Since 1948, since the Nakba, the United Nations has created an agency, UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East) which has guaranteed relief, development, education, health care, social services, and aid emergencies to over five million Palestinian refugees present in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as in the occupied territories and the Gaza Strip. [These] resources [are] not always managed in the best way, but [are] fundamental for a humanitarian emergency that has no equal in the history of the planet, [the emergency aid] having had to operate for 76 years now.
Some European countries, including Italy, and the US as well, have chosen to cut funding for the agency based on as yet unproven accusations of being “accomplices of Hamas” against 12 officials. The agency has thousands of officials; nine of the accused were immediately dismissed, while one of them will never be able to defend himself as he was killed during the Israeli bombing of civilians. Removing this support from the most vulnerable populations, while declaring the desire to bring in aid in exchange for hostages, is not only a miserable cowardice but represents a real act of international terrorism.
Eliminating, as they probably would like to, the presence of UNRWA in the West Bank and Gaza, means institutionalizing hunger, especially in refugee camps, using another instrument to carry out genocide and convincing the Palestinian populations to abandon their lands or what remains of their own homes. It means wanting to abandon an entire population to its fate.
While waiting for the United Nations itself to rule on this premeditated crime, we reiterate that no Palestinian man, woman, girl or boy should be left alone. Internationalist solidarity must pierce the walls and defeat vulgar blackmail. Anyone who adapts to the choices of the US and EU governments is an accomplice and partner of those who carry out the genocide.
Maurizio Acerbo, National Secretary
Stefano Galieni, head of immigration, Communist Refoundation Party – European Left, Coordination of the People’s Union
