Norway: Stopping UNRWA Funds Is The Same As Punishing Palestinian People
JAKARTA - Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told NHK to stop funding for the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) is tantamount to imposing collective penalties for the Palestinian people.
UNRWA chairman Philippe Lazzarini said Israel had provided information to UNRWA about the alleged involvement of a number of UNRWA staff members in Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7 and promised to hold the party involved in the "act of terror".
Following these allegations, the United States, Finland, Italy, Australia, Canada, Japan, the UK and a number of other countries have suspended funding for UNRWA.
Barth Eide said that although the allegations were serious and had to be thoroughly investigated, the suspension of funding for UNRWA was a wrong act, if the allegations had not been proven.
"In essence, stopping UNRWA's duties means punishing Palestinian refugees and people in the Gaza Strip, whose life is currently in dire condition," he said.
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"The evaluation of these allegations must be carried out immediately, with the report ready in April," the Foreign Minister added.
In 2022 Oslo will be UNRWA's fifth largest donor.
Last week Norway disbursed US$26 million (around Rp406 billion) to the UN agency because a number of countries were hanging their funding.
Meanwhile, the New York Times, which cited UNRWA's internal documents, reported that the agency would lack USD 65 million (approximately IDR 1 trillion) in funding by the end of February.