By Edith M. Lederer | Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS — An independent review of the neutrality of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees has found that Israel has never expressed concerns about people on the employee lists it receives each year since 2011. The review was carried out after Israel alleged that a dozen employees of the agency known as UNRWA participated in the Hamas attacks on October 7.
In a wide-ranging 48-page report released Monday, the independent committee said UNRWA had “robust” procedures for upholding the principle of UN neutrality, but it cited serious shortcomings in its implementation, including staff publicly expressing their political opinions, textbooks used in schools. the agency operates with “problematic content” and staff unions disrupt operations.
From 2017 to 2022, the report said the annual number of allegations of neutrality violations at UNRWA ranged between seven and 55. But between January 2022 and February 2024, UN investigators received 151 allegations, the most linked to social media posts “made public by external sources”. sources,” he said.
In a key section on staff neutrality, the panel, led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, said UNRWA shared with host countries the personnel lists of its 32,000 employees, including about 13 000 in Gaza. But he said Israeli officials never expressed concern and informed panel members that he did not view the list as “a selection or vetting process” but rather a registration procedure. diplomats.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry informed the panel that until March 2024, personnel lists did not include Palestinian identification numbers, according to the report.
Apparently, based on these figures, “Israel publicly stated that a significant number of UNRWA employees were members of terrorist organizations,” the panel said. “However, Israel has yet to provide evidence to support this. »
Israel’s allegations led to the suspension of contributions to UNRWA by the United States and more than a dozen other countries. That amounts to a pause in funding worth about $450 million, according to Monday’s report, but a number of countries have resumed their contributions.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Monday called on donor countries to avoid sending money to the organization.
“The Colonna report ignores the seriousness of the problem and offers cosmetic solutions that fail to take into account the enormous scale of Hamas’ infiltration of UNRWA,” said ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein. “That’s not what true, thorough scrutiny looks like.” This is what an effort to avoid the problem and not address it head on looks like.
Colonna, speaking at the United Nations when the report was released, said the group was well received by Israelis during its review and she urged the Israeli government not to dismiss it. “Of course you will find that this is insufficient, but please take this into account. Everything we recommend, if implemented, will bring good.
The report highlights the crucial importance of UNRWA, calling it “irreplaceable and indispensable to the human and economic development of Palestinians” in the absence of a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “essential in providing aid vital humanitarian and essential social services”. , particularly in the areas of health and education, to Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank.
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UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric welcomed this commitment to UNRWA and said the report “presents clear recommendations, which the secretary-general accepts.”
UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said last week that he accepted all the recommendations. While Israel has called for the agency to be dismantled, Lazzarini told the UN Security Council that dismantling UNRWA would worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and accelerate the onset of famine.
International experts have warned of a looming famine in northern Gaza and said half of the territory’s 2.3 million people could be pushed to the brink of starvation if the war between Israel and Hamas escalates. intensifies.
Separately, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also ordered the UN’s internal watchdog, the Office of Internal Oversight Services, to investigate Israeli allegations that 12 members of the UNRWA personnel are believed to have participated in the October 7 attacks. This report is eagerly awaited.
In its March 20 interim report, the committee noted the “significant number of mechanisms and procedures put in place by UNRWA to ensure respect for the humanitarian principles of neutrality”, but also identified “critical areas that need to be addressed”.
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