Funding halt urged
UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services "found sufficient evidence that at least nine UNRWA employees were involved in the attacks of 7 October ..."
Member for Berowra Julian Leeser, NSW Liberal Senator Dave Sharma and Liberal Wentworth candidate Ro Knox have written to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urging a pause in funding to UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.
It follows the UN’s own investigation conceding that nine UNRWA staffers “may have been involved” in the Hamas-led atrocities of October 7.
Australia paused $6 million in relief to the agency earlier this year when allegations first surfaced that staff at the organisation had taken part in the massacre. Foreign Minister Penny Wong reinstated the funding in March, saying, “The best available current advice from agencies and the Australian government lawyers is that UNRWA is not a terrorist organisation and that existing and additional safeguards sufficiently protect Australian taxpayer funding.”
The letter from Leeser, Sharma and Knox noted the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services “found sufficient evidence that at least nine UNRWA employees were involved in the attacks of 7 October, raising serious questions about the integrity and neutrality of the agency”.
“This is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader pattern of UNRWA’s deep entanglement with extremist elements, as documented extensively by human rights organisations,” they said.
“Despite these findings, UNRWA’s response has been disturbingly inadequate, characterised by a focus on protecting UNRWA’s reputation rather than implementing systemic and far-reaching reforms to address this serious failure of governance and severe breach of international law.”
Leeser, Sharma and Knox said the Australian public “can have no confidence that ongoing Australian financial support to UNRWA will not once again be misused and misappropriated to support the activities of Hamas”.
Noting that other agencies such as the World Food Programme and the Red Cross can deliver aid, they urged the government to halt all UNRWA funds “until such time as substantial reforms are implemented that provide greater safeguards and accountability”.
In comments to The AJN, Knox also criticised Member for Wentworth Allegra Spender for being a signatory to a letter in March calling on the government to restore the funds.
Spender has otherwise been strongly supportive of the Jewish community and Israel.
“It reveals a deep misunderstanding of the realities in Gaza,” Knox said.
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