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All EU donors have resumed UNRWA funding: Borrell
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has lauded an initiative by the Slovenian Permanent Mission to the UN to support UNRWA‘s vital role in providing assistance to generations of Palestinian refugees.
In a post on X, he also stated that all EU donors have now resumed funding of the UN agency.
I commend the initiative in favour of @UNRWA, an indispensable lifeline in Gaza and in the region.
All EU donors have now resumed their support to the Agency, still in critical financial situation.
We have to step up our support; the needs are only growing. https://t.co/wOHmu3RdQx
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) May 23, 2024
Earlier this year, Israel claimed that 12 UNRWA members participated in the Hamas-led October 7 attack on southern Israel. The claims against UNRWA led to a massive funding deficit as several donor countries announced cuts. A review headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna later revealed that Israel had failed to support its claims about the UNRWA staff.
UK complaint alleges politicians’ complicity in Israeli ‘war crimes’
A new criminal complaint has been submitted to the Metropolitan Police alleging potential British government officials’ complicity in aiding and abetting the intentional starvation of Palestinians.
It supplements an existing complaint issued in January by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), arguing that UK politicians are criminally liable for their involvement in alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
The new complaint, submitted by the ICJP on May 17, names 22 individuals, including five senior UK government ministers.
Hungary says ICC warrant against Netanyahu ‘unacceptable’
Hungary’s PM Viktor Orban’s chief of staff says the ICC prosecutor’s request for an arrest warrant against Netanyahu is “unacceptable” and could not be enforced in Hungary.
Gergely Gulyas told a news briefing that although Hungary, a staunch ally of Israel, ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC, it “was never made part of Hungarian law”, meaning that no measure of the court can be carried out within Hungary.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said on Monday he had requested arrest warrants for Israel’s PM, his defence chief and three Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes.
“This decision … is not a legal but a political decision, it is unacceptable and it discredits the International Criminal Court,” Gulyas said.
All 27 European Union countries are ICC members, and EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell noted that they “are bound to execute the court’s decisions”.
‘Extreme violence and hostility’ as UK police target Oxford student protesters
British police arrested a dozen University of Oxford students and scuffled with some during a pro-Palestinian sit-in at the university premises.
The Oxford Action for Palestine group (OA4P) said university authorities called in police after students began their protest at administration offices, as has been happening on campuses in the UK, US and elsewhere during Israel’s devastating war on Gaza.
Footage posted on social media by OA4P showed altercations between officers and students sitting in the road blockading a police van it said held detainees. “Let them go,” demonstrators chanted.
Protesters have called for the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel. “It is evident the administration would rather arrest, silence, and physically assault its own students than confront its enabling of Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” the group said.
Student Kendall Gardner accused police of “extreme violence and hostility”.
Officers attended Oxford University this morning, after reports protestors gained access to a private office.
16 people have since been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass. One of the 16 has also been arrested on suspicion of common assault.
— Thames Valley Police (@ThamesVP) May 23, 2024
‘Peace we want for Ukraine is peace we want for Palestine’: Spanish PM Sanchez
Pedro Sanchez says recognition of the Palestinian state will “contribute to peace” in the Middle East.
“Are Ireland, Norway, the International Criminal Court, the more than 140 countries that in the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of the recognition of Palestine also friends of terrorists? No,” he posted on X.
“The peace of the international order based on rules, of respect and compliance with human rights. Recognition of the Palestinian State will contribute to peace in the Middle East. We are on the right side of history,” Sanchez wrote.
