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

[Lanabigbanana]

https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/serious-allegations-against-unrwa-staff-gaza-strip

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-palestinian-refugee-agency-investigates-staff-suspected-role-israel-attacks-2024-01-26/

From the Guardian 5 hours ago;

"UK suspends UNRWA support after Israeli allegations The UK has temporarily paused future funding of UNRWA, saying it is “appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel”.
A statement sent to the Guardian by the UK’s foreign, commonwealth and development office said:
'The UK is appalled by allegations that UNRWA staff were involved in the 7 October attack against Israel, a heinous act of terrorism that the UK government has repeatedly condemned.

The UK is temporarily pausing any future funding of UNRWA whilst we review these concerning allegations.'

We remain committed to getting humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza who desperately need it."

It is a massive aide agency. Some of their staff are terrorist supporters. A small number, out of the many thousands of staff. They themselves are committed to investigating and expelling anyone who was involved - they can't do much more than that, can they

It's troubling that countries are pulling aid based on allegations by Israel rather than waiting for the conclusion of investigations into what happened. Once again the only losers are the people living in hell on earth Gaza.

They are not. The agency itself has seen the evidence and is not denying it, in fact is acting on it

Yes it is appalling that 12 aid workers are accused of taking part in terrorist activities. They have been suspended and an investigation is ongoing.

As of 1 January 2024, the total number of UNRWA colleagues killed since the beginning of hostilities is 142.

@Lanabigbanana
There are 13,000 people on the UN payroll of the UN in Gaza. Of these 12 were involved in 7/10 - a percentage of 0.09%. This is going to be investigated by UNRWA - who have denounced this.

As Israeli government has to make sure the Palestinians in Gaza get access to aid- who is going to distribute it? Remember they have killed over 130 UN workers and 300 health workers?

Should the US stop sending aid to Israel because a handful of soldiers have been videoed killing people waving white flags? That’s surely a war crime?

Never mind the endless videos that have been posted showing IDF soldiers rejoicing at the destruction of Gaza.

Yes but it has yet to be investigated surely.

There seems to be multiple countries withdrawing aid

Will countries withdrawing funding transfer support to some other aid agency? Aid is desperately needed and was a requirement of ICJ.

Perhaps like Israel they will properly investigate what happened on 7/10 afterwards…
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2024-01-08/ty-article-opinion/the-idf-must-investigate-the-kibbutz-beeri-tank-fire-incident-right-now/0000018c-e5b8-d765-ab9d-f5fd1f830000

3,000 UNRWA teachers have also been accused of praising the October 7 massacre on social media. UN Watch published names and numbers of the participants so UN officials then said they would investigate.

That was, I think, a few days before it became apparent that some staff might have actually taken part.

In light of the UK governments shameful decision to suspend funding to unrwa here is a link if anyone would like to donate.

donate.unrwa.org/-landing-page/en_EN

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

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.

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.

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

@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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

... 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".

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 ...

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.