Israel wants to restrict UN Palestinian relief agency – foreign countries worried

The Israeli parliament will vote on Monday on two controversial bills that are intended to massively restrict the work of the UN Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA). The aim of the project by members of the government and the opposition is to classify UNRWA as a terrorist organization and to prohibit authorities in Israel from having contact with the organization. It is intended to ban the aid organization’s work on Israeli territory.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke out clearly against the project. Such a law would “stifle” efforts to ease human suffering and tensions in the Gaza Strip – and also in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, he warned earlier this month. “It would be a catastrophe in what is already a complete disaster.” You can read more about UNRWA here.

Israel’s draft law has “devastating effects”

Seven Western countries also reacted with “deep concern” to the Israeli parliament’s legislative plans. In a statement, the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea “strongly” called on the Israeli government to comply with its international obligations, to maintain UNRWA’s prerogatives and to provide humanitarian aid and basic services to enable the civilian population.

The statement by the seven foreign ministers said that UNRWA’s services for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and throughout the region included education, health care and the distribution of fuel. Without UNRWA’s work, the provision of such assistance would be “severely hampered, if not impossible, having a devastating impact on the already critical and rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation.”

Israel has repeatedly made allegations against UNRWA in the past. According to this, several employees of the organization were involved in the massacre on October 7, 2023 and the organization as a whole was infiltrated by Hamas.

In their statement, the ministers emphasized that UNRWA had taken steps to address allegations of individual staff supporting terrorist organizations and had reformed internal processes. According to the media, if the changes to the law are approved in the third and final reading, as expected, Israel could, in the worst case scenario, be excluded from the United Nations.