Evacuated Palestinians wait to receive aid from UNRWA in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, March 7.
Mohammed Salem/REUTERS
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Mohammed Salem/REUTERS
Evacuated Palestinians wait to receive aid from UNRWA in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, March 7.
Mohammed Salem/REUTERS
According to an independent review commissioned by the United Nations, Israel has not provided evidence to support its claim that a “significant” number of employees of the United Nations refugee agency Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip are members of terrorist organizations.
Assessment form, released on Monday and headed by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna, has no mandate to investigate Israel’s more incendiary incident claimed that dozens of UNRWA staff participated in the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. A separate investigation by the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services is leading the examination of those claims.
More than a dozen international sponsors, including America, had about $450 million in funding suspended following the allegations in February. Some countries have restored funding. Congress has suspended US financial assistance until at least March 2025.
UNRWA, officially known as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, is the main agency in Gaza providing humanitarian aid and social services – very important at a time of severe food, water and sanitation shortages because of Israel’s military campaign. At Monday’s press conference, Colonna said UNRWA “plays an indispensable and irreplaceable role in the region.”
The nine-week review she chaired focused on whether UNRWA was “doing everything in its power to ensure neutrality”. The report found that the agency has significant mechanisms to ensure neutrality, possibly more than other United Nations organizations or agencies, which Colonna said is “essential considering the very environment difficult, complex and difficult situation in which they operate.”
Even so, the review found problems, including an inadequate investigation into allegations of violations of neutrality by UNRWA staff.
It also said there were times when UNRWA staff expressed political views and some of the organization’s offices were used for “political or military purposes”. The report raised concerns about UNRWA’s schools, particularly with textbooks which the report said contained “problematic content”.
The report said UNRWA had received sustained criticism, mainly from Israel and NGOs, over allegations of hate speech, incitement to violence and anti-Semitism in textbooks. and the Palestinian Authority’s education annex. Some donors also raised significant concerns. Of three international reviews of textbooks, the report said two were identified as “containing biased and non-conformist content, but provided no evidence of anti-Semitic references”. A third study identified two examples “displaying anti-Semitic content” but noted that one example had been removed, the other had been altered.
The report also raised concerns about the screening of UNRWA staff. According to the report, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that until early this year, they had received a list of employees without Palestinian identification numbers.
“On the basis of the March 2024 list, which contained Palestinian ID numbers, Israel publicly stated that a significant number of UNRWA staff were members of terrorist organizations,” the report said. . However, Israel has not yet provided evidence to support this.”
The report lists a series of recommendations to improve UNRWA’s operations, including better training, stricter staff screening and a review of the content of all textbooks and supplements.
