Independent commission to investigate allegations against UNRWA. Michel: “We must not forget the humanitarian work” in Gaza

Brussels – The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugee Relief and Occupation (UNRWA) is in the spotlight after Israel accused some of its employees of allegedly participating in the Hamas terrorist action on Oct. 7. An internal investigation and one by the UN’s top investigative body (the OIOS) are already underway. An independent panel appointed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will begin its review.

Catherine Colonna, former French foreign minister, will lead the investigation, collaborating with three research organizations: tSweden’s Raoul Wallenberg Institute, Norway’s Chr. Michelsen Institute, and the Danish Institute for Human Rights. The team will assess whether the agency “is doing everything in its power to ensure neutrality and to respond to allegations of serious violations.”

It was UNRWA’s own commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, who called for the appointment of an independent commission to dispel any doubts about the agency’s integrity. The team should submit an interim report to Guterres at the end of March, while the final report should be drafted and made public by the end of April.

A report that EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, “looks forward to,” as he stated in a post on X. Borrel repeatedly made clear that Brussels has no intention of suspending funding to UNRWA in the wake of Tel Aviv’s allegations, unlike other 13 countries – the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Romania, and Japan – which account for more than 50 percent of UNRWA’s funding. In light of these cuts, the agency has already denounced the risk of not being able to continue its fieldwork in Gaza after the end of February if these countries do not unblock their funding. Meanwhile, the European Commission asked UNRWA to agree to  “an audit of the Agency to be conducted by EU-appointed independent external experts” so that a decision can be made on a partnership that has continued for 50 years.

EP Plenary session – European Council and Commission statements – Conclusions of the special European Council meeting of February  1, 2024

Governments of the 27 have taken different positions on the issue: at the Feb. 1 European Council, “several leaders mentioned, indeed denounced, this serious involvement of several UNRWA employees,” European Council President Charles Michel admitted at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Michel said that “it is up to us to support the investigations that the United Nations launched independently so that light is shed,” stressing, however, that “it is also our duty not to forget that UNRWA has 13,000 employees working in the field, doing extremely vital and valuable humanitarian work.” According to the agency’s data, some 1.7 million Palestinian IDPs are taking shelter from Israeli shelling in its emergency shelters.

Tel Aviv claimed, so far without showing evidence to support its accusations, that 12 of the agency’s 30,000 regional employees (13,000 still in Gaza) were complicit in the attacks on Jewish kibbutzim in which more than 1,100 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed. Israel also claims that a large portion of UNRWA workers have ties to Hamas; this is likely as well as trivial since Hamas governs the territory where the agency operates, and most of its employees are Palestinian refugees. Announcing the establishment of the independent commission headed by Catherine Colonna, the United Nations emphasized that “the cooperation of Israeli authorities, who made these allegations, will be critical to the investigation’s success.”