Civic activists want to cut UNRWA funding altogether
Published: Wednesday, Apr 17th 2024, 21:40
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At the next meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council (APK-N), the conservative parties apparently want to submit a motion to cancel the funds to the Palestinian aid organization UNRWA. Instead, they are to be redirected to emergency aid.
Switzerland's emergency aid for the Gaza Strip should only reach the suffering population in the Gaza Strip "via safe corridors and under the protection of the Israeli military", said Zurich FDP National Councillor Hans-Peter Portmann on Wednesday evening's "Rundschau" program on Swiss-German television channel SRF.
This involves the distribution of relief supplies and medicine or care. UNRWA will only play a role again once Hamas has laid down its arms and surrendered, said Portmann. The Islamist Palestinian organization, which has ruled Gaza without interruption since 2006, had diverted funds that were actually intended for aid purposes to set up a military arm.
The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) has suspended its annual contribution of CHF 20 million following allegations that twelve UNRWA employees were involved in the massacre in Israel on October 7.
The FDFA is awaiting the final report on UNRWA, which has been announced for April 20.
An investigation has also been launched into employees who are allegedly members of the Islamist Hamas. This is also likely to decide whether payments from Switzerland will be resumed or not.
UNRWA chief warns of catastrophe
At a hearing of the APK-N in Geneva at the end of March, UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini stressed that the dissolution of UNRWA would have catastrophic consequences for the civilian population and that no other humanitarian organization could currently take over the aid agency's tasks, particularly in the areas of education and health.
UNRWA supports all Palestinian refugees and their descendants in the occupied Palestinian territories, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, maintains schools, hospitals, social services and provides emergency aid. In the Gaza Strip alone, the aid organization employed around 13,000 people before the war. According to Lazzarini, aid deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip have not yet been permitted by Israel.
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