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

So why have Israel been waterboarding UNRWA employees and threatening their families instead of just handing over the evidence needed? Why have Canada, Sweden and the EU all reinstated funding? It seems really odd that Israel have all of the evidence they need to prove UNWRA 'collaborates' with Hamas yet choose to torture and beat workers instead of just releasing this evidence which according to you goes back to the 1980s. Can you think of reasons why Israel would choose this path instead of just presenting this decades worth if evidence to the countries that are donating to UNRWA? Not just that but why they chose to not object to a single UNRWA employee in 2023 when like always they are given the list of employees to check against this decades worth of evidence?

1982 book documents UNWRA collaboration with terrorism

I think it's been mentioned more than a few times before the ICJ ruling.

That a small minority of aid workers are members of Hamas, does not give reason to defund the whole organisation at such a crucial time, in terms of providing the people of Palestine who have done nothing wrong, with essential life enabling supplies and services.

The timing was very convenient, coming straight after the ICJ ruling that the case against Israel for genocide could go ahead.

Double standards apply to our governments willingness to continue to support Israel while they are being investigated for genocide by the ICJ.

UNWRA is defunded without evidence being assessed by an independent body, and with evidence being provided only by Israel, who have a political interest in seeing UNWRA defunded.

And that’s the best Israel can come with? After torture of UNWRA workers? After claims by Israel that led to defunding of UMWRA, which - alongside Israel’s blockade of aid - have contributed to starvation of innocent civilians? One man out of 12,000 UNWRA workers?

And while it’s not possible to refute the claim that a person who worked for UNWRA was identified in the video clip mentioned, this information is probably coming from the IDF so given the track record of the IDF , not especially credible

The video footage is freely available on the internet - I've seen it on Twitter - so it's perfectly possible to see that the man in the video is the same person who was named by the IDF.

interesting use of word coercion in the Reuters headline to describe torture of Palestinians by Israel.

”The document said several UNRWA Palestinian staffers had been detained by the Israeli army, and added that the ill-treatment and abuse they said they had experienced included severe physical beatings, waterboarding, and threats of harm to family members.”

Not sure why- but threats to family seems worst, from my perspective as a mother.

There are 12,000 UNWRA employees so do the math- there’s bound to be some Hamas members.

And while it’s not possible to refute the claim that a person who worked for UNWRA was identified in the video clip mentioned, this information is probably coming from the IDF so given the track record of the IDF , not especially credible.

Israel is trying to get UNWRA disbanded. The reason that UNWRA exists is because Palestinian became refugees when the UN created the state of Israel and they left their homes involuntarily. Israel does not want the Palestinians to be classed as refugees because that implicitly supports the Palestinian right of return. This agreement in 1948 said Palestinians could go back or would be compensated.The return of Palestinians to their former homelands would threaten the existence of Israel as a theocratic state because of the demographics involved- at best Israel would be a normal country like Sweden or Ireland. At worst it would be like Afghanistan or Iran.

So, @Homeeducation1 , with all due respect, I think that your comment is part of a campaign by pro-Israeli actors to discredit UNWRA as part of a wider political agenda and has little to do with sympathy for a grieving mother.

Of course UNWRA is going to try and save its organisation as it stands.

You can’t really refute some of the evidence that has been presented that some UNWRA employees took part in the October 7th massacre.
Faisal Ali Mussalem al-Naami, a social worker employed by UNWRA (appears in video footage) to load Jonathan Samerano’s body (who has already been killed) into the back of a vehicle.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/mother-whose-sons-body-was-seized-by-unrwa-staff-calls-on-un-head-to-meet-in-geneva/#:~:text=The%20mother%20of%20Jonathan%20Samerano,General%20Antonio%20Guterres%20in%20Geneva.

Posted in another thread but thought it was relevant here too.

www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/unrwa-report-says-israel-coerced-some-agency-employees-falsely-admit-hamas-links-2024-03-08/

That’s so ironic - would have been interesting to see Israel actually provide the assistance after blowing up infrastructure that would have supported this.
But, there’s people at risk of starvation and Israel cannot get aid into Gaza beyond their protestors - never mind distribute aid in the Rafah crossing where they’re bombing a million Gazans who have no where else to go!

It looks like the penny has dropped for Israel and they have realised that if UNWRA folds then the onus is on them to step in and provide the millions of dollars worth of aid to Palestinians. The US usually listen to Israel so hopefully they will this time and all donations will be reinstated.

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2024/02/07/gaza-conflict-israel-pressing-us-and-others-to-continue-funding-unrwa-report/

Edit: I've just noticed the article is nearly a week old. Maybe Biden has had enough of listening to Israel after all.

Posted in another thread but can be here as well
The journalist from Wall Street that wrote the unrwa- Hamas relationship had idf links

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240206-al-jazeera-reports-on-journalistic-failure-in-wall-street-journal-article/amp/

Oh, I'm aware of that however it does state that it saw the dossier.

Glad you're here to tell us how commerical tv works 🙄but generally news programmes report on the news issues of the day I don't agree that what they cover is influenced by advertisements and sponsors. Most ethical journalists are there to uncover the truth and does require respecting fairness, impartiality and independence

Haha and I believe in Big Foot...

My post was simply pointing out what I did. I don't expect you to believe it as that was included in what I stated. Especially with the hints about TV channels...

I'm well aware of what you are hinting at. It is not unexpected as it seems to be the norm when it is something not to Israel supporters' liking.

quite
and yet they can arrest children for throwing stones…

Channel 4 not having seen any evidence isn't the same as there not being an evidence. They just haven't been shown it.

Does anyone know what happened to UNRWAs investigation in December into the allegations that an UNRWA teacher and his family held a hostage for 50 days? I can't find any updates on it at all, just their original statement where they were outraged at the accusation.

Exactly... when it comes to losing money there is immediate action happening but silence when people are being deliberately starved and unable to access basic medicine and hygiene supplies.

We can protect shipping lanes, but we can’t make sure aid gets into Gaza.

Goodness me! I have a lot of sympathy for any friends and family of the hostages who are doing this out of desperation. But the IDF, or some sort of military presence should be ensuring that these trucks get through.

132 aid trucks being held up due to protesters... How nice preventing aid from reaching the starving population. (They directly attacked a lorry carrying aid the other day and also Israeli forces fired at an aid lorry the same day. Lovely.)