Saudi welcomes UN report on UNRWA’s ‘neutrality’

Saudi Arabia welcomed the results of an independent committee’s report on the performance of UNRWA, which confirmed the agency’s compliance with humanitarian neutrality principles.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated Riyadh’s emphasis of the importance of UNRWA donor countries continuing their commitment to the agency to ensure the sustainability and effectiveness of all forms of support to Palestine refugees in a manner that reduces their suffering, especially in light of the “Israeli occupation’s continued violations” of international law and international humanitarian law.

The report by the independent group of experts, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, concluded that Israel did not provide any evidence for its accusations against UNRWA, stressing that there is no alternative to the agency and it cannot be replaced.

Israel claimed that 12 UNRWA employees participated in the infiltration into Israel by Palestinians resistance fighters on 7 October. It later claimed that 30 other UNRWA employees helped or facilitated the events of the day and that up to 12 per cent of the organisation’s employees were members of terrorist organisations.

Israel’s allegations against UNRWA employees led 16 countries to stop or suspend funding worth $450 million, leading the agency to warn that it could cease its life saving operations in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Canada, Sweden, Japan, France, the EU and Germany have now resumed funding after finding Israel’s claims to be unsubstantiated.

Israel has repeatedly equated UNRWA staff with Hamas members in efforts to discredit them, providing no proof of the claims, while lobbying hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees. If the agency no longer exists, argues Israel, then the refugee issue must no longer exist, and the legitimate right for Palestinian refugees to return to their land will be unnecessary. Israel has denied that right of return since the late 1940s, even though its own membership of the UN was made conditional upon Palestinian refugees being allowed to return to their homes and land.

READ: Saudi Arabia boosts UNRWA funding by $40m for Gaza relief