Britain, Italy and Finland ‘pause’ funding for UN refugee agency in Gaza, day after ICJ Gaza genocide ruling against Israel

Middle East Monitor, Sat, 27 Jan 2024, https://www.sott.net/article/488289-Britain-Italy-and-Finland-pause-funding-for-UN-refugee-agency-in-Gaza-day-after-ICJ-Gaza-genocide-ruling-against-Israel

Britain, Italy and Finland on Saturday became the latest countries to pause funding for the United Nations’ refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), following allegations its staff were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, Reuters reports.

Comment: It’s just a coincidence that it comes a day following the UN ICJ ruling on Israel’s genocide in Gaza?

Set up to help refugees of the 1948 war at Israel’s founding, UNRWA provides education, health and aid services to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. It helps about two thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million population and has played a pivotal aid role during the current war.

The United States, Australia and Canada had already paused funding to the aid agency after Israel said 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the cross-border attack. The agency has opened an investigation into several employees severed ties with them.

Comment: Israel’s own media have acknowledged that not only was the IDF given a stand down order, but that its own forces are responsible for the death of a significant number of those killed on Oct 7.

The Palestinian foreign ministry criticised what it described as an Israeli campaign against UNRWA, and the Hamas militant group condemned the termination of employee contracts “based on information derived from the Zionist enemy.”

The UK Foreign Office said it was temporarily pausing funding for UNRWA while the accusations were reviewed and noted London had condemned the Oct. 7 attacks as “heinous” terrorism.

“The Italian government has suspended financing of the UNRWA after the atrocious attack on Israel on October 7,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on social media platform X.

Finland also said it suspended funding.

Comment: Norway and Ireland have not, with Norway’s rep stating: “The situation in Gaza is catastrophic, and UNRWA is the most important humanitarian organization there…Norway continues our support for the Palestinian people through UNRWA.”

And, as some analysts state, the cessation of aid may in fact constitute a crime in itself:

Francis Boyle states that with States (including US and UK govs) cutting off funding to UNRWA, it is “no longer the case of these States aiding and abetting Israeli Genocide against the Palestinians in violation of Genocide Convention article 3 (e) criminalizing ‘complicity’ in genocide. These States are now also directly violating Genocide Convention article 2(c) by themselves: ‘Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part…'”

Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the Palestinians’ umbrella political body the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said cutting support brought major political and relief risks.

“We call on countries that announced the cessation of their support for UNRWA to immediately reverse their decision,” he said on X.

Comment: One can only hope that the virtuous nations in the multipolar world, like Russia and China, will take up the responsibility to help the Palestinians, exposing the sinister and petty Western establishment for what it is.

Note that Israel is blocking aid deliveries to Gaza, and because so little aid is getting through starvation and disease in Gaza are soaring: Israeli tanks open fire on hundreds of Gazans waiting for aid; Egypt’s President exposes IDF blocking critical deliveries

See also: 21 Israeli soldiers ‘killed by IDF mines’ after Hamas fire rocket at convoy during controlled demolition op in Gaza

Sky News commentary on the aid ‘pause’: