16
submitted 4 months ago by flamingos@feddit.uk to c/uk_politics@feddit.uk

David Lammy told MPs he had received reassurances about its neutrality in the wake of a review of alleged links between its staff and terror groups.

The UK was among several countries to suspend donations in January, after Israel alleged 12 UNRWA staff were involved in the October 2023 attacks by Hamas.
[…]
Speaking in the Commons, Mr Lammy said "no other agency" was able to deliver aid at the scale required to alleviate the “desperate" humanitarian situation in Gaza.

He added UNRWA was feeding more than half the territory's two-million population and would be "vital for future reconstruction".

He said he had been "appalled" by Israel's allegations, but the claims had been taken "seriously” by the United Nations.

He had been reassured the agency "is ensuring they meet the highest standards of neutrality" in the wake of the April review, he added.

This included "strengthening its procedures, including on vetting," Mr Lammy said.

He told MPs a resumption of the UK's £21m annual funding would include money put towards “management reforms” recommended by the UN review.

The Foreign Office said £6m would be given to UNRWA's flash appeal for Gaza, and £15m to the agency's budget to provide services in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and wider region.

top 1 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] autotldr 1 points 4 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The UK will resume funding UNRWA, the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees, the foreign secretary has announced.David Lammy told MPs he had received reassurances about its neutrality in the wake of a review of alleged links between its staff and terror groups.The UK was among several countries to suspend donations in January, after Israel alleged 12 UNRWA staff were involved in the October 2023 attacks by Hamas.An internal UN investigation into allegations related to that attack is ongoing.But a separate UN review, published in April, found Israel had not provided evidence for its claims hundreds of UNRWA staff were members of terror groups.

The announcement brings the UK into line with other countries that have resumed funding since then, leaving the United States, UNRWA's single biggest donor, as the only country not to have restarted donations.Speaking in the Commons, Mr Lammy said "no other agency" was able to deliver aid at the scale required to alleviate the “desperate" humanitarian situation in Gaza.He added UNRWA was feeding more than half the territory's two-million population and would be "vital for future reconstruction".He said he had been "appalled" by Israel's allegations, but the claims had been taken "seriously” by the United Nations.He had been reassured the agency "is ensuring they meet the highest standards of neutrality" in the wake of the April review, he added.This included "strengthening its procedures, including on vetting," Mr Lammy said.

He told MPs a resumption of the UK's £21m annual funding would include money put towards “management reforms” recommended by the UN review.The Foreign Office said £6m would be given to UNRWA's flash appeal for Gaza, and £15m to the agency's budget to provide services in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories and wider region.UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told the BBC the agency welcomed the announcement, which came at a "critical time as humanitarian needs in Gaza continue to deepen".She added that the agency had reassured the UK it was implementing recommendations from the April report, "especially with regards to continuing to follow the principle of neutrality in our programmes".

The review, by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, found Israel had "yet to provide supporting evidence" for its claims that a "significant number of UNRWA employees are members of terrorist organizations".Israel has said more than 2,135 employees of the agency - out of a total of 13,000 in Gaza - are members of Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, proscribed as terrorist organisations by Israel, the UK, US and other countries.

However, the review concluded the agency must do more to improve its neutrality, staff vetting and transparency.Israeli authorities suggest the report ignores the severity of the problem, and claim UNRWA has systematic links with Hamas.Israel initially alleged that 12 UNRWA staff took part in the Hamas attacks on southern Israel, which saw 1,200 people killed and about 250 taken hostage.More than 38,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, after Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the attacks.

UNRWA sacked the 10 of the 12 employees who were still alive when the allegations emerged and the UN's Office of Internal Oversight launched an investigation into the claims.In April, the body said eight employees remained under investigation, external, with inquiries suspended in four of the cases because of insufficient evidence.It added it had also begun investigations into an additional seven staff members, and six of those cases were ongoing.


The original article contains 571 words, the summary contains 571 words. Saved 0%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
16 points (100.0% liked)

UK Politics

3091 readers
117 users here now

General Discussion for politics in the UK.
Please don't post to both !uk_politics@feddit.uk and !unitedkingdom@feddit.uk .
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric politics, and should be either a link to a reputable news source for news, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread. (These things should be publicly discussed)

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

!ukpolitics@lemm.ee appears to have vanished! We can still see cached content from this link, but goodbye I guess! :'(

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS