2024-01-31 19:38:31
In its almost 75 years of existence, the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) He has seen them in all colors. Not only does she suffer from chronic financing problems, but she lives in a permanent temporalityderived from the rejection of Israel to abide by the UN resolutions that support the return of the palestinian refugees to their homes (more than five million, when including their descendants). For a few days, however, he has been facing a existential crisis. The Jewish State has accused a dozen of its workers in Gaza of participating in the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7. Main agency donors They have reacted by suspending their contributions when the situation of the Gazans is most agonizing. In an interview with El Periódico de Cataluña, from the Prensa Ibérica group, the executive director of UNRWA in Spain, Raquel Martíresponds to the allegations, explains the measures taken by the agency and analyzes the scenario that awaits the population of Gaza if the organization is forced to cease operations due to lack of funds.
How has UNRWA received Israel’s allegations against some of its workers?
We are obviously horrified that UNRWA workers participated in the terrorist attack against the Israeli civilian population. We have condemned it from the beginning and, from the beginning, we have been calling for the release of the hostages. It wasn’t something we expected or something we thought could happen.
Has the Israeli Government shared the full report with the accusations with UNRWA?
We do not have the report, they have only communicated the names to us. The first thing we did was verify that they were UNRWA workers. It was not immediate because the agency has 30,000 employees, of which 13,000 are in Gaza. We were able to confirm that two of them are dead and on leave in our system; eight match and have been identified; and with another we are still trying to determine who it is because a very common name in Palestine. It matches two people, so we have asked Israel for more information. The employment contracts of the nine identified have been immediately cancelled. And our commissioner general has traveled to New York to personally communicate the situation to the UN Secretary General and ask him to launch an investigation. The investigation has already begun and we are awaiting the results.
I understand that if nine workers have been dismissed, it is because UNRWA considers the allegations against them credible.
It is not a question of credibility, it is a question that we take these types of complaints very seriously and we think that, to safeguard the integrity of the agency, a precautionary measure was appropriate until the implication they have had is clarified. If this cannot be proven, UNRWA will obviously have to compensate these workers and rehire them.
Since then, more than a dozen countries have suspended donations, including the agency’s largest donors such as the United States and Germany. What percentage of the budget does these suspended aid represent?
At this moment we have 15 donors who have canceled funds and they amount to 840 million dollars. That amount is equivalent to two-thirds of the donations we received last year from the States.
What impact will it have in the short term in Gaza?
In Gaza we can maintain our operations until the end of February. By then, if the situation is not reversed, we will have to stop operating. And it will be a blow for the population, which right now depends on UNRWA humanitarian operations. Not only do we coordinate and distribute all the aid that enters the Strip, but we also serve the 1,700,000 displaced people who stay in our facilities. With the help that comes in, we are not able to cover their needs, but at least they are surviving, although there are already half a million registered with hunger and every day the number of people who are hungry increases. We also distribute to municipalities the fuel used to pump water and for desalination plants. So without UNRWA, Gaza will not survive.
Weeks before the scandal, the Israeli press published that the Foreign Ministry has a plan to expel UNRWA from Gaza. Why do you think Israel wants to end UNRWA?
You should ask Israel. This is not the first time she has made such statements. We have heard them for many years, not just since this conflict began. Right now we are the agency that supports the population of Gaza and the agency that is reporting on what is happening on the ground.
Israel accuses them, among other things, of perpetuating the conflict by defending the right of return of refugees. Does Israel want to destroy UNRWA to end that right?
It must be clarified that UNRWA does not advocate the right of return. We are a humanitarian agency dedicated to providing health, educational, basic services and emergency aid to the refugee population of Palestine. We have no more mandate. This is what differentiates us from UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency), which does have in its mandate to seek a solution for refugees, integrating them in a third country or exercising the right to return to their country of origin. So when Israel criticizes us by saying that in 75 years we have not solved the situation of any refugees, it is distorting the reality of our mandate. UNRWA does not advocate the right of return, only a just and definitive solution for Palestinian refugees. But we cannot say what that solution is.
He also says that UNRWA is infiltrated by Hamas and acts as a parallel arm to its government in Gaza.
He has also said this about UN Women, the World Health Organization or any organization, institution or State that criticizes the occupation, that condemns the human rights violations committed by Israel and that goes against the Israeli offensive right now. over the Gaza Strip.
What would happen in legal and political terms if UNRWA disappeared, as Israel wants?
Imagine that UNRWA collapses and can no longer provide services because there is no funding. It would have to be the UN General Assembly, its member countries, that decide what they are going to do with that population and what agency is going to take care of them, if they decide to maintain the services. Right now the only alternative would be UNHCR. Perhaps Israel has not thought that, if UNRWA disappears, the alternative is an agency that will have to work to return Palestine refugees to their homes, which today are in the State of Israel. UNRWA would like to disappear once and for all because that would mean that the situation has been resolved and it is no longer needed.
If that scenario were to occur, shouldn’t Israel take charge as the occupying power of providing services to the refugees?
Of course. It has the obligation to protect and take care of the well-being of the occupied population, something that Israel has been failing to do since 1967, when it occupied Palestine. Israel says it is no longer the occupying power in Gaza because it removed its troops and settlers from there in 2005, but the UN reminds it that today it is not necessary to physically occupy a territory to control it. Israel carries out a peripheral occupation of Gaza, but with effective control of the territory. It decides who comes in and who goes out, as well as the goods. Control the hours of electricity or the liters of water that enter Gaza. It controls mobile phones, the type of internet connection, all aspects of Palestinian life. And that is equivalent for the UN to having the territory occupied.
How do you explain that the alleged UNRWA scandal emerged on the same day that the International Court of Justice declared that there are plausible signs of genocide in Gaza and approved precautionary measures?
A few days before, Israel informed the Commissioner General of UNRWA of this situation and we were the ones who made it public on the same Friday as the ruling. It was the time it took us to verify that those people are on the list of our workers.
And why was it decided to do it at that time?
Because we are a transparent organization and every time there is a problem we have the obligation to inform the public, our donors and, obviously, the UN Secretary General. It has always been like this and that is how all agencies work. We cannot cover up any facts.
Spain is one of the European countries that has chosen to maintain financing. Others have acted before the results of the investigation were known.
I have to thank the Government of Spain for its position. I was convinced that this was going to be the case due to the position that the Government has maintained towards UNRWA and towards the conflict, and it seems to me that it is the most consistent decision with the current situation in Gaza. I completely understand that governments want an investigation to verify that UNRWA has nothing to do with these criminal acts, but they must understand that right now there is no alternative to UNRWA and that people are not going to die of hunger depends on their decision. , to die of thirst or to die from lack of health care and medicine. In the best interest of human life, maintaining funds to UNRWA should take priority.
Its workers have paid a very high price.
We must start from the fact that we operate in high-risk areas. It’s not easy and unfortunately these things can happen. What you cannot do is put your finger in the eye of the organization that operates in this context, especially considering that they are killing our staff. 152 UNRWA workers have been killed, 145 of our facilities have been attacked, including the building where international staff sleep. Our staff is literally giving up their lives and on top of that, now, the international community blames all UNRWA workers and the agency itself for the acts committed by 12 people. Nowhere in the world, in any organization, does this happen, except with UNRWA.
#Raquel #Martí #UNRWA #blaming #entire #humanitarian #agency #people