Israel Allies Caucus Condemns Resumption Of UNRWA Funding, Calls On Australian Government To Back Allies
Today, the Albanese Labor Government have made the inexplicable decision to reinstate $6 million of Australian taxpayers’ money to the embattled United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, despite investigations continuing into allegations of corruption and complicity with the massacre by Hamas of 1200 innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023.
At least a dozen UNRWA employees are alleged to have been involved in the brutal attacks on October 7, 2023, with reports that staff provided support through logistics, weapons procurement, and direct participation in the kidnap and massacre of innocent Israeli citizens by Hamas terrorists.
These were teachers, social workers, administrators, and warehouse workers paid by taxpayers through UNRWA contributions. Supporters of terror, funded in part by the tax dollars of hardworking Australians.
Australians are right to expect the Federal Government to withhold any further funding to UNRWA, and they are rightly concerned that the Federal Government has breached its responsibility to uphold the norms and mechanisms of accountability, community development, fundamental human decency and its own domestic laws.
The decision to resume funding to UNRWA without any independent findings, is an appalling affront to the people of Israel and to Jewish Australians who continue to suffer at the hands of Hamas terrorists and their allies.
It is an egregious betrayal of Israel, Australia’s enduring ally and partner in democracy in the Middle East.
What Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Wong have failed to understand is that the Australian people do not want their hard-earned money falling into the hands of terrorists – or those who aid and abet them.
Let’s be perfectly clear: Hamas is a listed terrorist organization in Australia and it is illegal under Australian law to provide funding or any form of assistance to them, directly, or indirectly.
Yet that is precisely what the Australian Government is doing by providing funding to UNRWA if it is determined that the United Nations body or its employees supported Hamas’ heinous acts on 7 October.
Nations like the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany have yet to resume funding, pending further investigations into the alleged involvement in the October 7 massacres.
Too many questions remain unanswered for Australia to recommit to funding UNRWA.
Let me be clear however, that no one is calling for humanitarian support to end. There are a number of organisations who can provide the humanitarian assistance necessary as the war rages on. The loss of innocent life on both sides of the conflict is tragic.
It is also avoidable. Hamas could end the war today if it surrendered and released the hostages.
Almost 6 months ago, some 3000 Hamas terrorists orchestrated a barbaric attack against Israeli children, women, and men, committing some of the gravest offences in living memory. We saw the most utterly reprehensible sexual violence, torture, and terror perpetrated against the Jewish people killing 1200 innocents simply because of their race and religion.
The massacres on October 7 remain the worst single-day mass murder of Jewish people since the persecution and pogroms of World War II. On that day, over 240 hostages were taken by Hamas and as many as 130 remain in captivity.
For these reasons, the Israel Allies Caucus (Australia) demands that:
The Australian Government must cease its funding to UNRWA, pending the completion of a comprehensive independent investigation into the allegations of corruption and complicity in the attacks on 7 October 2023.
The Australian Government must reinforce its call for hostages to be immediately and unconditionally released.
And the Australian Government must reconsider its partnership with UNRWA, in light of these allegations and its pattern of systematic discrimination against the Jewish people.
The Australian people expect nothing less.
Bringing to Light UNRWA’s Complicity:
For 75 years, the UN Relief and Works Agency has relentlessly sought to delegitimise Israel, dismantle liberal democratic order in the Middle East, and denigrate the Jewish people at the expense of the taxpayers of generous donor nations, including Australia.
UNRWA schools teach the repugnant elements of antisemitism, including the delegitimization of Israel, and the incitement and promotion of violence and jihad. This indoctrination over decades has inspired a generation of young Palestinians to seek martyrdom in a sickening perversion of patriotism.
At the same time, UNRWA have allowed Hamas terrorists to build an expansive network of tunnels underneath UN-funded schools and hospitals, facilities which have themselves been used as launchpads of lethal action against Israel.
