Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of its claims that employees of the UN relief agency Unrwa are members of terrorist organisations, an independent review led by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna has said.
The Colonna report, which was commissioned by the UN in the wake of Israeli allegations, found that Unrwa had regularly supplied Israel with lists of its employees for vetting, and that “the Israeli government has not informed Unrwa of any concerns relating to any Unrwa staff based on these staff lists since 2011”.
Israeli allegations of the involvement of Unrwa staff in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel led major donors in January to cut their funding to the agency, the main channel of humanitarian support not only to Palestinians in Gaza but to Palestinian refugee communities across the region.
The Colonna review, an assessment of Unrwa neutrality which was drafted with the help of three Nordic research institutes and is due to be published later on Monday, makes clear that Israel has yet to substantiate any of its broader claims about the involvement of Unrwa staff in Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
It notes that in March “Israel made public claims that a significant number of Unrwa employees are members of terrorist organisations”.
“However, Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of this,” the report says.
UNRWA: Has already agreed to the independent review recommendations.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has accepted recommendations from an independent review of the ability of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to ensure neutrality and respond to allegations of breaches.
“He has agreed with Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini that UNRWA, with the secretary-general’s support, will establish an action plan to implement the recommendations,” Guterres’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“Moving forward, the secretary-general appeals to all stakeholders to actively support UNRWA as it is a lifeline for Palestine refugees in the region.”
The review, led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, will be released later in the day.
The full report [48 pages] will be released (to the public) in a few hours. [I’ll link it here]
No doubt the Israeli Government will do a lot of shouting.
Now, Western Governments, are you willing to recommence the funding of UNRWA?
Can we please stop taking Israeli Propaganda as factual?
Just a thought