Australia resumes UN Gaza funding after security checks
Australia has unfrozen aid to a United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees after security advice, following accusations some staff helped attack Israel.
Former Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans attend as Malaysian Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim delivers the 2024 Gareth Evans Oration at the Australian National University in Canberra, Thursday, March 7, 2024. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)
Foreign Minister Penny Wong also announced a further $6 million in aid for Gaza after expressing horror at the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the besieged strip.
The foreign minister in January froze funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) following allegations by Israel that some staff were involved in the October 7 attack by Hamas.
A small number of the agency’s staff were fired following the accusations.
The allegations against UNRWA warranted an immediate and appropriate response, Senator Wong said as she defended the decision to freeze aid.
“The Australian government in the face of such allegations has to ensure we go through the process we have to assure Australians we’re able to ensure funding goes to the appropriate people and that’s what we’ve done,” she said on Friday.
“The best available current advice from agencies and the Australian government lawyers is that UNRWA is not a terrorist organisation.”
Israel wanted the UN agency disbanded and replaced after accusing it of being aligned with Hamas, which is a recognised terrorist organisation by Australia.
Israel only provided some of the evidence it relied upon to make the accusation UNRWA staff participated in the Hamas attack, in which 1200 Israelis were killed and more than 200 people taken hostage, according to Tel Aviv.
That was considered by Australia, the foreign minister said.
The Australian government also took advice from security agencies and government lawyers, she added.
“It’s a primary consideration in restoring funding to ensure that Australian funding is used appropriately … it’s also a primary consideration to recognise that we have children and families who are starving,” she said.
The disbursement of $6 million to UNRWA will come as Australia finalises a new funding agreement with the agency to include more conditions, including guarantees of staff remaining neutral.
The move follows the reinstatement of funding by partners such as Canada, Sweden and the European Commission.
The decision has been slammed by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Australian Jewish Association.
Israel’s ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon posted on X: “Very disappointing to learn Australia is reinstating funding to the discredited UNRWA, especially before the UN’s own review is finalised later this month. It’s unquestionable that UNRWA workers actively participated in the atrocities committed on 7th October against innocent Israeli civilians and were also part of the Hamas organisational structure. Other viable options exist to deliver aid in Gaza and they should be utilised, not UNRW.”
To say that UNRWA as a whole is not a terrorist organisation sets a very low bar indeed for the kind of agencies with which Australia will partner. It has been demonstrated that UNRWA employees, including schoolteachers, participated in the Hamas massacre of October 7 and many others have collaborated with Hamas in other ways. They are indeed terrorists even if the organisation for which they work is not designated as such.
The Australian Jewish Association’s CEO Robert Gregory commented: “The Albanese Government is once more demonstrating utter contempt for the lives of Jewish people.It seems that nothing bothers Penny Wong and the Labor Party. Not the rape of Jewish women, not the killing of Jewish children. Not even the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. They will cynically throw away all morals in order to get a few extra votes.
Australian taxpayers should be outraged that our government is knowingly giving away Australian money to odious causes implicated in rape, murder, kidnapping and terrorism.
Labor has been warned on multiple occasions that there is a serious risk of Australian taxpayer funds being used for terrorism. They can not claim ignorance when Australian money is discovered to have funded the next atrocity.
Aid has been proven to be applied to terror infrastructure such as tunnels and rockets and has been stolen to make Hamas leaders billionaires.
This government has demonstrated that it is terrifyingly weak on national security and completely out of its depth.
Labor’s actions have made peace in the Middle East that extra bit harder.”
is concerned by the Government’s resumption of aid to UNRWA.
The Zionist Federation of Australia’s president Jeremy Leibler said: “There is very clearly a dire humanitarian situation unfolding in Gaza, and we support the provision of additional aid, however, we are deeply concerned that a resumption of funding to UNRWA may be wholly counterproductive. If that funding ultimately strengthens Hamas, as it has in the past, it will only extend this war and the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza”.
We note that the United States, UNRWA’s largest donor, is committed to finding a permanent alternative mechanism to deploy aid outside of UNRWA in a way that doesn’t risk strengthening Hamas.
We are also disappointed by the Australian Government’s suggestion that Israel is not allowing aid into Gaza. This is demonstrably false. Israel has been encouraging donor states to send additional aid and has committed to facilitating its entry into Gaza.
The Australian Government acted promptly together with other donor countries to pause funding to UNRWA for good reason, due to the compelling evidence of UNRWA employees involved in the 7 October terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, we have not seen any good reasons to reinstate funding.
The best future for Gazans is one without Hamas, and that includes preventing aid going to any organisation that is complicit with this terrorist organisation.”
Dr Colin Rubenstein is the executive director of The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council. He said: “UNRWA thus does not promote the Australian Government’s vision of two states living in peace, but has instead long been a significant barrier to achieving this goal and needs to be phased out as soon as possible.
While it is essential that aid continues to reach the Palestinian civilians in Gaza, Israel has started working in cooperation with alternative groups on the ground in Gaza, such as the UN World Food Programme, to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians instead of through UNRWA. Meanwhile, the US is also allocating aid through these alternative channels – including via a new planned sea route into Gaza. Australian aid can do the most for needy Gaza residents if it is also directed through these alternate channels, rather than through the deeply problematic UNRWA.”
Australia will also provide an additional $4 million to UNICEF to provide urgent services, and $2 million for a UN co-ordinator to expand humanitarian access into Gaza.
Additionally, a C-17A Globemaster plane will deliver 140 defence force aerial delivery parachutes to help Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdrop aid into Gaza.
Australia has been briefed by relief agencies about large stocks of food and supplies across the border.
“But there’s no way to move it across the border into Gaza and deliver it at scale without Israel’s co-operation,” Senator Wong said.
“We implore Israel to allow more aid into Gaza now.”
The extra funding brings Australia’s total commitment of humanitarian aid for Gaza to $52.5 million.
The foreign minister also addressed concerns about Palestinians fleeing Gaza having Australian visas cancelled while they were en route.
The vast majority of Australian citizens, residents and immediate family members who wanted to leave the besieged strip had been helped, she said.
“All visa applicants undergo security checks and are subject to ongoing security assessment,” she said, without referring to any individual cases.
The US asked partner nations including Australia to help fund a new humanitarian port in Gaza so aid can flow by sea.
The secretary of state is also working to open more humanitarian aid corridors into Gaza with the besieged strip on the brink of famine, according to the UN.
More than 31,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the local health ministry, since Israel retaliated against Hamas’ attack on October 7.
AAP/J-Wire
‘guarantees of staff remaining neutral’ – is this government of ours wilfully blind, naive, or maybe they just don’t care? How can all these conditions and guarantees be monitored? They can’t. The Director of ANRWA when asked will provide a report that says the right things and everybody will be happy.
What a preposterous situation. What a shamefully weak government we have, who do not care for truth or for justice and who always wait for other countries to make the move they wish to make themselves but never have the courage to do so unless following suit.
How can we as Australian Jews stand their blather and lack of real leadership any more? They don’t care about Australian Jews and they’re anti-Israel. That is obvious.
What a sellout governemnt this is.. “after” security checks?? with whom Hamas? when you dance with sewage dwellers the stink sticks!