Canada Decides To Lift Freeze On UNRWA Funding To Gaza After Weeks Of Criticisms (image@UNRWA)
After facing fierce criticism, Canada announced lifting off the restriction on UNRWA funding. The country decided to cut of the United Nations agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) over the Israeli claim of the agency’s staffs’ involvement in the October 7th attack on Israel. The freezing came on late January. UNRWA is the key agency providing desperately needed aid in Gaza, where Israel has waged a war of starvation and hunger on the civilians.
In a statement, Ahmed Hussen, Canadian Minister of International Development said the government is resuming funding to UNRWA so that “more can be done to respond to the urgent needs of Palestinian civilians”.
Canada has been one of the first responders, joining US and several other countries, in cutting off funding to UNRWA, when the condition in Gaza has gone beyond desperation. The move came after Israel accused a dozen of over 13,000 UNRWA staff in Gaza about taking part in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th.
The Canadian Human Rights advocates welcomed the government’s decision to resume the funding and stressed that the country shouldn’t have been cut to begin with. President of the advocacy group Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, Thomas Woodley said that, “resuming aid to UNRWA is a much-needed decision, and it would not have been possible without the important advocacy from across civil society”.
Though UNRWA immediately sacked the employees and started a probe in to the matter, labelling it as “shocking” and “serious”, the countries decided to cut off funding to the agency despite it being the crucial aid delivery in the war battered Strip. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also appointed an independent panel to investigate the claim.
Like almost every other claim, Israel did not provide any concrete evidence to their allegations on UNRWA staffs. In early February, the Canadian broadcaster CBC News reported that Canada had not seen any intelligence backing the claim before the country decided to cut off the funding.
The Palestinians were already on the verge of malnutrition and famine, due to Israel cutting food, water and fuel, at the beginning of the war. Over 30,000 Palestinians dies in the indiscriminate Israeli bombing. Humanitarian groups had warned that freezing UNRWA funding would have dire repercussion for the Palestinians in Gaza and urged the donor countries to reverse the funding.
Since the freezing of UNRWA funding started, the situation in Gaza sank further, as Israel continued its attack from land, sea, and sky. As per Gaza Health Ministry, over a dozen children died due to malnutrition in recent weeks.
Woodley said the Hessen’s decision to cancel the funding was “a reckless political decision that never should have been made”. He said the country must “significantly increase” the funding to UNRWA to compensate for the harm its actions have caused on the people of Gaza.
Canada has contributed over $66.5m to UNRWA from 2019 to mid-2023. Last June, the country said it would provide over $74m to the agency over four years to help fund education, health acre and other services. As per Canadian media outlets report, the next installment of the funding about $18m is due in April this year.
Reportedly, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government faced pressure from pro-Israeli lobby to hold on to the freeze of UNRWA. Members of his own Liberal Party also urged him to maintain the fund freezing.
While pro-Israeli Liberal Legislators urged the government to find alternate methods to deliver aid to Gaza, experts and humanitarian groups have said that UNRWA is the best option to provide the desperately needed humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians in Gaza.
During a news conference, Hussen said that the decision to resume funding was “in recognition of the significant and serious processes that the UN has undertaken to address the issues in UNRWA”. He said it also comes in recognition of the critical role played by UNRWA in delivering the much-needed support for the tow million Palestinians in Gaza, and millions more in the border region.
