Ireland’s pledge of €20 million to the United Nations Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA) sends a strong signal of “unwavering political and financial support” to other European countries that have suspended funding to the agency. said the UNRWA Secretary-General.
Philip Lazzarini told the Irish Times that the state’s financial support for the Palestinian people also sent a message to the European Union, saying: “Countries like Ireland will have to wait until the commission’s contribution, due in early March, I hope it will be dealt with.” This €20 million is the largest ever pledged by a state to a UN agency.
Mr Lazzarini, who met with the Tánaiste Michael Martin in Dublin on Thursday, said UNRWA had already “taken account” of EU contributions (€82 million per year) as part of its cash flow management and that “funds are coming in on time”. It is absolutely critical that we arrive at .
“If we don’t reverse some of the moratoriums, we’re going to start going into the red in March, and the deficit will accelerate significantly from April,” he said.
If the commission resumed funding, he added, it would send a signal that “there is confidence in the agency.”
Several countries, including Germany, Italy, the UK and the US, have made payments to UNRWA after Israel claimed that 12 of its staff were involved in the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza bombing. It stopped.
Lazzarini said the United Nations has launched an independent investigation into the allegations and the UN secretary-general will share initial findings in four weeks. He added that Israel has so far failed to cooperate with the investigation and provide evidence of UNRWA personnel’s involvement in the October 7 attack.
Regarding the deteriorating situation in Rafah and Israel’s call for Palestinians to evacuate the southernmost city of the Gaza Strip, Lazzarini said it all stems from Israel’s “huge pressure on these people to cross the border into Egypt.” He said that this shows that he is applying
“If an attack were to take place in Rafah, in the middle of an ocean with a population of 1.5 million people, what would be the alternative?” he asked. “The past four and a half months have proven that there is no real safe place for anyone in the Gaza Strip. The question is whether they will be moved again to a place that is completely unsafe, or whether people The question is, will there be pressure to cross the border into (Egypt’s) Sinai Desert?”
He added that “daily security incidents, harassment of residents, a difficult economy and settler activities” were pushing the West Bank “to the brink of collapse.”
Lazzarini said Israel’s calls to dismantle UNRWA would only worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and that ending the agency’s operations “only makes sense the day there is a functioning Palestinian state and a political solution.” “There is,” he said.
“The entire raison d’être of UNRWA should have been temporary, but unfortunately we have been a permanent temporary,” he said.
UNRWA was established in 1949 with Israeli support and “provides vital public services to Palestinian refugees until the day an appropriate genuine, permanent and just political situation can be established,” Lazzarini said. .
“If this temporary organization has lasted this long, it is also a sign of our collective failure to foster appropriate political solutions,” he said. . “The only answer to phasing out UNRWA is to put an appropriate political package on the table that ultimately provides Palestinians with a desire for self-determination.”
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