‘Banning UNRWA could lead to mass death of children’ says Norwegian Refugee Council

We were joined from Oslo by Jan Egeland from the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The former UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief reacts to Israel’s vote to ban the UN agency providing the majority of aid to Gaza.

Matt Frei: How devastating will this be for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank?

Jan Egeland: It will paralyse the humanitarian work of all organisations that are there. UNWRA is not only providing the bulk of the relief to the long suffering Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, they also provide the logistics, the warehouses, the schools, the health posts for the rest of us. So by banning the relief of UNWRA they also sabotage the other relief work, which would mean mass death of Palestinian children. This is an extreme measure by extremists in the Knesset and the Israeli cabinet.

Matt Frei: Although it’s interesting, actually, that it got fairly widespread support in the Knesset, which surprised quite a few people. Is there any agency, perhaps even your own, that can replace that essential work that UNWRA has been doing for so long?

Jan Egeland: No, not at all. No UN agency, no Red Cross or Red Crescent operation, none of us, the nongovernmental international organisations, that are there. We all do important work. But UNWRA was created in 1949 to provide for the Palestinians. They built the education system. They built the health system. They built their water, sanitation etc. And of course, by General Assembly resolution, first Israel was created by one resolution, the consequence of that was armed conflict that displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Then comes the second resolution that creates UNWRA as the relief agency for the Palestinians. And now the product of the first resolution is killing the second resolution. It is intolerable and therefore I’m glad to see that Norway today announced that they will go to the General Assembly of the UN and ask that all of this goes to the International Court of Justice to get it rescinded.

Matt Frei: I’m going to ask you about America in a minute, but briefly on the Israeli accusation that UNWRA had become a sort of pro-Hamas organisation. What do you say to that accusation?

Jan Egeland: No, of course, it’s absolute nonsense. It is true that perhaps nine out of 13,000 betrayed all our ideals on the 7 October and participated in the terror and the horrors. Nine out of 13,000. But then to paralyse the work of the entire organisation that are doing excellent humanitarian work is absolutely crazy. By that logic, you should ban the Israeli Defense Forces where numerous soldiers are taking selfies of themselves as they break humanitarian law.

Matt Frei: Finally, what could the US, where I am, now do, in order to reverse that decision from the Knesset?

Jan Egeland: The only one that can really influence this is the US, followed by Germany and the UK, and the three of them must now grow a spine and tell Israel that we cannot continue to provide the arms and the economic assistance to you. Because this is not self-defence, this is destroying the neighbouring populations. You have to stop it. If not, we will sanction you.