https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/10/israel-opt-law-to-ban-unrwa-amounts-to-criminalization-of-humanitarian-aid/
Reacting
to the news that the Israeli parliament has passed a law to ban the
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East (UNRWA) from operating inside Israel, Amnesty International’s
Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, said:
“This unconscionable
law is an outright attack on the rights of Palestinian refugees. It is
clearly designed to make it impossible for the agency to operate in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory by forcing the closure of the UNRWA
headquarters in East Jerusalem and ending visas for its staff. It
amounts to the criminalization of humanitarian aid and will worsen an
already catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
“UNRWA has played an
indispensable role in offering, food, water, medical aid, education and
shelter to the nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza who have been
forcibly displaced, subjected to an engineered famine, and stand at
serious risk of genocide as a result of Israel’s relentless offensive in
the last 12 months. This law flies in the face of the International Court of Justice order to Israel to ensure sufficient humanitarian assistance and facilitate basic services.
“UNRWA
has been a lifeline for Palestinian refugees in the occupied Gaza Strip
and the West Bank and in neighbouring countries throughout the 75 years
since its foundation. The plight of the Palestinian people would be
even more severe if not for UNRWA’s tireless work over the last three
quarters of a century.
“This appalling, inhumane law will only
exacerbate the suffering of Palestinians, who have endured unimaginable
hardship and whose need for global support is greater than ever. The
international community must be quick to condemn it in the strongest
possible terms and exert any influence they have on the Israeli
government to repeal it.”
Background
Founded
in 1949, the UNRWA is a UN agency that supports the relief and human
development of Palestinian refugees. It is funded almost entirely by
voluntary contributions from UN Member States.
UNRWA has defined Palestine refugees as
“persons whose regular place of residence was Palestine during the
period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of
livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict.”
At a time when
Israel, the occupying power, continues to flagrantly violate its
obligations vis-à-vis Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the rest of the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, UNRWA has long served as a sole
lifeline, offering indispensable humanitarian aid, education and
shelter. The agency also provides desperately needed aid for millions of
other Palestinian refugees living in neighbouring Arab countries.
In January 2024 over a dozen states and the European Union announced the suspension of funding to UNRWA,
following allegations that individual staff members were involved in
the 7 October attacks carried out by Hamas and other armed groups in
southern Israel. UNRWA immediately dismissed nine employees over the
allegations at the time.
Almost all of the states that had
previously suspended funding for UNRWA have since reinstated their
financial support, aside from the United States, where funding remains
frozen until at least March 2025.
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