Freezing Aid to Gaza: Israel’s International War against the UNRWA
Imperilled, tormented Palestinians in Gaza had little time to celebrate the January 26 order of the International Court of Justice. In a case brought by South Africa intended to facilitate a ceasefire and ease the suffering of the Gaza populace, Israel received the unwanted news that it had to, among other obligations, ensure compliance with the UN Genocide Convention, including by its military; prevent and punish “the direct and public incitement to genocide” against the Palestinian populace in Gaza and permit basic services and humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip.
Within hours, Israel, bruised and outraged by a body its officials have decried as antisemitic and favourably disposed to Palestinian propaganda, found an excuse to flaunt the ruling. 12 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), the agency responsible for distributing aid in Gaza, were accused (not found) by Israel’s intelligence agency Shin Bet, of involvement in the Hamas attacks of October 7.
The response from UNRWA was swift. Contracts were terminated, an investigation was launched, including a full inquiry into allegations made against the organisation. The agency’s commissioner general, Philippe Lazzarini promised, on January 27, that, “Any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution.”
Not content with this, Israel stormily took to the campaign trail hoping to rid Gaza of the UN agency it has despised for years. UNRWA, after all, is a salutary reminder of Palestinian suffering, dispossession and desperation, its existence a direct result of Israeli foreign policy. Foreign Minister Israel Katz was severe in laying his country’s loathing for UNRWA bare. “We have been warning for years: UNRWA perpetuates the refugee issue, obstructs peace, and serves as a civilian arm of Hamas in Gaza,” he stated on Shabbat. “UNRWA is not the solution – many of its employees are Hamas affiliates with murderous ideologies, aiding in terror activities and preserving its authority.” Deviously and fiendishly, Katz was dismissing the entire enterprise of aid through a UN outlet as a terroristic extension, rather than the ghastly product of Israel’s own ruthless, generational war against Palestinians. Leave it to us to oversee matters of aid: we know best.
Powers, many with military ties with Israel and sluggish about holding the Jewish State to account in its Gaza campaign, were relieved by the distraction. Rather than assessing their own export regime, the grant of licenses in the arms market in gross violation of human rights and the facilitation of crimes against humanity, an excuse to continue, and prolong the weapons transfers and assistance to Israel, had presented itself.
Within hours, nine states had added their names to the list suspending allocated aid. Australia, along with the United States and Canada, rushed to the podium to condemn UNRWA and freeze funding. The United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Finland followed.
The measure of rage could now be adjusted and retargeted. A spokesperson for the UK government was “appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK government has repeatedly condemned.” The US State Department was “extremely troubled” and had “temporarily paused additional funding. Canada was also “deeply troubled by the allegations relating to some UNRWA employees.”
Australia’s foreign minister, Penny Wong, despite accepting that UNRWA’s role in conducting “vital, life saving work”, “providing essential services in Gaza directly to those who need it, with more than 1.4 million Palestinians currently sheltering in its own facilities” felt a suspension of funding was wholly sensible. This, from a minister who never tires about praising international law and its profoundly sacred qualities.
The assessment by Lazzarini was one of dismay and bafflement by the speed at which the funding had been halted. “These decisions threaten our ongoing humanitarian work across the region including and especially in the Gaza Strip.”
The measure could almost be regarded as hysterical, given that a mere 12 individuals had been tarnished from a pool of some 30,000 members. Johann Soufi, a lawyer and former director of the agency’s legal office in Gaza, gave this assessment to Agence-France Presse: “Sanctioning UNRWA, which is barely keeping the entire population of Gaza alive, for the alleged responsibility of a few employees, is tantamount to collectively punishing the Gazan population, which is living in catastrophic conditions.”
Australian Greens Senator and defence spokesman, Senator David Shoebridge, also picked up on the grotesque twist the latest stifling of aid to the beleaguered residents of Gaza entailed. “The one temporary pause [Senator Wong] has been able to achieve is not the bombing or killing, or even weapons exports, it’s providing aid to [Palestinians].”
The one temporary pause @SenatorWong has been able to achieve is not the bombing or killing, or even weapons exports, it’s providing aid to 🇵🇸 https://t.co/9p3au9anUK
— David Shoebridge (@DavidShoebridge) January 27, 2024
For Israel, the focus can now shift back to prosecuting the war against Palestinians collectively blanketed for terrorist tendencies. Meddlesome aid workers can also be put into the mix. Cut the aid, cut the means of survival. Along the way, international law can be blithely mocked and ignored by the principles of might. With grimmest irony, the provisional measures outlined by the ICJ order, which includes increased humanitarian aid to Gaza, are being frustrated by signatories to the UN Genocide Convention. The collective regime of punishment ushered in by Israel’s policy of murderous asphyxiation, and which so concerned South Africa’s legal team, can now continue.
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21 comments
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Ross -
Clakka -
Win Jeavons -
Douglas Pritchard -
Fred -
Steve Davis -
John C -
ajogrady -
JulianP -
Kerri -
paul walter -
John Hanna -
New England Cocky -
Kerri -
Andyfiftysix -
JulianP -
Zathras -
A Commentator -
JulianP -
andyfiftysix -
Steve Davis
Return to home pageIs the proof against the aid workers been supplied by Israel or some independent source? How would anyone know just who was involved in October 7?
No surprise at all that the Natanyahu / Likud FRWNJ thugs devised such an accusation and the manner by which it is made. Just another brazen and intemperate pile-on seeking as usual to generate outrage against Palestinians in Israel’s bid to take over the entire territory. Rather than seek independent clarification or approach UNRWA diplomatically, they opted to blast their accusations with brutal hostility into the world news media seeking to discredit the entire agency – a classic Zionist political blackmail m.o.
As it appears there is potentially 12 people involved (Israeli allegation noted by USA), all who have been immediately terminated with UN investigations and criminal prosecutions for those found likely guilty. Yesterday, the UN urged the following top UNRWA donor countries who had paused their donations to UNRWA for Palestine to reconsider: USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland.
It’s no small irony that all the above countries supply both arms and arms funding to Israel, yet none to Palestine, and there has been no evidence or ‘shock-horror’ worldwide media blast that any of them have paused those provisions to Israel.
Right through the 20th century and to today, the ‘west’ has divisively blundered its way through innumerable neo-colonial race-based mandates, unilateral impositions and incursions into south-west asia and the middle east creating devastation and causing enmity and hatred by all the countries affected. It is almost impossible to reconcile that it is anything but a militarized operation seeking to impose a commercial / trade / strategic hegemony, using worn-out false-god / religious claptrap as a populist culture war cover.
It’s been blowing up in their faces for 40+ years. Now globally it’s almost impossible to manage – they have trashed their own exploitative rules-based-order. Just where and who will be their next ‘collateral damage’, who knows?
Perhaps all these ‘ horrified’ nations could redirect the suspended aid to the other organisations doing essential aid work here . MSF , Plan ..The situation is too dire to withhold such aid . l wish these politicians could imagine it was thei children suffering unrelieved pain , hunger , thirst , loss of decent winter shelter. I can , andl it hurts ( yes, l already have given support to several such organisations. )
There are times in our Australian history when we needs to hang our head in shame.
To attache any credibility to any statement coming out of Israel is plain stupid.
Denying stealing land, persecuting the original owners, practicing apartheid.
Its blanket denial to any accusation of its criminal approach to government
Its cute acknowledgement that they MAY house nuclear weapons
But, hang on, they said that their ( world beating) inteligence was dozing off in october and on the strength of its failure(really?) then we will procede with our plan to genocide, and make greater Israel.
We control the information flow having killed the journos who may contradict us.
Then we tell the world to stop the flow of aid, and WE BELIEVE THIS!!!!!!!
Did any of the media that propagated the accusations do any checks as to the veracity of same?
Fred, good question.
To act contrary to the interests of suffering innocent people on the basis of an allegation from the party adversely affected by the court decision is simply disgusting.
We are a disgrace.
@Douglas Pritchard. Very well said! Israel is the (stolen) country that should be hanging it’s head in shame. Any compassion the jews got after what happened to them in WWII has gone out the window and will never be coming back. The Israeli government makes it easy to understand why jews have been despised and vilified throughout history. They show they are not worthy of any empathy from any nation, even the great satan should stop shielding and weaponising them. Nostradamus’ prediction of WWIII earlier in this century is appearing to be not too far off the mark. This situation will keep escalating unless it is stopped. NOW!
Has there ever been a more timid, spinless and cowardly Labor government that is so totally devoid of Labor values then the Albanese Labor governmet. Tom Uren, Albanese’s mentor, would be disgusted in his protege.
Australia is used to Israel lying about its aid program and it is a shame that the Albanese Labor Government has not learnt from previous Labor governments and taken what Israel says with more than a pinch of salt. Remember all the lies we were told about World Vision funding terrorists in Gaza and after months of investigations these were proved to be false and yet an innocent man languishes in prison. A similar situation existed for Union Aid Abroad APHEDA a few years back where a diligent member of the Murdoch press, following an Israeli funded trip, wrote a pack of lies about APHEDAs important and valuable work in Occupied Territories. Once again, these were found to be blatant untruths.
Israel has for years been determined to cut aid to the refugees both in Gaza and the West Bank. With Trump and our former PM Scott Morrison, they achieved part of their goal and aid to UNRWA was reduced by at least half. For years they have also been set on undermining the critical work of the UN agency. They have chosen now ( nearly three months after the event) to bring this information to the worlds attention just as the ICJ found that the South African charges of genocide against them contained merit. The ICJ found that there is a probability of Israel committing genocide in Gaza. This is no co-incidence.
So why has the Albanese Government just jumped to Israels request and its pathological intent to destroy the only lifeline Palestinians have? It seems that the Albanese Government has lost its moral courage.
Why would our Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, withdraw these resources from thousands of desperate Palestinians? Why did she choose to make this announcement at the very time when the International Court has asked for Israel to guarantee humanitarian aid? Bad advice and timing or a calculated decision on behalf of ‘like-minded countries “designed to divert attention from ongoing crimes against humanity.
The Israel experiment has failed. Zionism has proved to be nothing more then a lying conniving brutally evil satanic cult of inhumane extreamist, morally bankrupt savages and pathologically lying degenerate monsters whose victims are not only Palestinians but also the Jewish religion irself.
Zionist Israel remains a constant
and violent reminder of how embarrassingly flawed, futile and not fit for pirpose Western diplomacy and US hegemony is.
What reasonable thinking person could have ever imagined that
“never again” IS happening again. The macabre reality is it is being perpetrated by those who should
know better. Zionist Israeli’s are, to their own detriment and folly, repeating the history that will
forever now be the most shameful of a very shameful Zionist Israeli history. The holocaust has been revisited and is being used as a template by those who were the central advocates of “never again”, Zionist Jews. Like Satanic slaves Zionist Jews are emulating the horrors of the Nazi’s final solution, the holocaust.
International law making has been developed to protect people when governments fail, so the International Court of Justice ruling is a significant wake up call to the Albanese Government who is not only failing the Palestinian people in their time of need but importantly failing Labor’s “true believers”.
@Douglas Pritchard.
Agree totally Douglas, but I would go further and say it is beyond shameful that our spineless Govt. immediately jumped on the anti UNWRA bandwagon.
At the very least our Foreign Minister should have said to Israel: “You allege this, OK then name these people, or better yet you produce them, after all you totally control Gaza. Absenting any verifiable proof, your claims are bullshit.”
Conclusion: a total failure by our Govt. to act with probity on this humanitarian disaster, and once more the pro-Israel lobby can claim success – the actions of which should be of real concern.
See for example this recent article: “How the Israel war lobby coerces regulators and employers to fire Australian critics of the genocide in Gaza.”
[ https://michaelwest.com.au/israel-lobbyists-target-doctors-media-business/ ]
“As my mother said
‘It’s no coincidence that the Jews invented the term ‘Chutzpah’’”
Norman Finkelstein
Concentration camp.
No coincidence that this allegation emerged on the eve of the ICJ finding against Israel….how convenient and BTW show me the evidence.
@ Douglas Pritchard: Agreed. THE IDF IS INVOLVED IN STATE SPONSORED GENOOCIDE OF INDIGENOUS PALESTINIANS, NOW OVER 25,000 MAINLY WOMEN & CHILDREN ARE DEAD PURSUING NETANYAHU’S PUBLICLY STATED STRATEGY TO ”DRIVE ALL PALESTINIANS INTO THE SEA” SO THAT FRESH ZION@ZI COLONISTS MAY MOVE INTO THE RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE FUNDED BY EUROPEAN & ANERICAN ENTREPRENEURS BUILDING ON LAND ”STOLEN” FROM THE DISPOSSED AND DISPLACED PALESTINIANS.
@John Hanna
Nailed it!
It’s an Israeli tactic to save their false flags and deploy them strategically to offset another embarrassment.
The whole Oct 7th rape thing was dredged up months after the fact with Zero proof and coincident with the shooting of 3 of their own who escaped hamas.
Incidentally the website Hamas-massacre exposes photos of the victims and damage done on October 7th and especially at the Nova music festival. Very little footage of rape there.
Israel has no credibility.
Even today we get the ” look we found tunnels” everywhere. What a surprise !
In case they think we are stupid, the presence of tunnels does not constitute a threat in itself.
If I read right, the October 7 incident occurred over land, not through tunnels.
A classic case of look over there…….
They still refuse to fess up that their actions caused 70 yrs of hate to build up.
The other issue I notice is that Israel is desperate to hook all Jews into the Zionist family. The narrative is that Jews are feeling insecure all around the world. So if Jews feel threatened, maybe they should look in own back yard for the real villains in this story.
@New England Cocky. January 30, 2024 at 9:58 am
You refer to the proposed re-settlement of Gaza.
You are correct; that has been the plan all along.
A recent article on this topic reveals the extent of Israeli arrogance and hubris: “Huge Israeli Conference in Jerusalem Plots Squatter-Settlements in Gaza once it is Ethnically Cleansed.”
I recommend the article particularly to those who doubt the Israeli imperative of ‘Eretz Yisrael’.
[ https://www.juancole.com/2024/01/conference-settlements-ethnically.html ].
I remember the shocking stories of Iraqis taking Kuwati babies out of incubators and putting them on the cold concrete floors, Bin Laden’s amazing air conditioned impregnable Afghan mountain fortress in Tora Bora and Saddam’s infamous “people shredder”.
I also recall the US invasion of Granada and the contrived nonsense that surrounded it and how initial media reports suddenly disappeared from the public record.
All these were deliberate mass media lies intended to manufacture consent for what was coming and now we are seeing the Israeli Hasbara mechanism “cranked right up to eleven” with the assistance of an even more compliant and complicit media.
Unfortunately social media is also telling stories that conflict with “official” reports and these cannot be easily silenced and will become part of the true history.
An Israeli occupied Gaza will be a forever bloodstained reminder of these days.
I can only imagine the media outrage if some disguised Palestinians snuck into a Hospital in Tel Aviv to assassinate a few people.
Off topic I realise, but meanwhile…
Russia Ukraine war: ICJ finds Moscow violated international treaties
@A Commentator. February 1, 2024 at 9:58 am.
Off topic also: “In 1984, Nicaragua brought suit against the U.S. in the World Court in relation to U.S. policies of arming, training and financing the contra rebels who were fighting to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, as well as mining the harbors of the small Central American nation.”
“The United States, in justifying its policies, claimed that it was acting in Nicaragua only in “collective self-defense,” a justification that the court rejected by a vote of 12-3.”
The American response essentially was “Up yours”.
[ https://consortiumnews.com/2024/01/29/icj-israel-ruling-and-the-1984-judgment-against-the-us/ ]
JulianP, i get it. and everyone else does too. The inconsistencies abound.
But stay focused on this one…….it aint over yet.
A Commentator, fear not Russia is getting a beating it may never recover from. Ukraine is systematically destroying its oil infrustructure AND its military. The only thing slowing the Ukraines down is the mines russia threw everywhere. Losing nearly 400,000 and probably the same wounded has really cast a shadow of their ability to recover. If you take out all able bodied men from civil society, things you take for granted breakdown. Like fire fighters, mechanics, young people, nurses, doctors, cleaners, council workers, engineers………….their brightest young people have fled the country. Its just a shell ready to implode.
Serves the bastards right.
But careful what you wish for. If trump gets back in, you aint seen destruction that he will bring before. At least Biden has brought some stabilisation, if somewhat eratic in an american way. Never going to be perfect but getting better
“Russia is getting a beating it may never recover from.”
Andy, please give us a link to this important development.