Three months ago, Israel announced that twelve employees of UNRWA, the United Nations aid agency for Palestinians, had participated in the October 7 massacre in Israel. Israel also accused UNRWA of bias in the conflict.
The UN aid agency took immediate action: the employees were fired and an investigation into UNRWA’s neutrality was initiated under the leadership of Catherine Conolla, the French former Minister of Foreign Affairs. Despite this adequate action, many countries immediately distanced themselves from UNRWA under pressure from Israel. The Netherlands also stated that it would stop supporting it.
During February and March, support for UNRWA was resumed by the European Union and a number of other countries, as Israel had still not provided evidence to support the allegations against UNRWA staff. This was also a recognition that aid to Gaza is not possible without UNRWA, while there is already far too little aid and there is famine in large parts of the area. However, the United States and the Netherlands persisted in suspending their support for UNRWA.
About the author
Thea Hilhorst is professor of humanitarian studies at Erasmus University. This is a submitted contribution, which does not necessarily reflect the position of de Volkskrant. Read more about our policy regarding opinion pieces here.
Previous contributions to this discussion can be found at the bottom of this article.
Vulnerable to criticism
Conolla’s research report was published last Monday. Israel’s accusations that UNRWA is biased are found to be unfounded in the report. UNRWA has numerous mechanisms and procedures to monitor neutrality, more so than many other organizations. The UN aid organization is vulnerable to criticism regarding neutrality and the report provides recommendations on how to deal with this even better.
I didn’t expect anything different. From the start of the war, Israel has been subject to accusations from the United Nations and especially UNRWA. Just now that the population needs help more than ever, Israel has stopped cooperation with UNRWA. Instead of facilitating aid for the citizens of Gaza, Israel is trying to portray the UN as biased – or even party to the conflict.
The United Nations is doing what it has to do: treating Gazans as people with human rights and, as they are very good at, identifying requests for help and providing aid. Nevertheless, Israel tries to make the organization suspicious and the work impossible.
Bad signal
When the Netherlands canceled its support for UNRWA in January, this was mainly a political signal, according to then Minister Geoffrey van Leeuwen (Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation), because the Dutch contribution for this year had already been transferred. For me, that signal is very bad. In a conflict we should not rely on the words of parties that have an interest in a certain representation of affairs and should not shy away from propaganda. By placing the word of a war party above that of the UN, the Netherlands undermines the credibility of the international cooperation organization.
The ‘never again’ after the Second World War was about the fact that the world did not want to watch a population group being dehumanized and persecuted again. It led to the establishment of the United Nations, human rights treaties and international courts, in The Hague. The allegations against UNRWA have been refuted by the Conolla Commission investigation.
Time for the Netherlands to resume support for UNRWA and to generously support the UN again. Be careful with the international system that we have built for the sake of peace, justice and the protection of victims of conflict.
Tags: Opinion Time Netherlands resume support aid organization UNRWA
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