Little by little, some states are turning back. While around fifteen countries had announced that they would suspend their financial aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) at the end of January, Sweden and Canada reversed their decision this Saturday, March 9. As a reminder, UNRWA is at the heart of accusations from Israeli authorities according to which twelve employees of the UN agency could have been involved in the Hamas attack on October 7. The UN immediately separated the accused employees who were still alive and an internal investigation was launched.
Thus, after having obtained certain guarantees – “independent audits” and “additional personnel checks” – the Swedish government announced that it would “allocate 400 million crowns [soit quelque 35 millions d’euros] to UNRWA for the year 2024”. “Today’s decision concerns a first payment of 200 million crowns [environ 17,5 millions d’euros]”, the Swedish executive said in a statement.
For its part, Canada justifies the resumption of its funding by the “disastrous humanitarian situation on the ground”, as the Minister of International Development, Ahmed Hussen, lamented during a press briefing. The latter also said he was “reassured”, after an initial examination of the “provisional report of the investigation into UNRWA”. With these announcements, Canada becomes the “first G7 country to resume financing,” insists the minister.
Although, for the moment, no amount has been mentioned, Canada also affirmed that it would partner with Jordan and the World Food Program (WFP) to carry out air deliveries of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where the population, bombed and besieged by Israel, is threatened with famine. Ottawa will thus provide 300 parachutes to deliver essential foodstuffs and goods, assured Ahmed Hussen. A few days earlier, Thursday March 7, the Spanish government announced additional aid of 20 million euros for the UN agency. All these decisions come after the European Commission assured, on March 1, that it would release 50 million euros for the financing of UNRWA.
Status quo for the United States or France
However, some of the UN agency’s biggest financial supporters are sticking to their positions. Starting with France which, at the end of January, assured that it had not “planned any new payment in the first quarter of 2024 and will decide when the time comes on the course of action to be taken in conjunction with the United Nations and the main donors, ensuring that all its requirements for transparency and security of aid are well taken into account.”
The Quai d’Orsay says it is awaiting the conclusions of the investigations launched by the UN, but also the implementation of “concrete” measures. In 2023, Paris had contributed nearly 60 million euros to UNRWA’s actions and is thus the 9th largest donor to the agency.
Despite repeated calls from the head of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, as well as the head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, the status quo remains for the United States (the main donor), Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Finland, Italy, and the Netherlands. Blockages which represent the equivalent of more than half of the funds received by UNRWA in 2023, or 450 million dollars (around 375 million euros).