Australian PM should apologise to UNRWA: Mehreen Faruqi
Australian Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has called on the Australian prime minister to “make a formal apology and immediately increase aid to UNRWA”, after an independent report on the UN agency said it was “pivotal in providing life-saving humanitarian aid and essential social services”.
“Labor must wake up from their unquestioning support of Israel and sanction it immediately,” Faruqi said.
Australia already restored 6 million Australian dollars ($3.9m) in funding to UNRWA in mid-March after suspending its support in January.
Faruqi said Australia’s decision to join other countries in suspending aid to UNRWA had contributed to the $450m the report found Israel’s unproven allegations had so far cost the UN agency.
The US can't claim they didn't know. It was all known long before but now it's written down in a US human rights report as well.
US rights reports on Israel highlights judicial discrimination against Palestinians
The US State Department’s 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices says Israel’s war on Gaza has had “a significant negative impact on the human rights situation”, while details in the report demonstrate systemic discrimination against Palestinians in the judicial process.
According to the State Department, there were several reports that the Israeli government or its agents had “committed arbitrary or unlawful killings during” 2023, as well as “disappearances by or on behalf of government authorities”.
The report also addressed the conditions in Israeli jails and the treatment of Palestinian prisoners, saying that “there were numerous reports that authorities held some prisoners in conditions that harmed their health, including severe overcrowding”.
“Military law allowed the indefinite administrative detention without charge or trial of Palestinians from the West Bank or Gaza detained or imprisoned within Israel,” the report states.
“Israeli citizens who committed crimes within the West Bank were subject only to Israeli law and could only be tried in civilian courts within Israel, whereas Palestinians in the West Bank were subject to trial in Israeli military courts.”
