‘terrorist organizations’ like Hamas, concludes a report submitted to the head of the United Nations on Monday.
The fact remains that UNRWA is “irreplaceable and indispensable” to the Palestinians, underlines this independent group chaired by former French Minister of Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna and charged by Secretary General Antonio Guterres with an evaluation mission on “neutrality” of this UN agency.
This highly anticipated report of around fifty pages – the result of nine weeks of interviews and missions in Israel, the occupied West Bank, Jordan – contains several “recommendations” that Mme Colonna presented to the press at UN headquarters in New York, after months of turmoil for UNRWA.
“What needs to be improved will be improved. I am confident that the implementation of these measures will help UNRWA fulfill its mandate,” said the former head of French diplomacy.
The former minister “strongly encouraged the international community to stand alongside the agency so that it can carry out its mission and meet the challenges that arise”.
Mr. Guterres’ spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, assured that “the secretary general accepted the recommendations contained in Mr. Guterres’ report.me Colonna” and that an “action plan” would be implemented.
Especially since “UNRWA remains crucial in providing vital humanitarian aid and essential social services, particularly in health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank” , underlines the independent group of Mme Colonna.
” Threat “
The agency is even “irreplaceable and essential for the human and economic development of the Palestinians [et] many view UNRWA as a humanitarian lifeline.”
“But despite this solid framework, problems linked to neutrality persist,” notes the mission.
These are “cases of staff employees publicly expressing their political opinions, school books with problematic content coming from the host country and used in certain UNRWA schools, politicized trade unionists making threats against the management of the ‘UNRWA and disrupting humanitarian operations, according to the group.
Answering questions from journalists, Mme Colonna whispered about certain contents of textbooks from UN agency schools that are anti-Semitic, hostile to Jews and anti-Zionist.
UNRWA, which has more than 30,000 employees serving 5.9 million Palestinians in the region (Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria), is accused by Israel of employing “more than 400 terrorists” in Gaza.
And 12 of its employees are accused by the Israelis of having been directly involved in the unprecedented attack of October 7, 2023 carried out by Hamas on Israeli soil, which left 1,160 dead, mainly civilians, according to a report from the AFP established from official data.
“Spine”
Accusations which led to the suspension of funding by certain donor countries such as the United States, even if some, including Canada, have since made the decision to resume their funding.
“Based on a March 2024 list containing Palestinian identity numbers, Israel has publicly claimed that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations. However, Israel has yet to provide proof,” warns M’s groupme Colonna.
The former French minister clarified that according to her report “UNRWA had not received proof from Israel” of an alleged involvement of certain Palestinian employees with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and “not that it “There was no proof” of these possible links.
UNRWA, created by the UN General Assembly in 1949, “is the backbone of humanitarian operations” in Gaza, its boss Philippe Lazzarini defended himself last week before the Security Council, denouncing a campaign “ insidious” to put an end to its operations.
“Dismantling UNRWA will have lasting repercussions,” he warned, with the consequence in particular of “aggravating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and accelerating the onset of famine”.
Famine already threatens the northern Palestinian territory, where more than 34,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the start of the Israeli offensive, according to the Hamas health ministry.