Parliament committees approve Swiss UNRWA payment

The foreign affairs committees of the Swiss parliament have backed – with conditions – the government’s plan to donate CHF10 million ($11.2 million) to the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees. On Friday the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate accepted the donation by 7 votes to 5, after the House of Representative’s committee did the same a week ago. Both committees are calling for the money to be used exclusively for urgent needs. At the beginning of May, the government decided to provide CHF10 million to alleviate the most urgent needs of the suffering population in Gaza. UNRWA’s emergency appeal for Gaza at the end of April called for some CHF1 billion. + Read more: the allegations upending UNRWA’s work in Gaza A motion to instead give the money to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the UN World Food Program was rejected by the Senate committee. Neither of the two organisations have enough staff on the ground to make a real difference; only ...