The European Commission decided last Friday to allocate funding to support the Palestinian population through the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and other international partners amid growing concerns about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, following the deadly aid convoy incident last week.
The decision follows the Commission decision on 29 January to assess its funding to UNRWA in light of the allegations that implicated UNRWA staff in Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October. In its decision on Friday, the Commission welcomed the investigations launched by the UN. It also reached an agreement with UNRWA about an audit of the agency to be conducted by EU appointed external experts.
The Commission had said that it would review the EU funding to UNRWA in light of the outcome of the investigations but it will not wait for that outcome. Instead, it has decided on what the Commission chief spokesperson described as a complex financial structure for the total funding of €275 million of aid to the Palestinian population in Gaza and across the region in 2024.
Continued support
The sum of €68 million will be allocated by the Commission’s aid office ECHO through international partners like the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. €82 million of aid will be implemented through UNRWA. Out of this sum, €50 million will be prepaid already this week and the remaining €22 million later depending on the implementation of the agreement with the agency.
Furthermore, the Commission decided to allocate €125 million of humanitarian aid for Palestinians for 2024. UNRWA is not excluded from implementing this funding. The first €16 million of the amount was contracted last Friday.
"We stand by the Palestinian people in Gaza and elsewhere in the region,” commented Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “Innocent Palestinians should not have to pay the price for the crimes of terrorist group Hamas. They face terrible conditions putting their lives at risk because of lack of access to sufficient food and other basic needs.”
The agreements reached on Friday between the Commission and UNRWA will be followed by an exchange of letters this week. However, the details of these may not be made available to the public.
“I can’t prejudge the exact nature of the documents,” Eric Mamer, the chief spokesperson of the Commission, told The Brussels Times at the daily press conference on Monday. “I don’t believe that they are meant to be public documents.” The same apparently goes for the names of the independent experts that the EU has appointed for the audit of UNRWA.
In November 2021, the EU signed a new joint declaration on continued EU political and financial support to UNRWA for 2021 - 2024. That agreement was made public by the Commission.
The chief spokesperson declined to comment on whether the financial structure of the EU funding was an expression of dissatisfaction with UNRWA's role in Gaza, where it faces a dilemma and is obliged to cooperate with Hamas, the de-facto authorities. He described EU’s relation with UNRWA as constructive.
“We wouldn’t be releasing the funding if we wouldn’t have had good discussions with UNRWA since our statement of 29 January,” he replied. He added that the situation on the ground is “extremely complex”, which explains why the EU has a “portfolio” of other organisations to work with besides UNRWA.
UNRWA is providing humanitarian and development assistance to 5.7 million registered Palestinian refugees across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza, pending a ”just and lasting solution to their plight”. The number has increased eightfold since the 1948 war because the descendants of the refugees, who fled or were expelled from Israel, are also accorded refugee status.
In the declaration from 2021, EU expressed strong support for UNRWA as a key partner in its strategy for the region. It called for “an agreed, just and fair solution to the refugee question” and commited to “remaining a strong, reliable and predictable supporter of the organisation”. EU’s position on UNRWA has not been reconsidered since then.
In connection with the 2021 agreement with the EU, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told The Brussels Times that UNRWA does not run refugee camps and has no mandate to conduct discussions with the host countries about the integration of the refugees.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
