Swiss Parliament Backs Away From Proposal to Defund UN Palestinian Refugee Agency
An UNRWA aid truck at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
The Swiss parliament on Thursday backed down from an earlier proposal to entirely cancel funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — the global organization’s agency dedicated solely to the refugees and descendants of Palestinians who fled during Israel’s 1948 War of Independence.
As Swiss political parties reached a last-minute deal on the country’s 2024 budget, the proposal to defund UNRWA of the annual $23 million it receives from the government was watered down to allow for less spending at the discretion of the Federal Council, Switzerland’s top executive body.
In an earlier vote on Dec. 13, the lower house of the parliament voted to cut funding out of concern that UNRWA is promoting antisemitism and terrorism. A report published last month by the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), an independent research group, found that at least 14 teachers at UNRWA-run schools had praised the Oct. 7 pogrom carried out by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel.
Another teacher was separately accused by an Israeli journalist of having held one of the more than 200 hostages kidnapped by Hamas, depriving him of food and medical attention. For its part, UNRWA has strongly denied that there is any basis to that claim.
Following the lower house vote to cut funding, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini declared himself “disheartened” and called on the upper house to “revise this decision as UNRWA is the first responder in Gaza and a lifeline for millions.”
Thursday’s compromise may go some way to addressing Lazzarini’s anxieties. An arrangement proposed by the upper house will reduce the overall humanitarian budget by $12.5 million, with the Federal Council choosing where the funds are donated. However, foreign policy experts should be consulted before any funds are disbursed. Donations to the Middle East will be made in installments and are intended to “exclusively benefit the civilian population.”
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