The United States would stop funding the main U.N. agency that provides aid to Palestinians in Gaza under a spending deal set to take effect soon, according to two people familiar with the plan.
The ban, part of a sweeping spending bill negotiated by lawmakers and the White House that is expected to be approved by Congress by the weekend, would create a deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars for the organization known as UNRWA. This could have catastrophic consequences for the people of Gaza, who face an acute hunger crisis and displacement in overcrowded shelters and tent camps.
The move would also put Washington at odds with its Western allies over how to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as Hamas militants are accused of infiltrating the organization.
The suspension is scheduled to last until March 2025 and extends a funding pause that the White House and lawmakers from both major U.S. parties supported after Israel in January accused at least 12 UNRWA staff of participating in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on March 7. October to have been involved. There are efforts to enforce a longer-term financing ban, say people familiar with the negotiations.
“Not a single tax dollar should go to UNRWA after its members made serious allegations of involvement in the October 7 attacks,” Senator James Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement to The New York Times .
The U.S. plan has left some of America’s closest allies scrambling to secure funding for the agency.
The loss of American support would impact the agency’s ability to provide food and health services in Gaza. The United States has paid much of the agency’s total budget, including $370 million in 2023. According to Scott Anderson, the agency’s deputy director for Gaza, UNRWA had enough funding earlier this month to continue its operations until the end of May .
Philppe Lazzarini, UNRWA commissioner general, said he feared that U.S. efforts to suspend funding would have a drastic impact on aid agencies’ services in Gaza, particularly education. “I really hope that the United States continues to show solidarity,” he said.
The agreement, which is the result of long and careful negotiations, is expected to be easily passed by Congress.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, said he opposed the funding ban.
“Punishing over two million innocent people in Gaza and UNRWA recipients across the region for these acts is not only misguided but also irresponsible,” he said on Wednesday.
The White House appeared to be hoping for the possibility that funding for UNRWA, which supports Palestinian refugees across the Middle East, could eventually be restored once the agency completes its investigations and takes reform steps.
“There is no other organization that has the reach, tentacles and distribution capabilities that UNRWA has in Gaza. “That’s just a fact,” said John F. Kirby, the spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
“Obviously UNRWA needs to reform because this is not unacceptable behavior for anyone,” he added.
U.N. officials said they had fired at least nine of the original 12 staffers accused of involvement in the Oct. 7 attack or its aftermath, and two others were dead. António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, who described himself as “appalled by these allegations,” ordered an investigation into the organization and urged nations that had suspended aid to reconsider.
In the past two weeks, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Australia, which suspended funding to UNRWA after Israel’s allegations were made public in January, have said they would extend funding. A number of other countries, including Germany, UNRWA’s second-largest supporter, are expected to make similar announcements in the coming months, according to five European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.
On Wednesday, a Saudi-funded humanitarian organization pledged to increase its funding to the organization by $40 million, according to a statement.
“We welcome the decision by donor countries to restore funding, but we are not out of the woods yet,” said Juliette Touma, UNRWA communications director.
But as America’s allies look for ways to fund and possibly reform the agency – such as strengthening enforcement of its rules that require employees to maintain neutrality – Washington is looking for other alternatives.
But humanitarian officials doubt that other U.N. agencies or smaller aid groups are capable of distributing large amounts of aid as the war between Israel and Hamas rages.
Israeli officials recently met in Washington with members of Congress and the Biden administration and shared new evidence that UNRWA staff had “deep ties” to militant groups in Gaza, according to an Israeli official familiar with the matter, describing the evidence as called “irrefutable”. ”
Previously, he said, Israeli officials shared materials with investigators from the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight who are conducting an investigation into whether UNRWA employees have ties to Hamas. He said Israel was committed to ensuring the continued flow of aid to Gaza, but not through UNRWA.
At the start of the war, food aid distribution was primarily overseen by UNRWA. But recently, a patchwork of aid organizations, convoys run by local businessmen and airdrops from foreign governments have been involved in delivering urgently needed food.
Distribution, particularly in northern Gaza, has been slowed by lawlessness, violence and Israel’s denial of entry to convoys.
At least twice in recent weeks, attempts to distribute food have ended in bloodshed, with hungry Palestinians seeking help killed. The deadliest incident of its kind killed more than 100 people in Gaza City on February 29, according to local health authorities, who attributed the deaths to shots fired by Israeli troops at the crowd. The Israeli military admitted opening fire but said most of the deaths came from people storming or being run over by trucks.
On Monday, the United Nations-backed food insecurity monitoring organization warned that “famine is looming” in Gaza.
Both Republicans and Democrats have proposed the World Food Program as an alternative, according to UNRWA supporters who recently attended the congress and spoke on condition of anonymity about their private meetings.
But the World Food Program (WFP) has fewer than 100 staff in Gaza compared to the 13,000 on UNRWA’s payroll, 3,000 of whom continued to work during the war.
Israel has also discussed playing a larger role in Gaza with the WFP, along with other organizations, according to the Israeli official who discussed the recent meetings in Washington and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the deliberations.
But moving staff from one organization to another would be complicated, said Mr. McGoldrick, the U.N. coordinator. For example, WFP workers in Gaza are generally paid about three times as much as their UNRWA colleagues, he said.
As Washington looks for alternatives to UNRWA, other countries have decided to restore their funding based on the organization’s pledges to improve its staff vetting process and enforcement of ethics rules.
According to UNRWA officials and European diplomats, these donor countries are demanding additional information from the U.N. office overseeing the investigation into the Israeli allegations, as well as the results of an independent review conducted by Catherine Colonna, a former French foreign minister. Ms. Colonna is expected to release a preliminary update on Wednesday and her final report on April 20.
Many European countries expect UNRWA to take the investigation seriously, one of the European diplomats said, adding that evidence was important for “credible reform efforts.” “The general impression is that things are going quite well,” the diplomat said.
Hugh Lovatt, senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the push in European capitals to restore funding was a recognition that Europe had “overreacted” in the face of the allegations.
Nevertheless, the European Union has said that UNRWA’s future funding depends on the agency allowing EU-appointed experts to audit the organization; Increase staffing of internal investigations and ethics departments; and getting employees to sign conflict of interest declarations, according to written correspondence between the UNRWA Commissioner General, Mr. Lazzarini, and Oliver Varhelyi, a senior EU official.
According to correspondence between Mr. Lazzarini and Mr. Vahelyi, UNRWA also agreed to hand over a list of its employees to the Israeli authorities every three months, including their Palestinian ID numbers; to confirm that financial institutions have screened their employees against a list of people subject to EU sanctions; and to enable a third party to monitor staff compliance with humanitarian principles and neutrality training.
Previously, Israeli officials had complained that UNRWA only handed over its staff lists once a year without their national ID numbers. Access to the ID numbers, diplomats said, would likely make it easier for Israel to check its databases for certain UNRWA employees with criminal histories.
Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting.
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2024-03-20 17:16:01
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