The Albanese government is under growing pressure to reverse its suspension of funding to the United Nations aid agency for Palestinian refugees, with more than 12,000 people undertaking a coordinated letter-writing campaign to their federal representatives.
Australia was among more than 10 donors who suspended funding to UNRWA after the Israeli government alleged that as many as 12 of its staff members were involved in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 Israelis.
UNRWA is the only UN agency that is mandated to work in Gaza to distribute aid to the two million people currently trapped and starving in the besieged enclave. With 40,000 staff, including 13,000 in Gaza, it is facing a funding shortfall after the exodus of donors.
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) launched the letter-writing campaign on 28 January, the day after the government announced the pause in funding as the allegations were investigated.
The email calls on the government to “reverse its decision to pause funding to UNRWA, and to reinstate its financial support for the agency so it can continue its life-saving work in Gaza”.
The president of APAN, Nasser Mashni, said the “strong response” from the community reflected its “alarm” at the government’s decision.
“UNRWA is a vital lifeline to Palestinians across the globe because this agency has, for 75 years, registered and kept records of Palestinian refugees, and legally validated Palestinians’ inalienable right of return to their homeland.”
He said the goal of the campaign was to get the government to reverse its cuts, and to “see the government officially condemn Israel”.
The foreign minister, Penny Wong, told the ABC on Thursday night that she did not have all the evidence about serious allegations regarding the agency before she decided to halt funding, and was working to bring an end to the suspension.
“We saw these allegations. I, along with other countries, made a decision – and it is a decision I made – to pause that because the allegations were serious and because UNRWA itself recognised that those allegations were serious,” Wong said.
Wong also emphasised that the freeze related to $6m in recently announced funding to UNRWA, rather that its regular contributions.
The Israeli intelligence dossier unpinning the allegations has been described as “flimsy” in recent reporting, increasing scrutiny on the decision to pause aid.
On Friday, Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner general, said he followed “reverse due process” in sacking nine staff members accused by Israel of being involved in Hamas’s 7 October attacks. Lazzarini was asked if he had looked into whether there was any evidence against the employees and he replied: “No, the investigation is going on now.”
To date, 27,700 Palestinians have been killed amid the ongoing bombardment Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian health officials. Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble and 1.9 million of its 2.3 million people have been displaced. .
“How many more emails, letters and protests do our representatives need to see, what more do they need Palestinians to do to demonstrate that our lives are as precious as everyone else’s, before they withdraw their support for a state that is plausibly committing genocide?” Mashni said.
In an interim judgment released last month, the international court of justice (ICJ) found there was credible risk of the genocide of Palestinians, and ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent the killing of Palestinians in contravention of the genocide convention.
The Palestine Action Group (PAG), which is behind the weekly pro-Palestine marches in Sydney, announced it will be shifting the focus of the protests towards the funding cuts.
“Rallies will be themed-based on a mix of uncovering Australian complicity and shedding light on new issues and concerns,” Naser said.
“The Australian government has shamefully cut UNRWA funding when Palestinians need it most. This will only expedite the current genocide and we need to make it the forefront of our demands to ensure the government reverses its decision as a matter of urgency.
“It is life or death for the Palestinian people,” she said.
On Friday, the Jewish Council of Australia echoed concerns about the withdrawal of funding for the aid agency, specifically mentioning the lack of “sufficient evidence” about the allegations against UNRWA staff.
Sarah Schwartz, the council’s executive officer, said the decision reflected a lack of rational thinking from the government.
“Minister Wong’s admission that she did not have all the evidence regarding the allegations against UNRWA before deciding to pull funding indicates that decisions on life and death matters for Gazans are not being made rationally by the Australian government.”
“The allegations against UNRWA staff must be independently investigated. However, the decision to pause funding amounts to collective punishment of Palestinians.”
Academic and advocate Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah said the claims against UNRWA have yet to be proven, with an independent review of the allegations due to be published in late March, pointing out that UNRWA had itself sacked the 12 staff members at the centre of the allegations.
“I am just disgusted that the government would seek to punish Palestinians at the very time that they are in desperate and urgent need of support,” she said.
Abdel-Fattah was particularly critical of the timing of the announcement of the allegations, coming shortly after the ICJ issued its ruling in the case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide.
Nino Bucci contributed to this report.
