United Kingdom’s Labor Party Reinstates Aid to Controversial Unrwa, Leaving America Only Country Keeping Ban in Place

The United Kingdom is reinstating aid to the United Nations agency accused of participating in the October 7 attack on Israel, Unrwa. The decision, announced on Friday by Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy, leaves America as the only country to not have restored funding to the controversial group. It also marks the Labour party’s first major move in regards to the war in Gaza since taking office. The British government halted funding to the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency back in January due to allegations that its staff took part in Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel in October of last year. In the policy reversal, Mr. Lammy pledged £21 million pounds in new funding to the controversial agency, claiming that he was “reassured” that Unrwa is “ensuring they meet the highest standards of neutrality” following the release of an independent review. In 2023, over 70 governments and organizations pledged to provide a total of $1.46 billion in financial aid to Unrwa. The largest donors included the United States, Germany, the European Union, and France — all of which halted aid after reports of the agency’s complicity in the October 7 attack. Since then, however, most countries have reversed course. The UK now joins the likes of Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Japan, and Sweden and others which have reinstated financial support.America, the first country to pause funding, remains an outlier in holding its ban in place. And following a federal spending package approved by Congress in March, American funding for Unrwa cannot be reinstated until at least March 2025. The Labour party’s announcement comes just a week after the Israel Defense Forces announced that they found evidence of Palestinian terrorists using Unrwa’s headquarters in Gaza. The IDF reportedly discovered an entire complex of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad war rooms as well as a stockpile of weapons — including tactical drones, rockets, machine guns, mortars, explosives, and grenades — stashed in the UN agency’s facility. Back in January, Israeli intelligence reports found evidence that at least 12 Unrwa employees had participated in the October 7 attack on Israel and that 1,200 Unrwa employees in Gaza — approximately 10 percent of the agency’s workforce in the region — are Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives. Following the Labour party’s announcement, the Board of Deputies of British Jews released a statement urging the government to bolster its surveillance of the agency. Although they note that it “is vital” to deliver aid “to those who need it,” they add that “the resumption of such funding needs to come alongside significantly increased oversight of Unrwa’s activities.” “The Government would be wise to insist on much stricter oversight before resuming its annual funding of more than £30 million,” they said. The organization also suggested that Unrwa should be folded into the greater UN organization that provides for all refugee populations, the UN Refugee Agency, citing the distinction as “an anomaly that must be fixed.” Other Jewish organizations chimed in. “If one wants to know how Gazan society became radicalised, start with its schools. They are run by Unrwa,” Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote on X. “It is not only disappointing but dangerous that @DavidLammy and the @FCDOGovUK have chosen to restore funding to this nefarious organisation,” they added.

United Kingdom’s Labor Party Reinstates Aid to Controversial Unrwa, Leaving America Only Country Keeping Ban in Place

United Kingdom’s Labor Party Reinstates Aid to Controversial Unrwa, Leaving America Only Country Keeping Ban in Place

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