ECAJ calls for UNRWA funding cut
ECAJ has urged Australia to end funding to UNRWA after 70 staff were dismissed over alleged Hamas links.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has called on the government to cut its $20 million annual funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) after it fired 70 workers with alleged links to Hamas.
UNRWA did not refer to Hamas in its statement about the sacking.
“The dismissal of the staff is not part of a disciplinary process and does not constitute in any way a validation of the claims made against them,” the Palestinian refugee agency said.
It followed findings by the US Agency for International Development which referred more than 100 current or former staff for suspension and dismissal for allegedly taking part in the October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel or allegedly connected to Hamas.
It said those referred were “UNRWA school principals, teachers, security, counsellors and doctors”, including a schoolteacher with “expertise as a sniper for Hamas” and a school principal assigned to a “chemical department of a Hamas military manufacturing unit whose school had three anti-tank positions and a tunnel shaft located under the facility”.
The US has stopped funding UNRWA, while Australia’s annual funding is $20 million for 2026-27. Australia temporarily cut some funding to UNRWA when Israel alleged its staff were involved in the October 7 attacks, but later established a new funding agreement with conditions on “staff neutrality”.
ECAJ co-CEO Peter Wertheim called the latest reports of the penetration of UNRWA by Hamas and other terrorist groups “truly disturbing”.
“More than 100 current or former staff at UNRWA have been named as active terrorists by the USAID Office of Inspector General, a statutorily independent law enforcement and oversight body in the US,” he said.
“UNRWA has sacked 70 of them but has admitted nothing, choosing instead to vilify those who have blown the whistle. This ‘deny and deflect policy’ only brings UNRWA into further disrepute.
“Australians were assured more than two years ago that existing and additional safeguards sufficiently protect Australian taxpayer funding of UNRWA. That assurance has never looked less credible.”
Liberal MP Julian Leeser said “Australian taxpayer money should not go to terrorists.”
“The Albanese government gave assurances that UNRWA was a fit and proper agency to receive Australian aid and that our money would be safeguarded, but our support to UNRWA never should have been restarted in the first place,” he said.
“What happened to the government’s assurances? Why is UNRWA reportedly now sacking 70 of its workers over links to Hamas? Has the Prime Minister kept his promises or has he once again changed his position?
“Every Australian family affected by radical Islamic terrorism here at home will feel this like a slap in the face. The government must immediately withdraw its funding and provide an explanation to the Australians whose money they used.”
A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokeswoman commented, “We have made clear to UNRWA our expectation that swift action be taken to investigate any credible allegations of breaches of neutrality. There can be no tolerance for members of terrorist organisations working for UNRWA.
“We understand UNRWA stands ready to investigate allegations further if any evidence is presented.”