The Israeli Parliament voted on Monday 28 October to ban operations in Israel and in Palestinian territories under its occupation, yet another salvo in its ongoing genocide of the Palestinian population by the Zionist state.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled during the Nakba, the 1948 Palestine War, and subsequent conflicts, as well as their descendants, including legally adopted children numbering more than 5.6 million registered Palestinians.
There has been global criticism of banning of UNRWA by Israel even by Western countries including Australia and a number of community organisation including APAN, AFIC and ANIC.
“Israel’s ban on UNRWA is one more unspeakably callous act of genocide against Palestinians. By dismantling the only major lifeline that connects Palestinians to food, medicine, and hope, Israel is openly executing a policy designed to exterminate an entire population,” APAN President Nasser Mashni said
He further added, “Australia must move beyond its utterances of ‘grave concern’ – it must take immediate, concrete action and use all tools at its disposal to push back against Israel’s genocidal policy and support Palestinians’ survival and right to self-determination.”
Dr Rateb Jneid, President of AFIC said, “This legislative attack on UNRWA is yet another demonstration of Israeli exceptionalism and its blatant disregard for the rulings of the International Court of Justice and international humanitarian standards. The ban on UNRWA activities not only exacerbates the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza but also highlights a systematic campaign to strip Palestinians of their basic human rights and dignity.”
Employing more than 30,000 people, most of them Palestinian refugees themselves, UNRWA provides critical support of direct relief as well as education, health care and social services to multiple generations of Palestinian refugees operating in refugee camps in Gaza, West Bank as well as in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria.
In 2021, almost 545,000 children were enrolled in UNRWA schools (2021-2022 school year); Social Safety Net Programme assistance reached 398,044 beneficiaries; and 1.7 million received life-saving humanitarian assistance.”
This new ban is yet another inhumane act, a collective punishment by the state of Israel to further push Palestinians into misery and break any resistance to the occupation of their lands.
The ongoing genocide in Gaza for a year that has now expanded to West Bank and Lebanon has further escalated in recent weeks where Israel is routinely killing more than 100 people per day indiscriminately bombing hospitals, refugee camps and civilian infrastructure with no international intervention in sight to stop the Israeli war crimes.
Last week in its further intensification of attacks on northern Gaza, Palestinian civilians were forced out of Jabalia terrorised by the Israeli army where the displaced residents of northern Gaza have provided testimony on horrors along their ‘torturous journey’ to the south as Israeli soldiers beat the wounded and quadcopters shot at everyone.
Last Saturday 26 October, Israeli forces detained male medical staff as well as wounded patients in Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, trapping women in the hospital in a room without any water or food.
Israeli forces made their way into the hospital, shooting inside various wards and causing panic amongst 600 people in the hospital, including patients, wounded, medical staff and companions while killing two children in the intensive care unit after the hospital’s generators stopped working because Israeli forces targeted the oxygen facilities.
Comments