By Manal Abdel Fattah
Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, warned of the dangerous consequences of a campaign of incitement against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and what led to the decision of some countries to suspend their financial contribution to funding the agency following Israel’s claim that seven UNRWA employees were involved in attacks. October 7th.
Aboul Gheit stressed in press statements today that the systematic incitement campaign led by Israel “aims to completely eliminate the role of the international agency after targeting its headquarters with attacks as part of the war it is waging on the Gaza Strip and after targeting its employees with murder.”
Aboul Gheit said: “It is surprising that important Western countries have decided to suspend their funding for the agency at this dangerous stage on the basis of accusations made against a limited number of individuals, which – assuming they are true – do not reflect the nature of the organization, which includes about 300,000 employees, the majority of whom are Palestinians.”
Jamal Rushdi, the official spokesman for the Secretary-General, quoted Aboul Gheit as saying that this campaign is not new, and that the desire to liquidate the work of the agency, which serves millions of Palestinian refugees in its five areas of operations, has been repeated in different forms over the past years. Its goal is exposed, which is to push the international community to abandon its responsibilities in providing relief to Palestinian refugees, and to place the entire burden of responsibility on countries sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, especially the Arab countries.
The speaker pointed out that UNRWA was established by a UN resolution in 1949, and that the responsibility for providing for the Palestinian refugees falls on the international community and donor countries, until a just solution to their issue is found, and that abdicating from this responsibility amid the bloody war that Israel is waging against Palestinian civilians means leaving them to starvation and displacement. Implementing the Israeli plan to liquidate their cause once and for all, and dealing a devastating blow to the Palestinian community, of which refugees, in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, represent a significant percentage of its population.
