Many countries have resumed financing UNRWA, the agency UN which deals with Palestinian refugees a Gaza and the West Bank. The flow of money was interrupted after Israel accused the agency of possible collaboration by some of its employees in the October 7, 2023 attacks carried out by Hamas on Israeli territory.
Italy then revealed that it had immediately suspended its funding to UNRWA in October. However, the State on which most of the agency’s funds depend is the USA, who don’t seem to have any intention of starting to provide them again.
The countries that have started funding UNRWA again
According to what was reported by the director of the‘Unrwa Philippe Lazzarini, most of the countries that stopped funding the agency last January UN which deals with Palestinian refugees have resumed disbursing funds. However, the USA, the main financiers of the agency as well as many other parts of the country, is still missing United Nations. The funding stopped when Israel accused the agency of covering up for some of its employees who allegedly took part in the October 7 attacks.
An accusation that emerged last January, but which was not then supported by incontrovertible evidence of the guilt of UNRWA or its director. Upon publication of the accusations, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani had revealed that already following the attacks on 7 October, Italy had stopped its funding of the agency, although without giving any notice. The agency is 44.3% financed by EU countries, which give it more 520 million dollars a year. However, the USA is the single state that weighs most on the UNRWA budget.
“The good news is that most countries that had suspended funding have reviewed their decisions by resuming contributions, or restarting their contributions to the agency. However, other more ‘reluctant’ countries have a softer position. The only country that will not contribute is the USA, the agency’s largest donor. We know that there will be no contributions until March 2025 and therefore we must find a way to ‘fill’ this void. Many of my efforts are aimed at encouraging current donors to increase their contribution, or to involve new donors” declared the UNRWA director Lazzarini.
Palestinian refugees and Israel’s accusations: what is UNRWA
UNRWA was founded in 1949 to manage the emergency created by the refugees of the first Arab-Israeli war. In fact, many Palestinians had moved from the internal areas of the region to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, for fear of Israeli occupation or at the invitation of Egypt and Jordan, who occupied those portions of territory. Some of them also fled Lebanon and across the Jordan, in what was supposed to be a temporary settlement.
In the following years, however, Israel consolidated the territorial conquests made and the Palestinian refugees remained in the refugee camps, which became real cities. UNRWA therefore continued to take care of many of their needs. Even though it is present in all Palestinian refugee camps, UNRWA it is very important in the Gaza Strip. The particularly fragile economic situation in the region makes it the main employer and a crucial element for the survival of millions of Palestinians.
In January 2024, the Government of Israel accused some UNRWA employees of having taken part in the attacks on October 7, 2023, following which Tel Aviv made the decision to invade the Gaza Strip. Subsequently, the IDF also discovered a connection between a Hamas intelligence center and an UNRWA hospital, which was used as a shield to defend the tunnels from bombings.
