United Nations Special Rapporteur: Western countries cutting aid civilians in Gaza are violating their obligations under the Genocide Convention

The timing cannot be coincidental. Pointing out the West’s shocking lack of awareness to the implication of cutting aid to civilians in Gaza on the same day when the InternationalCourt of Justice ruled that it is plausible that Israel is committing a Genocide in Gaza, a UN official called the actions by the Western government an act of “collective publishment”. Other UN officials have highlighted the fact that Israel has killed more than 150 UN staffers in Gaza. 

The United Nations Special Rapporteur concerned with Palestine, Francesca Albanese, stated in her post on the “X” platform that the countries’ suspension of funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) came the day after the International Court of Justice’s decision, which indicated that “Israel” is committing Genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Albanese said that the countries that suspended their funding to the UN agency are “punishing millions of Palestinians at a sensitive time,” accusing it of “violating their obligations related to the Genocide Convention.”

 Several Western countries have suspended their funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Gaza, due to Israeli allegations that spoke of the possibility of agency employees participating in Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” on October 7, 2023.

 

The Australian Foreign Ministry announced the temporary suspension of its country's funding for UNRWA, explaining in a statement, Saturday, that "Australia will join its like-minded partners in the United States and Canada."

 In turn, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the suspension of Rome's funding for the agency.

 The authorities of the United States, and then Canada, announced the suspension of any additional funding for UNRWA, due to Israeli accusations about “the possibility of the participation of about 12 employees of the agency in the attack launched by the Hamas movement against Israel.”

 Relatedly, the Director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated on Friday that the organization rejects Israeli accusations that it is “complicit” with the Hamas movement and “turns a blind eye to the suffering of Israeli prisoners in Gaza.”

 

Ghebreyesus said, “Israel’s claims are false and expose our employees to danger,” stressing that “the United Nations organization is neutral and works for the health of all people.”

 The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, stated last Tuesday that the number of victims of UNRWA employees in the Gaza Strip had risen to 153 victims as a result of the Israeli bombing of the Strip.

Guterres said during a UN Security Council meeting: “Unfortunately, 153 of our colleagues were killed,” in the ongoing war in Gaza.

 

Senate Democrat Chris Van Hollen from Maryland calls current Gaza famine a "textbook war crime"