Australia 'unpausing' contribution to UNRWA: Foreign Minister

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
15 Mar 2024 05:30
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Australia joins Canada and Sweden in resuming funding for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency.

UN workers are pictured at a UNRWA warehouse/distribution center in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, which was partially hit by a strike on March 13, 2024. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

Australia announced Friday it will resume funding for the UN's Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, after investigating unverified Israeli claims that about a dozen of its staff took part in the Palestinian Resistance's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7.

About 15 countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and Japan pulled support from the agency earlier this year -- slashing its funds by an estimated US$450 million.

"The nature of these allegations warranted an immediate and appropriate response," Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Friday.

"The best available current advice from agencies and Australian government lawyers is that UNRWA is not a terrorist organisation," she confirmed.

After the Israeli accusations, the UN fired the accused employees and launched an internal investigation. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also tasked an independent group with evaluating UNRWA and its neutrality.

Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, has reiterated that "Israel" provided no evidence against the accused agency employees.

Wong stated that "after consideration by the national security committee this week, Australia is unpausing our contribution to UNRWA."

The Canadian and Swedish governments announced they were resuming funding for the agency earlier this month, angering Israeli officials who have been endlessly trying to demonize the Palestinian refugee agency in order to dismantle it.

Wong mentioned that Australia would resume its stalled US$4 million contribution after the aid agency agreed to put in additional safeguards.

"I know there are people starving in Gaza," she told reporters.

"I know that UNRWA is critical to providing this assistance to people who are on the brink."

Following weeks of a nonstop Israeli targeted campaign against the UN agency, UNRWA said in an unpublished report that some of its staffers were coerced into falsely stating that they had ties with the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas and that they took part in the al-Aqsa Flood on October 7 last year, Reuters reported on Saturday.

According to the news agency, UNRWA's report dated February said that its workers were subjected "to threats and coercion" by the Israeli authorities "while in detention and pressured to make false statements against the Agency," including that it has affiliations with Hamas, and that "UNRWA staff members took part" in the Resistance operation in October 2023.