Held-up cash
The European Commission announced in March that it would continue to fund UNRWA, the U.N. relief agency for Palestine refugees, after Israel claimed in January that UNRWA staff were involved in the Oct. 7 attacks.
However, parts of the financial support for the Palestinian territories and member countries’ contributions to the agency are still being held up.
Borrell told reporters that “time has come” to restart full payments to UNWRA after a U.N.-commissioned review led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna found more than two weeks ago that the aid organization has established mechanisms and policies to ensure neutrality and “rapid and adequate responses to allegations.” The report stressed the lack of evidence provided by Israel to back the claims of staff involvement in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks.
Spanish, German and Belgian ministers have also supported the call to reintroduce full funding of the U.N. agency.
“We are talking about civilians […] who may suffer more hunger due to the totally wrong decision of a government,” said Eva Granados Galiano, State Secretary for International Cooperation of Spain.
Jochen Flasbarth, the state secretary for Germany’s ministry of economic cooperation and development — which resumed cooperation with UNRWA last month — added that after Colonna’s report, “there is a rebuilding of trust in the U.N. institutions.”
