Germany resumes cooperation with UN agency for Palestinians

‘The German government will soon continue its cooperation with UNRWA in Gaza, as Australia, Canada, Sweden and Japan have already done,’ say German ministries

Germany announced Wednesday that it will resume funding the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, as confirmed by the Foreign Ministry and Development Aid Ministry.

“By continuing the acute cooperation, we are supporting UNRWA’s vital and irreplaceable role in providing care for the people in Gaza, because other international aid organizations are also currently dependent on UNRWA’s operational structures in Gaza,” the ministries said in a joint statement.

“The German government will soon continue its cooperation with UNRWA in Gaza, as Australia, Canada, Sweden and Japan, among others, have already done,” said the ministries in the statement.

Israel fails to back up its claims about UNRWA

Displaced Palestinians wait to receive United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) aid, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, March 7, 2024 (Reuters)

A strong ally of Israel, Germany had joined several countries, including the U.S. and Britain, in suspending their funding to UNRWA after accusations by Israel that a dozen of the agency’s 13,000 staff in Gaza took part in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel.

The federal government has intensively dealt with the allegations made by Israel against UNRWA and discussed this closely with the Israeli government, the U.N., and other international donors, according to the statement.

A separate U.N. probe is investigating the Israeli claims. However, the Colonna-led review of the agency’s neutrality on Monday concluded Israel had yet to back up its accusations that hundreds of UNRWA staff were operatives in Gaza terrorist groups.

German aid flows to the Middle East, but not Gaza

While German cooperation with UNRWA in the Gaza Strip has been on hold since the end of January, funding continued to flow for the aid agency’s work in other regions of the Middle East.

At the end of March, the German government allocated €45 million (around $48 million) to the Palestinian relief organization for work in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank.

According to the government, it supported the U.N. agency with more than €200 million in 2023 alone.

The German call on the world to continue support for UNRWA

It will coordinate closely with its closest international partners to disburse further funds. Given the catastrophic situation of the people in the Gaza Strip, there have recently been repeated calls to continue supporting the Palestinian relief organization, it added.

At the same time, Germany called for the swift implementation of the recommendations of the U.N. fact-finding report.

“Particular importance should be attached to strengthening the UNRWA internal audit and staffing it with international U.N. staff, improved external supervision of project management, further continuous comparison of the UNRWA employee lists with the Israeli security authorities, and the expansion of internal training,” it noted.

Source: Newsroom