Germany to restart cooperation with UNRWA after suspension over alleged terror ties
Source: Politico
Germany to restart cooperation with UNRWA after suspension over alleged terror ties
UN agency saw $450 million worth of funding suspended after Israel alleged its employees participated in the Oct. 7 terror attack.
APRIL 24, 2024 3:00 PM CET
BY PIERRE EMMANUEL NGENDAKUMANA
The German government on Wednesday announced it will resume cooperating with the U.N. relief and works agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), less than three months after it temporarily withdrew its support for the organization following allegations that its employees were involved in the Oct. 7 terror attack.
Germany’s move comes after an independent review commissioned by the U.N. said Israel has yet to present evidence backing its allegations that a “significant number” of UNRWA employees are affiliated with terrorist organizations.
“By continuing our acute cooperation, we are supporting UNRWA’s vital and currently irreplaceable role in providing aid to the people of Gaza, as other international aid organizations are also currently dependent on UNRWA’s operational structures in Gaza,” Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a statement.
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Following the release of the report Monday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said, without providing evidence, that Hamas’ penetration of the U.N. agency runs so deep that “it is impossible to say where UNRWA ends and Hamas begins.”
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Read more: https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-resume-cooperation-unrwa-relief-agency-palestine-israel/
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The panel was investigating UNRWA's adherence to the humanitarian principle of neutrality. It is likely that Germany resumed cooperation with UNRWA because the UN agreed to adopt the 50 reforms the panel recommended.
From the Executive Summary of the report:
Independent Review of Mechanisms and Procedures to Ensure Adherence by UNRWA to the Humanitarian Principle of Neutrality
The Group was created to assess whether UNRWA is doing everything within its power to ensure neutrality and respond to allegations of serious neutrality breaches when they are made, taking into account the […] context in which it has to work, especially in Gaza, and to make recommendations for UNRWA to improve and strengthen in this area, if necessary.
This followed allegations made by the Government of Israel in January 2024 that some UNRWA staff may have participated in the 7 October 2023 terror attacks on Israel.
The UN Secretary-General also activated a separate investigation by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) to determine the veracity of these allegations, which, if proven true, would be horrifying in addition to being a grave violation of their obligations towards the Organization.
https://www.un.org/sites/un2.un.org/files/2024/04/unrwa_independent_review_on_neutrality.pdf
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The Chair of the panel, Catherine Colonna, is optimistic that the 50 recommended reforms would be implemented and that UNRWA's compliance with and adherence to the humanitarian principle of neutrality would improve.
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Ms Colonna also held a news conference after the release of the report.
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Speaking at a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York on Monday, Ms. Colonna said she wanted to be “very clear” that the question of involvement in Oct. 7 is a separate question, one that remains under internal investigation by the United Nations.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/04/22/unrwa-israel-hamas-report-palestinians/
