More than a dozen countries, including Canada, have pressed pause on their funding to the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) in the wake of allegations that some of its staff members were involved in the attacks on Israel last October.
More than the 60 per cent of UNRWA’s budget in 2022 was filled by the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Switzerland and other countries that have suspended their aid to the agency.
A U.S. spokesperson said on Monday that the U.S. government will wait for the results of the UN’s investigation into the allegations, which American officials have described as “extremely troubling,” before it resumes delivering aid. The U.S. is the agency’s largest donor.
UNRWA has been providing food, water and shelter to people in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas conflict.
With the majority of its budget now in doubt, the agency says it will be forced to halt operations within weeks if funding isn’t restored.
“If the funding is not resumed, UNRWA will not be able to continue its services and operations across the region, including in Gaza, beyond the end of February,” a spokesperson for the agency said on Monday.
What is UNRWA?
The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East was established to provide aid to the estimated 700,000 Palestinians “who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 War” about Israel’s creation.
UNRWA operates schools, health clinics, infrastructure projects and aid programs in refugee camps that now resemble dense urban neighborhoods in Gaza, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. It has 13,000 employees in Gaza alone, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
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In Gaza, where some 85 per cent of the territory’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, over one million are sheltering in UNRWA schools and other facilities.
How much money has Canada given to UNRWA?
The federal government said last June that between 2019 through 2023, Canada has committed a total of $90 million in support for UNRWA, provided as humanitarian aid.
Since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, Canada has sent an additional $20 million to the UNRWA, part of a total of $60 million committed to aid groups to address “urgent needs stemming from the crisis in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Israel and neighbouring areas.”
While the Canadian government has frozen money going to UNRWA over the allegations, it is not entirely clear yet whether that freeze applies to funds in the process of rolling out or funds promised but not yet in the process of delivery.
On Tuesday, Canada announced it would be sending an additional $40 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza, but those funds were not allocated to UNRWA.
Here is a look at how much Canada has donated to UNRWA over the last 10 years and how that compares with some other big donors:
- In 2022, Canada pledged $31.85 million, making it the 11th biggest donor to the agency. The United States was the top donor, pledging $460 million.
- In 2021, Canada ranked 10th on the donor list, pledging to give UNRWA $37.1 million.
- In 2020, its pledged donation was $32.3 million and was ranked 10th among the donors.
- In 2019, Canada pledged to donate $25 million and was ranked 14th among the donors.
- In 2018, Canada’s pledged aid was $35.9 million and it was ranked 13th on the donor list.
- In 2017, $26.5 million was pledged and in 2016, $24.8 million. Canada was the 11th biggest donor in both those years.
- The federal government did not pledge to make any donations to UNRWA from 2013 to 2015, when the previous Conservative government cut off funding to the agency.
In 2012, the Canadian government had pledged to donate $19.63 million
On Friday, Ottawa announced it had temporarily paused “any additional funding” for the UN agency in light of the allegations related to its staff and their alleged involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks against Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed.
“Canada is taking these reports extremely seriously and is engaging closely with UNRWA and other donors on this issue,” International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen said in a Jan. 26 statement.
“As UNRWA undertakes this investigation, Canada will not reduce its support to the people of Gaza. Canada will continue to work with other partners to provide life-saving assistance to civilians in Gaza,” Hussen’s statement added.
What are the allegations against UNRWA?
The Israeli authorities have shared a document with U.S. officials outlining the allegations.
The dossier was obtained by the Associated Press, Reuters and other media outlets.
Seven employees allegedly crossed into Israel as part of the Oct. 7 attacks, three of whom took part in the attacks while one is accused of helping take a dead soldier’s body and another is accused of helping kidnap a hostage, the Associated Press reported Monday.
Ten of the 12 people allegedly have ties to Hamas while another is allegedly connected to Islamic Jihad, another militant group. Nine of the accused are teachers and one is a social worker.
U.N Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” by the accusations.
“The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences,” the U.N. chief said in a statement Sunday.
— with files from The Associated Press, Reuters, Global News’ Sean Boynton and Nathaniel Dove