Israel-Gaza war: aid agencies ‘outraged’ by ‘reckless’ decision to cut UNRWA funding

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World News@lemmy.world – 135 points – 10 months ago

Israel-Gaza war: aid agencies ‘outraged’ by ‘reckless’ decision to cut UNRWA funding

theguardian.com

International aid agencies have said they are “deeply concerned and outraged” at the “reckless” decision by major donors to cut funding to a UN Palestinian aid agency after Israel accused some of its workers of taking part in Hamas’ 7 October attack.

“We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the coalition of 21 agencies, including Oxfam, Save the Children and ActionAid, said in a statement on Monday.

More than 10 western countries including the US, UK and Germany said they would suspend funding to UNRWA, which provides aid to more than 5.6 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, after the agency said it had launched a probe into 12 staff members who allegedly took part in abductions and killings on 7 October.

The agency has sacked nine of those accused. Two others are missing and one is dead. The UN in New York has also launched a high-level investigation into the alleged acts, which its secretary general, António Guterres, described as “abhorrent”.

These bullshit came out exactly after the ICJ decision. What a fucking coincidence, and we still have to see evidences rather than talks.

Israel told UNRWA about this two weeks ago:

According to Israeli and U.N. officials, Israeli diplomats made the accusations about the 12 UNRWA workers at a private meeting in Israel with UNRWA’s leadership nearly two weeks ago. The meeting was held without the knowledge of the senior military and intelligence officers who had overseen the operation that had investigated the 12 workers’ links to the attack, according to three military officials. The foreign ministry declined to comment.

Days later, UNRWA fired most of the accused workers and notified its key donors, including the United States, whose diplomats swiftly sought clarification about the claims from the Israeli military.

The military leadership was so surprised that the information had reached U.S. officials that they ordered an internal investigation about how it was disseminated, according to the military officials, who spoke anonymously to discuss a sensitive matter.

Yeah, they saw that coming and prepared this shit to spread in the newspapers to cover the genocid accusations. Thanks for trying my dear.

Israel in cahoots with the UN and UNRWA! Who'da thunk!

Source for that conspiracy theory?

For now al conspiracies came put of Israeli propaganda, as from Nazi propaganda.

UNRWA isn't some kind of company you can punish – its the lifeline for millions.

UNRWA has to investigate how something like this could happen and prevent it from happening ever again – especially since Israel has claimed it for years now and was proven correctly now.

But the immediate reaction of UNRWA has shown that it was not the intention to aid terrorists, but a lack of proper oversight and control. So support needs to continue, alongside a reform of the processes of the UNRWA.

especially since Israel has claimed it for years now and was proven correctly now.

But the immediate reaction of UNRWA has shown that it was not the intention to aid terrorists

This is the clearest sign of israel and the west openly supporting full genocide by starvation of the Palestinians. They have destroyed all their farms and wells and are now blocking the sole supplier of Palestinian food.

Reminder that israel started openly calling on video to destroy UNRWA one month ago before any of these accusations. and also many instances far before this one.

As there is also still no evidence provided by israel. UNRWA fired accused staff as a provisional measure, not because the accusations were found to be true. It's absolutely insane to make all Palestinians starve because of 13/30.000 people to begin with.

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

Reminder that israel started openly calling on video to destroy UNRWA one month ago before any of these accusations.

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

Hamas leadership is worth billions, surely they will step up to provide for their people

Maybe Israel should stop the suitcases of cash?

Uh... Gaza is under blockade (currently a full-blown siege). Israel is the bottleneck here.

You are right, the generous Hamas leaders would step in for countries like US and Germany for paying UNWRA without the siege

Without the siege UNRWA would not be needed.

The existance of UNRWA itself is because the Palestinians are locked inside of an open air prison. And all their basic needs such as water treatment facilities keep getting bombed by israel.

They did tear down a wall blocking food to Palestine three months ago. Are you asking them to do it again?

Surely /s

I'm thinking sacking for participation in terrorism is light. Let them stand trial in the hague.

Just fyi, it’s “The Hague”

You sound fun.

When you say terrorists you mean the IDF clearly.

Foreign aid isn't something you are owed.

Basic human decency is

Like aiding and participating in terrorist activities? Each of these countries have intelligence operations that have concured that is the case.

Are you talking about the supposed 12 people?

The less then .1 % of the organization?

Or are you on about something else?

Because my comment said people deserve human decency and I can not figure out your point.

There are more than 12 people under investigation as I understand it. However big the problem is, it is big enough for countries to decide to defund.

12 is the main number I have heard repeated over and over.

9 captured, 1 dead, 2 missing

Do you have more information than that or are you judging the entire organization by less than a tenth of a percent?

The Wall Street Journal said Monday that intel Jerusalem shared with the US indicated that of the roughly 12,000 Gazan employees of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, some 1,200 have ties to either Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

This kind of info is not copied by various intelligence agencies. What they do is use available sources of their own for verification. They write their own report, along with a degree of confidence factor and send it uphill. It is this info that various countries used to determine to stop funding.

Ties to could be as simple as having family which does.

Not even slightly surprising given the political climate.

It would be like me judging you for your cousin being a low level proud boys member.

Always consider the wording and the source.

The information is coming from the IDF of all damn people.

Remember those 40 decapitated babies?

How about those people whose name was on that list on the wall that was actually days of the week.

I have 0 doubt that some people involved have affiliation with Hamas, just like I have no doubt that oil money is running America, and that the cartels have people in border control.

It's not association. They're claiming about 10% of their staff are actually members of Hamas:

The Israeli military provided the United States with a dossier alleging that roughly 10 percent of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza are Hamas members. That assessment is derived from cross-referencing an UNRWA staff list with a directory of Hamas members that soldiers found on a computer during a recent operation inside Gaza, according to the military officials.

Also, the 40 decapitated babies claim is a long-debunked myth and a claim never made by either the Israeli government or the IDF. It began and spread on social media.

The unsupported claim about dozens of child beheadings gained traction after live news reports from Nicole Zedeck, a correspondent for Israel-based i24NEWS, who was reporting from the scene of an attack near the Israel-Gaza border. In videos the news service posted to X on Oct. 10, Zedeck said Israeli soldiers told her what they witnessed.

In one clip, she said “about 40 babies at least,” who were dead, according to a commander, “were taken out on gurneys.” In another clip, she said babies had “their heads cut off, they said” – but she never mentioned a number.

The claim about “40 babies beheaded” appears to be a combination of those two separate details that Zedeck relayed during the live broadcasts. She did not make that claim herself, as the social media video wrongly asserts.

In fact, CNN reported on Oct. 12 that an unnamed Israeli official told the news outlet that the Israeli government had not confirmed claims, including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson, that babies were beheaded.

That babies were found beheaded was later confirmed by pathologists:

An international group of forensic pathologists also have confirmed babies were found decapitated, though it's unclear if that happened before or after death.

And the days of the week?

You're asking if the hospital calendar had names or the days of the week? It's not disputed by anyone that it had days of the week. Israel formally issued a correction shortly after releasing it.

After they got called out by half the world.

I'm pretty sure when you're an employee of the UN, you sign a contract saying you have no ties to terrorist organizations.

While you’re pretty sure that happens, I am 100% certain that people lie on their resumes all the time.

If my cousin was a dumbass, and I knew I wouldn’t get a job because of him, I wouldn’t bring up the fact that he was my cousin.

Would you if you were living in poverty?

Doesn't matter what their resume says. The UN organization itself has the responsibility to screen their employees as they are finding out.

There is no investigation, only Israeli bullshit till now.

There is an investigation ongoing by the UN. There obviously is concurrence by various country's intelligence bodies. That is the way it works.

Only bullshit.

Hey Israel still aidd and participates in terrorist activities and we still give them money. Let's at least not have double standards.

Are we going to play whatabout now? Germany is the largest contributor to UNRWA. They don't provide aid to Isreal and they stopped funding yesterday

100%. If Germany isn't funding Israel, maybe we shouldn't fund Israel either. Just putting that out there. Consistency is key.

Each country makes their own decisions. I'm not a congressman and have no opinion that counts regarding foreign aid. However, I'd hate to see my tax dollars go to people who have a side gig in a terrorist organization

So you think we should cancel aid to Israel. Got it.

Oh boy u really hope you're not American. XD

It is when you're supporting the conditions that make foreign aid necessary. The US, UK and Germany are a massive part of the problem of the blockade (currently full-blown siege) that's causing Gazans to be unable to fend for themselves and therefore need foreign aid. Aid is the least they can do so the people they're complicit in oppressing don't starve to death.

It's never owed. It may be deserved.

Food aid is still going to Gaza.

Did anyone day it is?