Israel rejects UNRWA review, Palestinians urge donors to resume funding
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein has said the review of UNRWA headed by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna was insufficient and an “effort to avoid the problem and not address it head on”.
Marmorstein accused more than 2,135 UNRWA workers of being members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. But according to the Colonna report, Israel has still not provided any evidence for its allegations.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, said the recommendations “enhance UNRWA’s already high standards of impartiality, humanity and neutrality”. The ministry appealed to donors who paused funding to “urgently reconsider their decisions”.
Israel’s claims against UNRWA employees were ‘political’ and ‘cruel’: Analyst
Jeffrey Sachs, an economist and professor at Columbia University, says Israel’s claims that UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks “were political” and “cruel”.
The allegations, he said, “elicited an immediate response from 16 donors … that immediately cut off funding” to the agency without waiting for evidence.
“This was politics at play, this was not substantive,” he said, adding that Israel should “abide by the findings of today’s report” – referring to the findings of an independent review of UNRWA, which found that Israel has yet to provide evidence for its allegations that a significant number of UNRWA staff were members of “terrorist” groups.
Donors should “stop this financial boycott” of the agency, Sachs said.
“It’s reprehensible at a time when the people of Gaza are in such urgent need.” Sachs noted that UNRWA has been “under politicised attacks” for a long time, and has taken “detailed” measures to demonstrate its neutrality.
US rights group welcomes findings of State Dept human rights report on Israel
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) has said that the US Department of State in its 2023 human rights report cited numerous incidents taken by Israeli forces such as arbitrary or unlawful killings, enforced disappearance, torture and unjustified arrests of journalists, among others.
“While we welcome reports indicating the State Department’s intention to blacklist some Israeli units in accordance with Leahy laws, today’s human rights report shows that designating only a few units amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist,” said Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director.
“The widespread nature of the abuses described in the human rights report is overshadowed by the State Department’s inaction on these same findings. The State Department needs to read its own report and take immediate action against all abusive Israeli units.”
Israeli authorities “took no publicly visible steps to identify and punish officials accused of committing human rights abuses”, said the report, covering the incidents of last year.
US double standards over Israel’s war on Gaza ‘very clear’, analyst says
Sultan Barakat, a professor in conflict and humanitarian studies at the Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, has criticised Blinken’s rejection of suggestions that Washington might have a “double standard” when applying US law to allegations of Israeli military abuses in Gaza.
“The whole world has seen the double standard over the last six months or so; it’s very clear,” Barakat told Al Jazeera.
The US, as Israel’s strongest ally, is now trying “to provide a smokescreen by highlighting a number of infringements” made by Israel, he added. He used the example of the potential sanctions against an Israeli ultra-orthodox military unit and individual settlers.
“That’s not a solution. That’s not enough. And I think the United States and Blinken understand very well that that’s not the answer.”
Bakarat said frustration at the double standards is obvious to many in the US, especially younger people, and the pro-Palestinian demonstrations taking place across US universities are something the government should take seriously, “This is the generation that has the ability to see what’s going on in Gaza on social media. And I don’t think they can take them lightly,” he said.
