An independent review conducted for the United Nations into the neutrality of its agency helping Palestinian refugees found that Israel never expressed concern about anyone on the personnel lists it has received annually since 2011.
The review was carried out after Israel alleged that a dozen employees of the agency known as UNRWA had participated in the Hamas attack on October 1. 7 attacks.
In a wide-ranging 48-page report published on Monday, the independent panel said UNRWA has “robust” procedures to uphold the principle of UN neutrality, but cited serious gaps in implementation, including staff publicly expressing political opinions, textbooks used in schools and the agency runs “problematic content” and staff unions disrupt operations.
From 2017 to 2022, the report says the annual number of accusations of violation of neutrality at UNRWA ranged between seven and 55. But between January 2022 and February 2024, UN investigators received 151 accusations, most related with publications on social networks “made public by external means.” sources,” she said.
In a key section on staff neutrality, the panel, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, said UNRWA shares staff lists with host countries for its 32,000 employees, including about 13,000 in Gaza.
But he said Israeli officials never expressed concern and informed panel members that they did not consider the list “a selection or vetting process” but rather a procedure for registering diplomats.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry informed the panel that as of March 2024, personnel lists did not include Palestinian identification numbers, according to the report.
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Apparently based on those figures, “Israel made public statements that a significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations,” the panel said. “However, Israel has yet to provide evidence to support this.”
Israel’s accusations led to the suspension of contributions to UNRWA by the United States and more than a dozen other countries. That amounted to a pause in funding worth about $450 million, according to Monday’s report, but several countries have resumed contributions.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Monday asked donor countries to avoid sending money to the organization.
“The Colonna report ignores the seriousness of the problem and offers cosmetic solutions that do not address the enormous scope of Hamas’s infiltration of UNRWA,” said ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein. “This is not what a genuine, thorough review looks like. “This is what an effort to avoid the problem and not address it head-on looks like.”
Colonna, speaking at the United Nations when the report was released, said the panel had been well received by Israelis while conducting its review and urged the Israeli government not to dismiss it.
“Of course you will find that it is insufficient, but take it into account. Whatever we recommend, if implemented, will bring benefits,” Colonna said.
The report highlights the critical importance of UNRWA, calling it “irreplaceable and indispensable for the human and economic development of Palestinians” in the absence of a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “fundamental in providing humanitarian aid and essential social services that save lives”. , particularly in health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank.”
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric welcomed this commitment to UNRWA, saying the report “sets out clear recommendations, which the secretary-general accepts.”
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said last week that he accepts all the recommendations.
As Israel called for the agency’s dissolution, Lazzarini told the UN Security Council that dismantling UNRWA would deepen Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and accelerate the onset of famine.
International experts have warned of imminent famine in northern Gaza and said half of the territory’s 2.3 million people could be pushed to the brink of starvation if the conflict between Israel and Hamas escalates.
Separately, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also ordered the UN’s internal watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, to conduct an investigation into Israeli allegations that 12 UNRWA employees They participated in the October 1 attacks. 7 attacks. That report is eagerly awaited.
In its March 20 interim report, the panel highlighted UNRWA’s “significant number of mechanisms and procedures to ensure compliance with the humanitarian principles of neutrality,” but also identified “critical areas that need to be addressed.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press