UK sends weapons to Israel while denying funds to UNRWA aid agency even as Gaza famine looms – Laura Waddell

After an independent report finds no evidence to support Israel’s claims UNRWA staff were involved in terrorism, the UK should resume funding the aid agency

An independent review led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, released on Monday, revealed Israel has provided no evidence in support of its claims that United Nations staff working for aid agency UNRWA in Gaza were involved in terrorist organisations.

That’s the basis on which the UK Government and 17 other countries pulled funding to the agency that many consider the most effective way to distribute food and medicine to Gazans desperately in need of humanitarian assistance.

Since Israel claimed UNRWA had been infiltrated by Hamas, many of the foreign governments which initially suspended funds have since reversed course – but not the UK, nor the agency’s biggest former donor, the US, with the House of Representatives voting to pause funding until March 2025. Statements by countries which resumed funding have generally made the argument that supplying the oldest aid agency in the region is the most efficient way to get aid to a populace facing encroaching famine, while casting doubt on the veracity of the claims.

UK’s loyalty to Netanyahu

As I wrote a few weeks ago, there is dissent between the UK and its UN peers on this issue. Most pointedly, Japan stated it was beholden upon them as a UN Security Council member to maintain peace in the region. The EU has also resumed funding as has Canada, Australia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and France. Germany, one of Israel’s closest allies, resumed funding of the agency’s work in areas outside of Gaza. This highlights the UK Government’s decision to remain diplomatically loyal to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on this issue.

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But now the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services has published the findings of their commissioned independent report into the aid agency and the headline is the lack of evidence to support Israel’s accusations towards UNRWA. It was conducted by Catherine Colonna with the backing of three Nordic research centres: the Swedish Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, the Norwegian Chr. Michelsen Institute, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights.

Gazans move along a street lined with destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, earlier this week (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

Their report states: “Israeli authorities have to date not provided any supporting evidence nor responded to letters from UNRWA in March, and again in April, requesting the names and supporting evidence that would enable UNRWA to open an investigation.” As starvation looms, this has left the UK’s decision-making and moral compass looking comparatively weak.

UNRWA provides ‘life-saving’ aid

So what, now, will the UK be waiting for? Anticipating the Colonna report, some backers of Israel within the UK Parliament have already been putting pressure on Foreign Secretary David Cameron to continue withholding funds. Among them, unsurprisingly, is Suella Braverman, who states erroneously that UNRWA has been “categorically discredited”, and rails that “for the UK Government to divert British taxpayers’ money to fund UNRWA’s activities would be a disgrace”.

David Cameron arrives for talks over Iran with Benjamin Netanyahu

Her belief is not shared by governments of any of the above countries willing to work with the agency. Not only does the Colonna report highlight a lack of evidence against UNRWA but it also reiterates the importance of utilising their existing capabilities to get aid in, stating that the agency “remains pivotal in providing life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services, particularly in health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank”. Beyond the amelioration of acute suffering, these are generally considered key building blocks to prevent further destabilisation.

When UNRWA director Philippe Lazzarini addressed members of the UN Security Council last week, he said an “insidious campaign to end UNRWA’s operations is under way, with serious implications for international peace and security”. He used the words “a man-made famine”, and pointed out that the flow of aid into Gaza can be increased with “sufficient political will”, a reminder that starvation in the area is not being caused by drought.

An enemy to be eliminated

Is diminishing the agency itself a tactic of warfare? Some believe UNRWA has been a political target for decades. Julian Borger, writing in the Guardian, said: “[The agency’s] continued existence reflects the fact that all the problems left behind by that war remain unresolved. The Palestinians displaced by that conflict, and the wars that followed, are still refugees, together with their descendants. That legal status, enshrined in UNRWA’s name and its continued operation, implies a right of return under international law, a right that can only be resolved by a comprehensive settlement. Until then, UNRWA is a reminder to Israel of its obligations as an occupying power, and to some Israelis it is therefore an enemy to be eliminated, no matter what the cost in Palestinian lives.” A total of 178 UNRWA staff are among the death toll of over 34,000 Gazans.

As well as calling for funding in his latest UN address, Lazzarini called for an end to the dehumanisation that has marked this conflict. “The wounds that run deep in this region cannot be healed without cultivating empathy and rejecting the dehumanisation that is rampant, whether in political rhetoric or in the misuse of new technologies in warfare. We must refuse to choose between empathising with either Palestinians or Israelis; or showing compassion for either Gazans or Israeli hostages and their families. Instead, we must recognise – and reflect in our words and actions – that Palestinians and Israelis share a long and profound experience of grief and loss. That they are equally deserving of a peaceful and secure future.” The UK Government may pay lip service to humanitarian efforts and speak of sparing further suffering but withholding aid while supplying arms to the region is telling a different story. The empathy is falling right through this gap.

In light of the Colonna Report, for as long as the UK resists working with the agency, the question is whether it is complicit in hunger being wielded as a weapon of war. In the meantime, there is a growing international consensus to back UNRWA to get food and medicine across Gaza.