Israel lied about UNRWA. US and UK must end their dehumanising defunding of Palestinian aid

A recent UN investigation has determined that Israel has failed to provide evidence supporting its claim that employees of the United Nations Relief Work Agency (UNRWA) are members of Hamas and participated in the 7th October attack on Israel. In fact, the report concluded that UNRWA has one of the most robust systems in place within UN agencies to monitor and ensure employee neutrality, precisely because of the complex environment in which it works. 

In some ways, the report’s findings came as no surprise. Just four days after Israel made their dishonest allegations, SkyNews and others revealed that the brief shared by Israel with media outlets and governments contained no information or evidence to enable them to verify Israel's claims. 

Despite this, the fallout in Western capitals was swift and punishing. UNRWA’s funding was immediately paused or revoked by the US - the largest UNRWA donor - and other Western colonial nations including the UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, and France. In total 16 States withdrew or paused their funding to UNRWA. 

Most of these countries have now resumed funding or cooperating with UNRWA, including Israel's staunch ally Germany. But not the United States, nor the United Kingdom, whose foreign policy closely aligns with that of Washington. Congressional constraints may even prevent any American U-turn before March 2025.

The timing of Israel’s fabricated allegations about UNRWA was as egregious as the lies themselves. The UNRWA story was released just hours after the International Court of Justice - the principle judicial body of the United Nations - made public its decision that Israel’s actions in Gaza could plausibly amount to genocide. The Court also ruled that Israel had to ensure the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s response with the baseless claims against UNRWA was therefore a clear attempt to shift attention away from its unlawful behaviour back onto the messenger - the UN.

Defunding UNRWA, greenlighting famine

Israel’s resort to lies and untruths was simply part of their arsenal of oppression and occupation that has been at the forefront of its aggressions against Palestinians since 7 October

What is astonishing, should shake us to our core, and provides insight into the world order, however, is the decision taken by the most powerful states in the world to strip UNRWA of funding in the face of an abundance of evidence, including from the highest court in the world, that to do so could contribute to the genocide of Palestinians. 

The defunding of UNRWA transpired after day 112 of the conflict. Like the rest of us, the foreign affairs Ministers of these States had been witness, in real time, to alarming deaths and destruction, and rapidly deteriorating living conditions in Gaza. In fact, just two weeks prior they had heard the gripping and devastating evidence of the facts on the ground as described by the South African lawyers at the ICJ.

The UN Rapporteur on the right to food had made it clear that the defunding of UNRWA would inevitably result in famine and even more deaths in Gaza. A prediction that came true.

Moreover, as longtime funders of UNRWA, these states were well aware of the vital role played by the largest humanitarian aid organization in Gaza prior to 7 October and certainly since, including their food aid, schooling and medical support for the vast majority of the population, and their coordinating role amongst all humanitarian organizations. 

Despite all of this, they chose to suspend life-saving support to Palestinians: food, water, medicine, and thus greenlighted the massacre, killing, starvation, and dehydration, of Palestinian children, women, and men, even the unborn, by Israel. 

There are no charitable interpretations of this decision.

The Western foreign policy of dehumanising Palestinians
The idea that states were trying to maintain the integrity of a UN body is laughable. By some estimations, the US has been abusing the international human rights system through the exercise of its veto power at the Security Council, repeatedly voting against a ceasefire after 7 October despite global support for one.

The US, and other member States like the UK, Germany and Canada have also long been flouting the international system by failing to hold Israel accountable to international humanitarian and human rights law since its occupation of Palestine.

Even if the integrity of the UN was of some concern, under what circumstances would an institutional issue transcend the preservation of human life and prevention of genocide? The only reasonable answer is that in the face of Israel’s agenda, Palestinians are expendable.

Put another way, for decades, western nations have granted Israel immunity from international law, and have allowed Palestinians to bear the brunt of securing Israel’s statehood - denying them self-determination, autonomy and life itself. This has enabled Western states to assuage their guilt for the atrocities of World War II, avoid being labeled anti-semitic, and to profit handsomely from arms and trade deals with Israel.

This trade-off depends on ignoring the humanity of Palestinians, a position that has been replicated and institutionalized in universities, the media, the corporate world, and even in the caring professions.

Now, people from all walks of life and all corners of the world see Palestinian humanity. In so doing they cast doubt on the foundation of Western foreign policy and the trade-offs that enabled a life-saving UN agency to be cut off at the knees for no reason at all. 

It is for this reason that worldwide protests against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, and now the student divest movement that has spread across US and beyond, are so threatening.

Leilani Farha is the Global Director of The Shift, an international human rights organization, and the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing (2014-2020). She is the central character in the award-winning documentary PUSH, and co-hosts PUSHBACK Talks - a podcast about cities, and rights. 

Follow her on X (Twitter): @leilanifarha and IG: @leilanifar

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.