The United States, followed by Germany, Canada, UK, Finland, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, and the Netherlands have ‘paused’ funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the Palestinian refugee agency, after Israel alleged that just twelve of UNRWA’s 13,000 Palestinian staff in Gaza were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack. Other countries are following suit.

The United States announced that it had cut off aid to UNRWA immediately following the International Court of Justice’s ruling in South Africa’s genocide case but the United States—along with every other country in the world—has not taken even a single action against Israel, the party violating the Genocide Convention!

The Source of the Allegations

The allegations that UNRWA employees participated in the Oct 7 attacks comes directly from the Israeli military and Shin Bet, Israel’s security service that functions as the domestic version of its intelligence agency, Mossad. The information was sourced from “the interrogations of militants”, as reported by Israeli journalist Barak Ravid on the Axios News platform:

Driving the news: A senior Israeli official said the Shin Bet and Israeli military intelligence provided information that pointed to the active participation of UNRWA staffers and the use of the agency’s vehicles and facilities during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

“This was strong and corroborated intelligence,” the official said. “A lot of the intelligence is a result of interrogations of militants who were arrested during the Oct. 7 attack.”

Source: https://www.axios.com/2024/01/26/unrwa-gaza-hamas-israel-attack

Torture of detainees has been a feature throughout the Palestinians’ history with Israel, and has a feature of Operation Swords of Iron. The staged “HAMAS surrendering” arrest events, humiliating all males in Gazan neighborhoods by arresting them, stripping them naked, and giving them guns to “surrender” for the cameras, concluded with many being released with absolute horror stories of torture under detention.

That they were released, of course, only underlines the fact that these were mass arrests of civilians, an Israeli fishing expedition and fake news creation mechanism when it looked to the Israeli public that the IDF wasn’t doing so well in Gaza.

How credible can information coming from torture be? The rule of non admission of evidence in any proceedings obtained by torture or ill-treatment (also known as the “exclusionary rule”, is found in Article 15 of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT):

Early warnings of Israel’s ‘ICJ day attack’ on UNRWA

You could see the precursors of Israel’s attack on UNRWA coming years ago. In 2018, Netanyahu convinced US President Trump to suspend aid to UNRWA, a move the US later reversed. In this bizarre 31 August 2018 article from BBC News, citing Reuters reporting, the reason given for the cessation of US aid to UNRWA is that the agency was “irredeemably flawed”.

However, the article never elaborates on what the flaws are or why they would be ‘irredeemable’. The BBC quotes Netanyahu as saying that UNRWA “perpetuates the Palestinian problem”. This is the crux of the matter. Netanyahu knows that UNRWA is a life support system for the Palestinians. To undermine and disable it would help the obvious Israeli goal of making Palestinians disappear.

During this conflict, Israel has worked hard to demonize the international organizations—the UN, UNRWA, WHO and the ICRC have all been targeted with delegitimization propaganda. In early December 2023, Israel announced a new government website “Operation Iron Sword: Israel’s Humanitarian Efforts”, which brags about the number of aid trucks it clears to enter Gaza (actually proving an opposite message of ‘intentional trickle’). In late December 2023, specific demonization narratives began appearing in official and hasbara social media accounts with the hashtag #DefundUNRWA. These were all precursors before the final blow was struck against the organization at the worst possible time:

Israeli demonization, lies, and atrocity propaganda have become a national export during its latest war on Gaza. Israel’s “revelations” about UNRWA staff participating in the October 7th attack are particularly suspect as they were conveniently released on the very same day as the ICJ’s ruling against Israel.

The Impact and UNRWA’s Reaction

This attack is like shutting down the entire UK’s National Health Service because 12 staff members were alleged to have committed serious crimes. Paired with the fact that not one country in the world has taken any action against Israel after the International Court of Justice found genocide accusations to be credible and issued orders, it is hard to see any legitimate reason for the unprecedented move. It can only assist the Israelis in ‘finishing the job’.

I’ve visited UNRWA hospitals & schools since 1989. They do a fantastic job caring for refugees that Israel itself created in its ethnic cleansing of 418 Palestinian villages in 1948. Israel hates UNRWA because they are one of the main forces sustaining Palestinian life in Palestine.

UNRWA’s Commissioner General, Philippe Lazzarini, wrote today:

“It is shocking to see a suspension of funds to the Agency in reaction to allegations against a small group of staff, especially given the immediate action that UNRWA took by terminating their contracts and asking for a transparent independent investigation. The United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the highest investigative authority in the UN system, has already been seized of this very serious matter.   

“UNRWA is the primary humanitarian agency in Gaza, with over 2 million people depending on it for their sheer survival.   Many are hungry as the clock is ticking towards a looming famine. The Agency runs shelters for over 1 million people and provides food and primary healthcare even at the height of the hostilities.  

“In its ruling yesterday, the International Court of Justice ordered that “Israel must take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”. These measures are aimed at preventing irreparable damage to the rights of Palestinians. 

“The only way that this can be done is through cooperation with international partners, especially UNRWA as the largest humanitarian actor in Gaza. Some 3,000 core staff out of 13,000 in Gaza continue to report to work, giving their communities a lifeline which can collapse anytime now due to lack of funding.  

“It would be immensely irresponsible to sanction an Agency and an entire community it serves because of allegations of criminal acts against some individuals, especially at a time of war, displacement and political crises in the region.  

“UNRWA shares the list of all its staff with host countries every year, including Israel. The Agency never received any concerns on specific staff members.  

Source: https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/unrwa%E2%80%99s-lifesaving-aid-may-end-due-funding-suspension

Two million Palestinians—87 percent of the Strip’s 2.3 million total population—are currently homeless in Gaza. A UN-estimated 70 percent of homes in Gaza have destroyed by Israeli rocketing and bombing.

Before this catastrophic level of homelessness existed, 500 aid trucks a day used to enter Gaza. On 7 January 2023, Israel announced that 7,000 aid trucks had entered Gaza in 92 days, an average of just 76 aid trucks per day before two million were homeless, before almost 70,000 people were injured. It is normal now, that amputations are happening without anesthetic.

 On December 18th, Human Rights Watch reported:

Prior to the current hostilities, 1.2 million of Gaza’s 2.2 million people were estimated to be facing acute food insecurity, and over 80 percent were reliant on humanitarian aid.

The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival.

The Legal Implications

The countries who have “paused” aid to UNRWA, led by the United States, may actually be committing the crime of genocide along with Israel.

Article II(c) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, defines one of the crimes of genocide as: “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

For sure, starving Gazans to death by cutting off aid to the biggest aid agency and causing Gazans to die from lack of medicine would both count as acts of genocide.

Articles III(b) and (e) specify that “Conspiracy to commit genocide” and “Complicity in genocide” are punishable crimes under the Genocide Convention.

Any country that de facto acts in any way that frustrates the delivery of aid to Gaza is guilty of both conspiring to commit genocide and is utterly complicit in genocide, especially given the clear ruling by the International Court of Justice just yesterday:

“The Court further considers that Israel must take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel has worked hard during its “Operation Swords of Iron” to demonize other international aid agencies—including the UN itself, the World Health Organization, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. UNRWA provides education, health & relief services to the poorest.

UNRWA has operations in five regions – Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including East Jerusalem– and employs close to 30,000 people. All services will be affected by defunding UNRWA.

What does a Palestinian refugee child studying at an UNRWA school in Syria have to do with this? What does a Palestinian grandmother in Jordan needing medical treatment have to do with this? What does a Palestinian refugee family in Lebanon that needs food aid have to do with this? Add to those issues the fact that the vast majority of UNRWA staff are refugees themselves, contributing directly to the betterment of their communities.

The reason Israel is using delegitimizing anecdotes to target this giant organization—that still services refugees in all of the above countries, a burden Israel itself created in 1948—is to make life in Gaza and the West Bank unsustainable—ethnic cleansing lite. That the Western countries are now joining in with Israel’s latest attack on UNRWA is an unexpected new low and an act that may result in other countries joining Israel in the dock at the International Court of Justice.

Related Developments

On 1 March 2024, just over one month after the US led the way in cutting off funding to UNRWA and this article was written, Nicaragua instituted proceedings at the ICJ accusing Germany of violations of the Genocide Convention. Its filing cited Germany’s cutting-off aid to UNRWA as part of its rationale, along with direct weapons transfers. Other countries should take note.