UNRWA resurfaces after criticism and recovers a good part of its funding after its links with terrorists have not been proven

Just two months ago the continuity of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA) hung by a thread. A report from Israel that claimed that several workers had participated in the Hamas attack and belonged to terrorist organizations caused 16 countries to suspend or freeze funds, thus losing two-thirds of their funding ($745 million). Since then, the agency, active since the Arab-Israeli war of 1948, questioned its ability to continue working both in the Gaza Strip to respond humanitarianly to the Israeli offensive and in other areas of the region where there are also Palestinian refugees.. Today its survival seems closer with the return of financing from countries like Germany, Japan or France; thanks to the recently published report that rules out the agency's relationship with Islamist terrorism.

In January, there were few countries in the Western orbit that decided to continue contributing money, with Spain being one of those that decided not only to maintain it, but to increase it.. Among the countries that suspended their financing were powers such as the United States, Germany, France, Italy and Japan, which assured that they would wait for the results of the investigations to make a final decision.. This week the conclusion of the report headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna was known, which recognized that the organization has room for improvement in issues such as neutrality or transparency, but which ruled out that Israel has presented evidence that proves terrorist links.

The former minister has led an investigation that has been carried out together with several international institutions apart from the one being carried out by the UN. The report has been prepared based on meetings with all parties, including the Israeli Government. The conclusions conclude that “in the absence of a political solution between Israel and the Palestinians”, the work of the agency is “irreplaceable and indispensable” in different social areas, especially in education and health care.. “Many see UNRWA as a humanitarian lifeline,” he says.

However, they insist that this agency has complex specific challenges that complicate the “neutrality” that is required of a UN organization.. This is because the majority of its staff is local and may even be the recipient of the agency's own help.. Given this, UNRWA announced months ago that it was trying to improve its mechanisms to ensure neutrality among its workers, although researchers believe that there is still room for improvement in terms of the political opinions that employees express. The report calls for greater surveillance and stronger disciplinary processes, in addition to calling for the civilian nature of facilities to be respected and ideological biases to be omitted from UNRWA schools.

On the other hand, both the transparency of donations and the internal structure have received great criticism. For this reason, the report calls for limiting the work of unions, a gateway for “political factions” to pressure managers.. Colonna has highlighted 50 recommendations to “help UNRWA fulfill its functions and restore trust where necessary.”

The agency recovers its funding

This report has caused great changes in the position of the most critical countries. The UN Secretary General himself, António Guterres, has praised the “essential research” and has said “to accept the recommendations” and that “donors, host countries and workers cooperate fully in putting them into practice.”

Large donors that had suspended their aid, such as Germany, have already announced this Wednesday that they will “soon” resume sending funds to the agency, which in 2023 amounted to $202.1 million, being the second country, surpassed only by United States, to contribute money. In a statement he praised the report and argued that “in light of this situation and in line with these reforms, the federal government will soon resume its cooperation with UNRWA in Gaza” and highlighted that “they will coordinate closely with their closest international partners to disburse more funds.”

Other countries that had stopped funding for UNRWA for 2024 and have reactivated them are Canada, Japan, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, France and Sweden.. Furthermore, others like Switzerland are evaluating it. In this sense, the European Commission has called on donor countries this Tuesday to resume support and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, has asked the international community to finance the agency again since it is “irreplaceable” and represents a “lifesaver” for displaced Palestinians in the region.

The Commissioner General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, has requested that aid reach up to 1.2 billion dollars (the same as he received in 2023) to help nearly two million people.. If the money contributed by the countries in 2024 is similar to that of last year, the agency would lack nearly 400 million to reach the figure requested by Lazzarini, since the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy will continue with suspended aid.

Israel criticizes the investigation and the US will wait

Israel's response to Colonna's investigation has been clear: “It ignores the seriousness of the problem”. This was said by Oren Marmorstein, a spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who criticized the text on the grounds that the investigation was neither “authentic” nor “thorough.” “It seems like an attempt to avoid the problem and not face it head-on,” he said.

Israel considers more than 2,135 UNRWA workers to be members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad and one-fifth of UNRWA school administrators to be members of Hamas.. For this reason, Marmorstein considers that “the report ignores the seriousness of the problem and proposes cosmetic solutions that do not respond to the enormous infiltration of Hamas in UNRWA”. “Hamas has infiltrated UNRWA so deeply that it can no longer be distinguished where UNRWA ends and Hamas begins,” he added.

For its part, the United States, the first country to withdraw funding from UNRWA and Tel Aviv's main ally, has been cautious with the report, although it does acknowledge that it supports the recommendations.. White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby said in a press conference on Tuesday that they “welcome the results of the report” and that they will work with UNRWA and the UN to “turn those recommendations into something real.”. However, Kirby has acknowledged that UNRWA funding will remain suspended until progress is made in implementing these recommendations.

Kirby stressed that these accusations “do not erase” the “good work that UNRWA continues to do on the ground”, which in many cases “are the main mechanism for distributing aid and assistance.”