Australia Pauses Funding to UN Agency Over Allegations 12 Staff Joined Hamas Attack
UNRWA, an agency of the United Nations, has terminated 12 employees following allegations they joined terrorists in the October 7 invasion of Israel.
Australia has temporarily paused funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency following allegations that numerous UNRWA staff took part in the Hamas-led October 7 invasion of Israel.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced the pause on Saturday, in a statement explaining that Australia was “deeply concerned” the agency tasked with providing aid to Gaza residents was in fact involved in starting the Israel-Hamas war.
“We welcome UNRWA’s immediate response, including terminating contracts and launching an investigation, as well its recent announcement of a full investigation into allegations against the organisation,” she wrote.
Allegations UNRWA staff were involved in the abhorrent October 7 terror attacks are deeply concerning.
Australia welcomes UNRWA’s swift response and will engage closely on investigations.
We are speaking with partners and will temporarily pause disbursement of recent funding. pic.twitter.com/Havwserjh3
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) January 27, 2024
The pause affects $6 million Wong pledged to UNRWA just days ago, as part of a $21.5 million funding increase sent on behalf of Australian taxpayers for “urgent lifesaving assistance including food, shelter and emergency health care” in Gaza.
12 UNRWA Employees Terminated
Ms Wong’s announcement comes amid funding pauses from the United States, the UK, Canada, Italy and Finland, who together with Australia contributed more than US$420 million to UNRWA in 2022 alone.
The revelation of UNRWA staff involvement in the October 7 attack came from the agency’s own Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini via Israeli intelligence. Mr Lazzarini has announced the termination of “several” UNRWA employees — widely reported elsewhere as numbering 12.
“The Israeli Authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on 7 October,” Mr Lazzarini said in a statement.
“To protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay.”
Axios has reported that the allegations against UNRWA are based on highly reliable intelligence:
A senior Israeli official said the Shin Bet and Israeli military intelligence provided information that pointed to the active participation of UNRWA staffers and the use of the agency’s vehicles and facilities during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
“This was strong and corroborated intelligence,” the official said. “A lot of the intelligence is a result of interrogations of militants who were arrested during the Oct. 7 attack.”
UNRWA’s Links to Terrorism
UNRWA was founded in 1949 after the first Arab-Israeli war with the aim of providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees. Officially, its services include education, health care, relief, social services and emergency assistance.
However, UNRWA has long been accused of providing aid and comfort to terrorists.
“Throughout the Israel-Gaza war there have been allegations that Hamas was using UNRWA facilities for military purposes,” The Australian reported over the weekend.
In November last year, the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education released a 120-page report documenting UNRWA support for terrorism, including evidence that 13 UNRWA staffers had celebrated the October 7 attack on social media.
Moreover, according to Fox Business:
U.N. Watch and IMPACT released a report in March [2023], uncovering 100 pages of evidence that schools built and run by the UNRWA taught hate toward the Jewish people and glorified terrorism.
The UNRWA Islamic education exam asks students whether “Liberating the Al-Aqsa Mosque and making sacrifices for it is an obligation for all Muslims” is true or false. The exam cited the statement as true and noted that violence and martyrdom to free Al-Aqsa are obligations for Palestinians and “all Muslims.”
In 2014, the left-leaning New Republic described UNRWA as “effectively a branch of Hamas.”
UNRWA acknowledged in 2014, and condemned, Hamas missiles that were found at one of its schools in Gaza twice in one week.
Calls for Permanent Withdrawal of UNRWA Funding
Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, called the recent UNRWA revelations “utterly shocking”.
“We welcome the Government’s announcement and hope the suspension of funding is made permanent in time,” he added.
“We have for many years called for its defunding due to corruption, links with terrorism, and antisemitic education… We are a country that fights terror but if we continue to support UNRWA we will be funding it.”
Indigenous Friends of Israel founders and Daily Declaration contributors Norman and Barbara Miller released a statement last November likewise urging the Australian government to permanently cut ties with UNRWA:
We are calling on Prime Minister Albanese to visit Israel, add his name to the statement by former Australian prime ministers regarding Israel, stand more positively with Israel in the UN, and to withdraw all funding to UNRWA as it is used for terrorism.
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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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Let every deal done in darkness be exposed!
The Albanese Government has been speaking out of both sides of their mouths on Israel.
thanks Kurt.
Thank you Kurt. I had hoped and prayed that Australia would not send funding too the UNHR group who were complicit with the Hamas in joining in acts of terror Oct 7, 2023. It was the first major act of our Foreign Minister Penny Wong to do something wise. Minister Wong did visit the Holocaust Museum in Israel which was another helpful act, but unwisely refused to visit the site where the terrorists attacked Jewish settlers, so she missed out on hearing firsthand stories from any Jewish survivors from Oct 7.
Very sadly, I have read recently it was more than 12 UN Refugee workers who actively worked for the Hamas and joined in killing innocent citizens, including children, and raping women and taking hostages. We may never know the true number who acted as terrorists. Most wore civilian clothes- but some worse IDF uniforms and others posed as UN officials and drivers. (CBN news)
The role of the ‘pretend’ UN Refugee workers was thus well planned and it shows us that all the while, these 12 or more workers posed as aid workers wanting to be peacekeepers. That makes their acts of deceit a crime against humanity (In the end we know God will judge them unless they repent, even if the UN law courts fail to carry out justice)
To add salt to an open wound, of late (March 2024), Penny Wong has changed her mind and re instated Australia’s funding to the UNRWA. She was in such a hurry she would not wait for two more legal investigations to the UNRWA to be completed but again has taken the tax payers money to fund Gaza.
Yet we know from on the ground reports that the Hamas are still holding up the trucks, as well as stealing stores and selling the food for inflated prices to the refugees whom they are supposed to care for since the Hamas rule them. The insider reports also show the Hamas leaders have always stolen a large share for their own needs and families who mostly all live now underground in the tunnels.
Hamas also no longer wear uniforms (CBN News) and have not done so for some months. They prefer to pretend to be refugees when it is opportune and at other times remain hidden or pose as workers at hospitals.
All of this makes the situation very difficult for genuine refugees in Gaza but we do know that much aid will still fall into the hands of the Hamas which will be sold at high prices and money used for weapons against Israel; so a wiser approach for Australia would be to wait till food and medicine can be taken in and delivered into the right hands, lest Australia take part in aiding and abetting terrorists.