Aid workers accused of taking part on 7/10 attack on Israel - appalling !

Just edited my post. I’m not sure terrorists have salaries, but i get your point.

I assume it’s money and the worry is that money is partly being used to pay salaries of terrorists, but that’s speculation on my part.

What on earth are we sending as aid? Anti-tank missiles? Maybe just send food and medicine instead then. I’d be amazed if we were sending anything that could even remotely be used for terrorism.

Edit: Ok, I presume by that we are simply giving cash then rather than actually providing physical stuff. I’d still be amazed if any money was being spent on weapons or anything that could be used by Hamas. Very different to people being involved.

Neither, actually!

I am saying that ...

1. Your premise is false - and nobody has even claimed that. Not even Israel. Who has had it in for UNRWA for literal years. The actual accusation is that, as per Israel (from what I understand: specifically Shin Bet "confessions"*), some 12 members of staff have been accused - and they have been suspended!
2. I am also saying that - for all the criticism I would personally level at UNRWA (not the same stuff that the occupation tends to complain about, mind!) - UNRWA is instrumental in delivering and distributing humanitarian aid to Gazans these days. De-funding them at this exact moment is tantamount to "re-inforcing the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza". Which is, at the very minimum, a war crime, and possibly "part and parcel" of genocidal actions. I very much expect my government not to be complicit in this - never mind actively support it!
3. Yes, Israel should be defunded. We should not be giving aid and shipping weapons to a state that uses our goods to massacre civilians and re-inforce Apartheid in the West Bank. Absolutely not.
4. In fact, Israel should be santioned! (And, before you say "but Hamas ..." - they ARE!)

• Asterisk on the grounds of: it is widely known that Israel tortures confessions out of detainees,

If it’s the latter, countries supporting Israel consider that waging war on Hamas is legitimate. The ICJ also takes this position.

Iran, on the other hand, think Hamas’ attack was legitimate which is why they arm them.

Are you saying that aid money being used for attacks like those of Oct 7th shouldn’t be prevented? Or are you saying it should be prevented, but Israel shouldn’t be armed either?

... which would be entirely credible, had ANY of these countries - including my own!!! - even so much as threatened to stop sending weapons to Israel. If not before then, at the very least, after the ICJ ruling!

But they have not. Not even a single one of them!

I assume they are suspending aid donations because they are concerned about it being used for terrorism?

No, we don’t know definitively, but the non-denial of the UN makes it very plausible. So imo we shouldn’t turn this into an Israeli crime. Of course if it turns out not to be true I would expect funding to be reinstated.

Regardless of how true this is, how is suspending aid that presumably can only be used to help the civilian population of Gaza doing anything other than punishing those same civilians?

We don't know what the actual crime is @Tuile , it might be a 12 frustrated teachers posting on a forum or it might be 12 people actively taking part in the 7th Oct atrocities.

The involvement of UN staff is the bigger point here though. Yes someone will always try to make political capital out of any misstep but it’s so important not to lose sight of the actual crime

This doesn’t have to turn into a fight. We can support Gaza whilst acknowledging that UN staff being involved in or supporting terrorism is appalling and that it is necessary to scrutinise corruption in the UN. These discussions would be so much easier if they were less childishly tribal.

That profile I linked to on Twitter is beginning to bug me, the language is very propaganda like. Which is not necessary if you have a winning case.

genocidal antisemitism The bloke is beginning to sound like Eylon Levy

Why the day after Israel has found to be plausibly committing genocide would you be accusing UNWRA of being genocidal anti-Semites? Escalation is too fast.
12 people were involved
3000 teachers were involved
UNWRA the whole organisation is ...

... that would be the very same Katz, whose statement was among those singled out by the ICJ for "examples of potentially genocidal rhetoric".

How come that person is spreading his bile as opposed to facing arrest is beyond me!

In fairness, I have a fair deal of personal criticism of UNRWA. Things need to change there. Just ... not in the sense Israeli propaganda is demanding!

The current assault is quite clearly "payback from the empire" for the crime of the Hague daring to take on the unsinkable aircraft carrier of the so-called "West".

Just to add that the G reports Israel Katz as saying his country seeks to stop UNWRA operating in Gaza after the war, and will seek support from US. EU and other major donors. So there's a possibility UNWRA will struggle to continue work there. If investigations reveal large scale corruption I suppose it's inevitable, but at present it looks disproportionate and punishing of the population.

Interview with UNWRA rep. on C4 said that countries withdrawing funding for aid are impeding it, which violates Geneva convention. I am sad to say I wonder if the rules count for anything now, or whether they ever did. He did also say that there are 193 countries in UN, so at present UNWRA may still operate and survive.

I’ve read the twitter now NerdWhoEatsMedlar, I see the point you were making now.

Chris Doyle, the director of the Council of British-Arab Understanding, told Sky News the initial US decision "beggars belief".
"It's hard to think that the US reputation across the world could sink much lower," he says.
"But on the basis of allegations that have been made... it has suspended aid to the most vulnerable people, not just in the Gaza Strip, but on the planet."
Mr Doyle cited a report from the World Food Programme detailing the extreme levels of hunger in the region.
"So the United States thinks in this situation that it should penalise people who are literally starving to death. It beggars belief," he said.
He said the rest of the world is watching "aghast" at the move.

US, Australia, Italy, Canada, Finland and today the UK:

The EU are "assessing further steps":

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68104203.amp

@headstone I didn't highlight it. Someone from UNWatch did.

I also can see how it is an emotive issue if a family you know has just been wiped out by a rocket.

I just found the nearest to a primary source possible as the lies in this conflict really piss me off.

I agree that there needs to be a investigation into the allegations and necessary reforms made that are needed, but cutting aid at this time was the worst thing to do.
This will further penalise over 2 million Gazans who are starving and suffering in one of the worst war zones currently in the world. I shared this elsewhere and will share here too which i think hits the nail on the head

NerdwhoEatsMedlar so they are talking about a bomb that killed a whole Palestinian family, and the bit the you’ve highlighted suggests that Isreal will move a settler into the area (gaza) and then someone says they will kill this hypothetical settler. The translation is poor but ethnic cleansing is illegal, bombing a Palestinian family is wrong and then moving hypothetically an Israeli family in is wrong. In that hypothetical situation I can understand why they might feel that way.

So with 13000 UNRWA staff in Gaza statistically it is not surprising that some staff are also members of Hamas and participated in the 7th October attacks.

However stopping aid to ordinary Palestinian civilians will simply worsen their suffering and push their views to further support extremist Islamic organisations. Which in turn makes any peaceful or compromise solution that much harder to reach. Ordinary Gaza's need to be given hope and an alternative to Hamas, you are not going to win them over or get more moderate views by increasing their suffering.

There was two sub points in this story that did concern me though:

1. vehicles and equipment provided by UNRWA were involved in the 7th October attacks. So money from UN donor nations was used to facilitate terrorist attacks.

2. Despite knowing about this allegation for two months the UN chose to go public with it and sacked 12 UNRWA staff (based on allegations before an investigation) on the same day as the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel. At best this looks like an attempt to bury bad news on the bigger news story of the ICJ and at worst questions the UN's impartiality on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

This is the post that was made in a group that contains 3,000 teachers.
I'd like to see a better translation as this one is a bit clunky.
https://twitter.com/HillelNeuer/status/1744883114042658902

Remember a martyr is anyone killed by Israel, man woman or child