Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh called for countries that announced they would withdraw funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to reverse their decision, in a post on X on Saturday.
Al-Sheikh called for the reversal citing great political and humanitarian risks should funds be withdrawn from the agency, which operates as the exclusive UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees.
We call on the countries that announced the cessation of their support for #UNRWA to immediately reverse their decision, which entails great political and humanitarian relief risks, as at this particular time and in light of the continuing aggression against the Palestinian… https://t.co/mxIam0zmZs
— حسين الشيخ Hussein AlSheikh (@HusseinSheikhpl) January 27, 2024
“In light of the continuing aggression against the Palestinian people, we need the maximum support for this international organization and not stopping support and assistance to it,” he wrote in his post.
UNRWA workers were recently fired from their positions for participating in the October 7 Massacre, leading to several countries deciding to withdraw funding for UNRWA.
Both the United States and Italy decided to withdraw funds for UNRWA following the revelations.
UNRWA funding blocked
In December the lower house of the Swiss Parliament voted to suspend funding for UNRWA, amounting to $23 million, although this seems to have been due to internal corruption in the agency which involved Swiss national, Pierre Krähenbühl, according to swissinfo.ch.
Krähenbühl was UNRWA commissioner from 2014-19 and has been accused of claiming compensation when he was not present for work in a confidential report seen by the Swiss parliament, he denies these charges.
However, the decision to suspend funds did not pass the Swiss upper house which voted 23 to 21 against suspension.
Switzerland is the ninth-largest funder of UNRWA, while the United States provides nearly $350 million making up over one-quarter of the total funds for UNRWA.
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